I have an 06 749R for track only use.
The motor is stock other than a full system and PC3.
I had the valves and belts done last winter.
Other than oil changes what preventive maintenance should I be doing after a year of track use, probably 12 days or so?
At the least, I'd check/adjust the valves and replace the timing belts.
On my 749R racebike, we completely went through the engine each off-season -- new bearings, piston rings, belts, clutch plates, etc. At the end of the second year, we did all of that and replaced all eight valves, the pistons, and the rod bolts. The Ti rods were "align bored" (per Bruce Meyer's recommnedation) rather than replaced as the high-dollar teams do.
We discovered the cases lasted about two years before they'd crack. Pegram & Boulder Motorsports were replacing them every 500k. At $5,000 a set, that wasn't in our budget, so we kept an eye on them and replaced them when they cracked. Luckily, each time I felt the bike start to vibrate and shut things down before it got ugly.
This is on a 749R with 848 Pistal pistons, balanced crank, ported heads, and stock cams, running the DP full Termi ECU and Power Commander, only 500 rpm past stock redline. Each season is usually 6-8 race weekends (including Friday practice), along with 3 or 4 track days.
I've raced Ducatis for over 10 years and have learned the hard way that it pays to spend a bit more in the off-season. When parts break inside an engine, it gets expensive fast. On an engine like the 749R, it gets *really* expensive *really* fast. Scrimping on maintenance is false savings. Plus, we travel up to 2,000 miles round trip to race, so you have a lot of money invested just showing up to the track. Add in entry fees, etc. -- not to mention running for class championships -- and suffering a mechanical DNF makes for a really expensive, and frustrating, weekend.
