Italian Giorgio Nepoti, a familiar figure in European paddocks for over thirty years, was killed along with his wife in a car accident in Italy on July 1. Nepoti was a founding partner in one of the most powerful, successful and influential race teams ever to exist in motorcycle racing: NCR Ducati.

NCR began life in Bologna in the late 1960s by Nepoti, Rino Caracchi and Luigo Rizzi; they raced 250 and other single cylinder Ducatis for years. Rizzi dropped out of the partnership early on, and thereafter NCR became known simply as Nepoti Caracchi Racing or "NCR". Their insignia, a fiendish, foot-spinning dog wearing a helmet, as seen on NCR decals the world over, has been a sign to three generations of true enthusiasts of something special. Not everyone knew about NCR but those that did weren't just Sunday afternoon enthisiasts.

The pair, Nepoti and Caracchi, were well known for their close ties to the Ducati factory (located minutes from their shop), their tireless work ethic and superb craftsmanship. Many, many features seen on motorcycles today were refined by the NCR team, including but not limited to dry clutches, box section swing arms and the like. While the pair of tuning geniuses certainly knew their stuff, it was their amazing work ethic which made them so successful. Amazingly, the pair were still assisting what remained of their team at Italian rounds in 2006—nearly forty years after their team's inception.

NCR is part of the DNA that makes up DMC. State-owned and controlled by autocrats, Ducati went many years in the 1970s without a formal race department. Two key people at Ducati in this era still believed in racing as a tool for sales and engineering, thus it was Ducati's chief engineer Dr. Taglioni (the truly legendary Dr. T) and his assistant, racer turned tuner Franco Farne, who created the path from the back door of the factory to the front door of NCR.

NCR Ducati's enjoyed being part of many big Ducati success—the 1972 Imola 200, Mike Hailwood's fairy tale comeback in '78 at the Island, Doug Polen's two WSBK titles in the early 1990s and of course Ben Bostrom's comeback in WSBK in 2000. If you talk to top riders of the era they all speak of NCR with a great deal of respect, friend or foe.

The NCR team continued to race into the 2002 season, after which the NCR name was either sold or licensed to Poggipolini. The current "NCR" squad races as "Scuderia SC Caracchi" in WSBK with Rino Caracchi 's son, Stefano, at the helm.

Nepoti can go to his grave knowing that in his life he helped create one of the most legendary motorcycle racing teams the world has ever known.