Imola 200 winner Paul Smart & the Ducati 750 Super Sport

Paul Smart helped put Ducati's first real big v-twin, the 750 Super Sports on the map with his win at the Imola 200 in 1972. Forty years on, Ducati saluted the man and the machine with the Paul Smart Replica a 1000cc V-Twin styled after the no compromise racer from the seventies.

These photos were shot at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Complex for the AMA Vintage Days celebration in 2005. Paul and the team fire up the 750 and he put in some quick demonstration laps for the crowd, estimated at over 50,000 for the weekend.

Big Booming bass sound from the twin pipe with had no baffles.

Off he goes to the delight of the Ducatista , a sleek silver missle reminding race fans what racers from the seventies were like as compared to todays sanitized superbikes.

While Paul was busy on the world stage, a couple of Cycle magazine editors and part time racers were about to do the same in USA. More on that later.