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Italian Cruise Night
It has long been a wish of John Avelluto to gather the Ferrari’s and Ducati’s together. On Wednesday evening June 21st after long hours of preparation and planning his wish became a reality.
We had gathered in the parking lot of a shopping center. As John and I visited and took photos of the arriving Ducatis and Ferraris we overheard a Ferrari owner ask a Ducati owner “who are those Desmodromiclub guys?” The Ducati owner replied, “If Ducati owners where like the Army then Desmodromiclub would be the Special Forces.” I was honored to hear another Ducati owner describe our club in this manor. By 6:45 pm Over 30 Ducatis and ten Ferraris had arrived to attend “Italian cruise night” Desmodromiclub Kansas City, the Ferrari club of America, and Mid America Ducati Owners Group (M.A.D.O.G.) where all in attendance of this grand event.
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As we all lined up in the parking lot, Mario Arter of Desmodromiclub was given the honor of leading the procession.
We would take I-435 north out of Kansas City to Highway 5. For the local Ducati owners Highway 5 is a favorite two lane highway with sweepers, double backs, S turns and many tight hair pin corners. It is a place where one can test the motorcycle as well as ones riding skills.
We traveled up Highway 5 to Leavenworth Kansas. We then turned south onto Highway 7, a four lane divided Highway. We then went east on Highway 32 also a divided four lane Highway. Mario has led many rides and had kept up a moderate speed as to insure this long procession would stay intact. Jared and I were riding a few bikes back from Mario when a Ferrari 360 Spider F1 passed us at a high rate of speed, followed by John Avelluto on his 999.
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I took just a few moments to make my decision. The challenge had been made. Neither John nor myself are one to back away when challenged. I downshifted accelerated and quickly caught up to John and the 360 Spider. Side by side traveling down the Highway at a high rate of speed there was a beautiful music emitted by this trio of Italian performance machines. As we came threw some slow sweeping corners and into a straight away John began to pull away from the Spider. I was in 4th gear so I pulled ahead much faster then John who was in 6th gear, I turned the famed 1098 Ducati Superbike loose as I shifted into 5th gear, as the shift light began it’s sequence I shifted into 6th gear and after only a few moments rolled back off the throttle. On this day the Ducati had won the challenge. Soon John shot passed me and took the lead. We slowed as we got onto I-635 on our way to Avelluto’s Italian Delight.
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As we arrived in the parking lot of the Italian Delight I sought out the driver of that 360 Spider. I shook his hand and congratulated him on his courageous driving skills, he commented “ I thought we were doing pretty well at keeping up threw the corners, but once you hit that straight away you were gone.”
What an awesome experience we had. Over 40 miles of twisting, turning Highway with the roar of both Ferraris and Ducatis.
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We lined up the bikes in between the cars for a photo shoot. I noticed that traffic had stopped on the road adjacent to Italian Delight. Many people had followed our procession and now were filing into the parking lot to gaze upon these fine Italian Machines. Hundreds of people came to look over the cars and bikes. I was amazed at the number of people.
We entered Avelluto’s Italian Delight to partake of the feast John had spent hours preparing for us. If you have never enjoyed the delicious food at Italian Delight you are missing an experience that is with out equal. We all visited for quite some time. As I was about to leave I noticed that there were still many visitors going from car to bike looking over each in great detail. Everyone had enjoyed them selves greatly. All the hours of hard work, planning and preparation had payed off; John had made his wishes come true. For this my friend I say "Salute". -- Wildeman
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