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Hello,
Anyone know anything about this Ducati road racer? I am sorry I do not know what race this is at. But I am guessing that it has something to do with Berliner's racing efforts about 1965-66, because the Norton is Heinz Kegler's who was head of Berliner's Norton racing in the 60s. I think the car in the background is about a 1965 Pontiac. I can not see enough of the guy bent over the Ducati to make any positive I.D.. Thanks!

'65 pontiacs had stacked headlights, '64 had side by side headlights... Fender shape indicates side by side..

Good catch Steve, so then the photo could be as early as 1964.

I have been trying to track down what Berliner did as far as road-racing in the 1960's for some time now. A lot of the history has been lost along with the passing of those who were involved. I have had a few nice conversations with Kenny Hayes, Frank Scurria and Ray Hempstead, whom raced for Berliner, and I do not think they knew anything about this bike.

Berliner's was an underdog, racing underdog brands against other distributors and marques with a lot more financing and superior numbers east of the Mississippi.

I think the front brake on this Ducati later ended up on the front of the Norton in the photograph, a 9" Oldani 2ls job.

I looked at some photographs of Pontiac's and what Steve said about them does not hold true. In 1964 Pontiac made automobiles with both stacked and side-by-side headlamps. The small GTO style body had them side-by-side and the larger Pontiacs had stacked. If you look at photographs of larger Pontiacs, you will see that the car in the photograph is a 1965 with Stacked headlamps, not side-by-side. It's profile and parts perfectly match that of a 1965 Pontiac full-size automobile, and that means that this photograph is from very late in 1964 and the car is just off the showroom floor or a year or two later.

Kegler had put the Ducati front brake on his Norton for the 1967 season so that narrows the photographs down to probably either 1965 or 1966.