Its official. Aldo Drudi is awesome. He may be the coolest man ever.
I would forgive you if you think I would make these bold assertions because he is good friends with nine-time World Champion and one of the greatest motorcycle racers ever, Valentino Rossi.
Or because he has worked with more racers, teams, manufacturers and sponsorship brands, for longer, than anyone else in the racing world.
Or because he can practically dictate, on his own, the newest fashion and styles in the motorcycle world, from the highest ranked MotoGP teams to your local bike shop.
Or because he told me that the Ducati Forza 848 race bike looked great and promised to design my race helmet. (Okay, this certainly doesn't hurt his case, and much more on this later, but its not the reason Aldo Drudi is so great.)
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| The Ducati Forza 848 race bike in action |
Aldo Drudi could have breezed into town, insisted that the Multistada he and his girlfriend, Elena, would be using for the week, and anything else he desired, be delivered to, and collected from his hotel, at his bidding. If he never wanted to see anyone or anything, greet us hello or farewell, he would not have had to.
He didn't need to visit Ducati Forza. But he and Elena did.
He didn't need to spend hours at the shop chatting with me, my family, Vicki Smith, the President of the Ducati Owners Club of South Florida, and Megan, our apparel expert and her husband, Will. Or agree to take pictures with everyone. But he did.
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| Megan, me, and Aldo at Ducati Forza |
He didn't need to answer every single one of my questions about Ducati and Valentino Rossi and the new MotoGP season. And he certainly didn't need to provide us with a sneak peak of Rossi's new GP11 Desmosedici and his racing leathers, a full week before the unveiling at the annual Ducati Wrooom Event in northern Italy.
But he did.
Aldo Drudi and Elena were engaging, funny, charming, interesting, and interested in us, Ducati Forza, and south Florida. I could not have asked for more gracious guests. And I could not have asked for a better afternoon with one of racing's luminaries who I had always admired from afar, but never thought I would meet in-person.
And yes, Aldo Drudi, designer to racing royalty, offered to design a race helmet for me.
Sweet!!!
(Okay, have that out of my system.)
In fact, not only did he offer to create a design for my helmet, as a thank you for hosting him at Ducati Forza and providing him and Elena with a Multistrada (as if we wouldn't have!), he would have his staff paint the helmet and ship it back to Ducati Forza for me.
Awesome!!!
(Um, maybe wasn't quite out of my system yet.)
George