by Dean Adams and Susan Haas: "Casey Stoner's World Championship was won by Australian pluck, hard work, sacrifice and the technical might of Ducati Corse, Ducati Italy's racing arm. To get Stoner to comment on the sacrifice and pluck parts of his championship I interviewed him at Laguna Seca Raceway after qualifying on Saturday for the USGP." Much more.

Crash.net
With Ducati leading both championships, you must be quite satisfied with the season so far?

DT
It has been very good. We have a new bike and we are really happy with it, but we have to share this with the riders such as Troy, but also Ruben Xaus and Lorenzo Lanzi because they have won races for us too. We don't think the job is done though. I want to remind you that we lost 50 points at Miller Motorsports Park a couple of months ago, so we are really focused on the job and aware that something like that could happen again. We could have problems so we must concentrate until the end for the championship.

Pro Italia is pleased to announce the runner-ups and grand prize winner of our Vanson leather suit give-away that we held during the Laguna Seca US MotoGP event recently.

Three runner ups won $100.00 Gift Certificates to Pro Italia. These three winners are Patricia Onut, Kirk Hayes, and Roderick Pena. Congrats!

The grand prize winner is La Moyne Austin from Fresno, California. La Moyne won a custom fit, bespoke Vanson leather suit - a beautiful thing. La Moyne will be stopping by our Los Angeles showroom soon to be measured by Karen our apparel manager (who worked for Vanson at one time and knows fitting). After being measured, the folks at Vanson will get to work producing another top quality, American made piece of protective gear.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to old friends and customers who stopped by our booth to say "hi", the folks from around the world who we met for the first time and all of those who supported the shop - appreciated! We hope you had as enjoyable weekend as we did and a safe trip home.

Pro Italia is hosting a suspension tuning clinic, by Randy Acevedo and Alex Markovich from Inhouse Suspension, on Saturday, August 9th. We are currently taking reservations (required) for this event.

The Deal: A $40 advance reservation gets you a spot in either the morning or afternoon session with the specialists. Sessions will start at 9am and wind up at 4:15 with the masters performing 15 minute one-on-one consultations throughout the day.

This is an excellent opportunity to have your motorcycle's high-quality suspension tailored to fit your body and riding style. Randy and Alex will adjust the front and rear sag, preload, compression and rebound within your bike's adjustment limits. In addition to checking your settings Inhouse and Pro Italia will be offering complete spring and internal valving services, usually with same day turnaround. What does spring change and valve servicing mean? If a spring located in either the forks or the shock is too stiff for a particular rider you may not be able to dial out the preload enough to achieve proper sag. Conversely, if the spring(s) are to soft you may reach the limits of preload adjustment and still have too much sag. Valving, on the other hand, can change the way the forks or shock react. Oil in the fork or shock chambers can be controlled be changing the size of the valve openings or shim stack. By doing this you can alter compression and rebound settings which changes the way the bike performs in certain cornering situations. Science.

Space is limited. You MUST make a reservation to attend. Randy Acevedo was formerly the race team manager at Race Tech and Inhouse Suspension is the official suspension company for FastTrack Riders.

Contact Rick at Pro Italia at 818 249-5707 or rick@proitalia.com to get a spot in this event.

We've just gotten word that Ducati North America will be bringing their "Hyper Truck", a tractor trailer filled with Hypermotard demonstrators and hospitality, to Newcomb's Ranch, just up Angeles Crest. Take advantage of this excellent opportunity to demo ride this fantastic motorcycle in the perfect setting of the Angeles Crest - a legendary motorcycling location and an area that is just flat-out beautiful. And know this: the Hypermotard and Hypermotard S will be still be available with some very special financing offers such as 1.99% or $199/month for qualifying buyers through the month of July.

A review by Barry Winfield is now up over at Motorcycledaily.com.

Pro Italia will once again be present and accounted for at this weekend's US MotoGP in Laguna Seca. Visit our booth located between turns #2 and #3 for great gear, deals and a chance to win a custom fit Vanson suit.

Our booth will be stocked with fine gear from Ducati, Vanson, Dainese and Sidi - from high zoot leather jackets and suits to our own Stoner! t-shirts and hats. We'll have deals on select items including Ducati's Isle Of Man leather jacket (for men and women). Buy a new pair of boots or a leather jacket and we'll ship it to you for free once we return home to Los Angeles!

Pro Italia Girls will be at our booth to enter you in a drawing to win a custom fit leather suit from Vanson, with the winner contacted on Sunday at noon. Everyone entering the drawing will receive a coupon code worth $10 towards a purchase in our online store.

Recap: look for PI between turns #2 and #3 for deals, cool gear, a chance to win and $10 towards an online purchase. Have safe and smooth travels to the track - we'll see you there!

Dear MV Agusta Dealer:

Please see the attached important information, released within the last few hours, regarding Harley-Davidson's acquisition of the MV Agusta Group. As you will note, this agreement has not yet been finalized and hinges upon several contingencies and necessary regulatory approvals.

In the meantime, Cagiva USA is pleased to inform you of this very positive development. At the same time, we would also like to assure you of our continued unwavering commitment to support our dealers and clients to the very best of our ability as per normal during this transitional period.

We remain in place to answer any questions you may have, as well as to continue to aid in the ongoing growth and development of your business as it relates to the sales and support of Cagiva and MV Agusta products.

Sincerely,


Matthew Stutzman
General Manager, Cagiva / MV Agusta Motorcycles