Pascal didn't have much of a chance at Daytona riding an Italian bike, but he could have been competitive in less grueling events.
The problem with Italian motorcycles lie in Italy's labor laws. Check out recent stories about Professor Biaggi's assasination earlier this week. The good professor was trying to reform the country's labor laws, laws that make it virtually impossible to fire anyone regardless of how incompetent that person may be, and he was shot to death.
Harley ran into problems with Italian labor laws when it tried to shut down production at the Aermacchi plant in the 1970s. Italy's laws said they could stop production, but they couldn't lay off workers, so AMF decided to keep building bikes since they had to pay the wages anyway. As a result, when Vaughn Beales and company purchased Harley in 1981 they discovered a warehouse in South America filled with excess Sprints. These bikes had been stored so long they had rusted into uselessness.
Think about the implications of this. Every incompetent worker Ducati ever hired is still building motorcycles at the factory, unless he or she has retired, died, or found work elsewhere. That's why we end up with 996s that start on fire during high-speed testing and are shipped to foriegn markets with the incorrect computer chips for their fuel injection systems. The fact that any Ducati ever even finishes the Daytona 200 is a miracle.
The problem with Italian motorcycles lie in Italy's labor laws. Check out recent stories about Professor Biaggi's assasination earlier this week. The good professor was trying to reform the country's labor laws, laws that make it virtually impossible to fire anyone regardless of how incompetent that person may be, and he was shot to death.
Harley ran into problems with Italian labor laws when it tried to shut down production at the Aermacchi plant in the 1970s. Italy's laws said they could stop production, but they couldn't lay off workers, so AMF decided to keep building bikes since they had to pay the wages anyway. As a result, when Vaughn Beales and company purchased Harley in 1981 they discovered a warehouse in South America filled with excess Sprints. These bikes had been stored so long they had rusted into uselessness.
Think about the implications of this. Every incompetent worker Ducati ever hired is still building motorcycles at the factory, unless he or she has retired, died, or found work elsewhere. That's why we end up with 996s that start on fire during high-speed testing and are shipped to foriegn markets with the incorrect computer chips for their fuel injection systems. The fact that any Ducati ever even finishes the Daytona 200 is a miracle.
