Ducati North America CEO calls D-FW a ‘critical’ market for the iconic motorcycle brand

Ducati is often referred to as the Ferrari of motorcycles with its prestige, Italian heritage, signature red styling — and speed. Last year, Ducati won its sixth consecutive MotoGP championship in the Formula 1 of motorcycle racing.
This year, the brand’s 100-year anniversary, Ducati is expanding its racing legacy. It has entered the AMA Supercross Championship to create the company’s first supercross team: the Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati Factory Racing Team.
And last month, the seventh stop of the 17-round supercross series came to AT&T Stadium. Dylan Ferrandis, Ducati’s only rider who entered the Arlington race, placed 10th in the Saturday Main Event. As of last Friday, Ferrandis ranked 11th, and Ducati sat in seventh place in the manufacturers’ standings.
The Dallas Morning News recently caught up with Jason Chinnock, the CEO of Ducati North America, to discuss the importance of the D-FW market and the brand’s business strategy in the off-road supercross field. When Ducati was purchased by Audi AG in 2012, he moved to sister brand Lamborghini to establish and oversee marketing and communications initiatives in North America before returning to Ducati North America in 2016 as CEO.
(The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and context.)
Q: Why is Texas, and Dallas specifically, critical for Ducati in terms of your business strategy?
Chinnock: “Texas is one of the top three states in the U.S. for off-road motorcycling, and the Dallas-Fort Worth market is actually number one in the state for us in terms of opportunity. We look at that just from, let’s say, a numbers perspective. It’s really critical. We have a strong presence here. We enter the off-road market with the same sort of passion and professionalism that we’ve done with our road motorcycle, which Texas has always been an incredible stronghold for us, and specifically with Dallas.
“Dallas itself hosts one of our top dealers in North America. They’ve consistently won Dealer of the Year awards in Ducati Dallas, and that’s great for us, because then we know we have a partner locally that’s totally embraced, not just everything about Ducati, but is also now embracing the off-road community to the point where they’re there on-site with us at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, along with their clients, cheering on our riders for the Supercross round.”
Q: Ducati has such strong on-road racing DNA? How does it translate to this new category in Supercross?
Chinnock: “Racing has always been an important part of our DNA, and it’s not just because we love racing, but it’s because of what we’ve learned and how it refines and improves our product. So what we do on a on a global level, like, for example, MotoGP, we’ve dominated MotoGP with six consecutive Constructors’ championships, which is amazing, you know? I mean, that’s like saying you have six Formula 1 Constructors’ championships in a row.
“But in the world of motorcycling, this is the equivalent of it, which is unheard of. And so for us, that technology and what we learn in terms of expertise and how we improve the user’s motorcycle comes from what we do in racing. It’s a critical component, not just for the, let’s call it, the cheering and the fans and being able to get out there and celebrate our riders and teams. But at the end of the day, it’s what the client gets to ride.”
Q: What does this move to a new category mean for the brand during this 100-year anniversary of Ducati?
Chinnock: “When you have an anniversary, you have a chance to typically go back and reflect. That’s natural, and we’re doing a little bit of that, and I think that’s important, because we have to remember where we’ve come from. And actually it helps us understand where we’re going. But I’m excited, because off-road basically gives us an opportunity to write a new chapter for the Ducati story. And I look at myself as being somebody that is a steward of the brand. I’m responsible for where that brand is, not just today, but where we’re going in the future.
“I’m hoping, I expect, that entering into off-road the way we have here, what it does is it helps set the groundwork for the next 100 years of success for the brand. That’s really a milestone for us. And in fact, we’re being very consistent about all of our communications. It’s a really cool chapter. We’re writing something completely new for Ducati.”
Q: How do you define success from a business perspective?
Chinnock: “From a business standpoint, it’s really simple. There’s a saying, ‘Race on Saturday, sell on Monday.’ We want our race effort basically to drive the attention and awareness to our brand and motorcycles that we make, really with an idea that this whole new community of riders, the motorcyclists that we’ve been talking to for the last 100 years, or the Ducati fans for the last 100 years, are different than this audience.
“So we have some natural crossover, but we’re opening the Ducati brand up to an entirely new world of clients. I was at the Arlington Supercross race last year and I had the chance to engage with people to talk about the brand, about motorcycling, the history of the company, the technology. And I loved it. It was completely new to them. So for us, we give them access to our brand, whether they’re interested in an on-road or off-road motorcycle. When it comes to the racing part of it, it’s really simple: We race to win.”
Q: What are some of your early observations about the off-road racing market and industry?
Chinnock: “It didn’t surprise me, but what was great to see is the families. This is something that people do as a community. It’s not just like some guy and his friend go watch the motorcycle races. They bring their kids, they bring their moms, dads, fathers, uncles. It’s definitely a family affair, which I love seeing. With motorcycling, we want you to start young. You want to inspire and light the fire in somebody when they’re younger and in road racing that’s less common.
“Usually it’s ‘kids are staying with grandma and we’re going away for the weekend to watch MotoGP.’ So I love that. I love that it’s very accessible. You can walk through the pits and the fan fest and talk to riders and get autographs and meet and greet everybody, because it brings it back to when I was a kid and I would walk around. I’m from Las Vegas. I walked around the day before the fan fest and I got to meet all the motorcyclists and the truck drivers and everybody that was out there racing. It inspired me at a young age. And so I love that part of it and love that connection that makes it very accessible.”
Q: You were once working at the parts counter at a local Colorado Ducati dealership. Now you’re CEO of Ducati North America. Why do you do what you do, what motivates you?
Chinnock: “There’s two things that motivate me. One of them is my own love for motorcycling. It was the thing I was never allowed to do when I was growing up, which made it more desirable. My parents didn’t want me to ride. I was like, ‘Well, if they don’t want me to do it, it’s probably really fun. I have to check it out.’ And so I did. I immediately fell in love with it. I usually ride with a couple people. I don’t go out in big groups. I kind of get out there to escape. For me, it’s my mental health and it clears my head and just motorcycling in general, for me, I personally get something out of it.
“But then the other personal side that I get out of it is seeing the joy we’re bringing to people’s faces, which is why I love our company’s mission statement. I got a text message two days ago from Jason Bonham, who’s the son of the legendary [drummer] John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. He texted me a picture of him holding a trophy. I’ve known this guy for a couple years. He was holding a trophy racing at a race in Southern California and taking first place last weekend on a Ducati. He said, ‘I haven’t raced professionally in like 30 years or something.’ You know how happy it makes me? That smile. It’s incredible. We bring joy to his life through motorcycling. When I got that text, that just makes me full.”