Ducati Heritage Contest to headline WDW 2026 history push
World Ducati Week is usually about the noise, the crowd, the new machinery and the current crop of Ducati race heroes, but the 2026 centenary edition will also give Borgo Panigale’s past a much bigger role at Misano.
Ducati will use WDW 2026 to stage a dedicated Heritage Village, bringing together pre-2000 road bikes, owner-preserved classics, a formal Heritage Contest and appearances from past champions including Casey Stoner, Troy Bayliss, Loris Capirossi and Carl Fogarty
As MCNews covered earlier in the lead-up to this centenary edition, World Ducati Week 2026 will run at Misano from July 3-5, with the Race of Champions, Ducati legends, riding experiences, heritage displays and a new model world premiere all part of the programme.
That follows Ducati’s broader centenary push, including the Borgo Panigale centenary presentation and Superleggera V4 Centenario Tricolore reveal, along with the global #WeRideAsOne 2026 celebrations that helped warm the engines for Ducati’s 100th year.
Heritage Village at WDW 2026
The Heritage Village will be one of the main historical focal points of World Ducati Week 2026, giving Ducati a dedicated area to showcase restored motorcycles, privately owned classics, official displays, owner stories, and rider appearances.
It also gives this year’s WDW a slightly different tone. The Race of Champions and rider activity will again provide the obvious sporting theatre — with Australian interest also sharpened by Josh Waters earning a rare Race of Champions call-up — but the centenary year gives Ducati good reason to lean harder into the machines and personalities that shaped the company before the modern MotoGP and WorldSBK era.
Ducati Heritage Contest
The centrepiece of the Heritage Village will be the Ducati Heritage Contest 2026, an official competition for road-going Ducati motorcycles built up to the year 2000.
The contest is aimed at collectors and owners of significant Ducati road bikes, with judging to focus on authenticity, originality, historical significance, state of preservation, restoration quality, aesthetic value, design and supporting documentation.
Entered motorcycles will be assessed on Friday, July 3, by a technical jury made up of representatives from motorcycle associations, Ducati experts and a well-known Ducati rider. From those entries, ten finalists will be selected.
Those finalist motorcycles will then go on display within the Heritage Village from Saturday, July 4, where World Ducati Week visitors will also be able to vote for their favourites. The combined process will help determine the final rankings.
Finalists on display at Misano
The winners will be announced on Sunday, July 5, on the WDW main stage. Ducati memorabilia prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third placed entries, while the technical jury will also present a special award for the motorcycle judged to have exceptional historical significance.
That special prize will be a historic Ducati Corse fairing, signed for the occasion. All ten finalists will also receive a Borgo Panigale Experience, giving them a behind-the-scenes look at Ducati’s home base and production facility.
The Heritage Village will not be limited to the contest finalists. Ducati owners with road-going models built up to the year 2000 will also have access to a dedicated and controlled parking area, effectively turning part of the WDW paddock into an open-air Ducati history display.
That should make for an interesting walk through the brand’s back catalogue, with everything from earlier singles and bevel-drive machinery through to air-cooled road bikes, Tamburini-era superbikes and other modern classics expected to be represented by the owners who continue to preserve and use them.
A wider Ducati history thread
The Heritage Contest also continues a theme that has become increasingly prominent at recent editions of World Ducati Week. In 2024, Ducati used WDW to mark three decades of the 916, with MCNews covering the 916, 996 and 998 celebrations at Misano, including the display of significant production and racing machines from one of Ducati’s most important superbike families.
For 2026, the lens widens from a single model family to the full sweep of Ducati road-going history up to the turn of the millennium. That makes the Heritage Contest less about concours polish alone, and more about the machines that helped Ducati move from a relatively small Italian manufacturer into one of the defining brands in sporting motorcycles.
100 Years, 100 Stories, One Legend
Ducati will also stage a dedicated heritage exhibition titled “100 Years, 100 Stories, One Legend”, tracing the company’s development through 100 milestones from its first century.
The display will cover key racing achievements, technical developments, design milestones and production models that helped define the Borgo Panigale brand. For Ducati, the centenary year gives WDW 2026 an added historical angle, beyond the usual mix of track activity, rider appearances and owner gatherings.
The Heritage Village is designed to bring those elements together in one area, giving visitors a place to take in Ducati’s past while also meeting owners, restorers, collectors and riders connected to different eras of the company’s history.
Ducati legends to take part
Ducati’s racing history will also be represented by a number of high-profile names from the brand’s past, with riders including Casey Stoner, Loris Capirossi, Troy Bayliss and Carl Fogarty expected to feature across the weekend.
They will take part in the traditional Lap of Honour, one of the regular highlights of World Ducati Week, with former Ducati champions parading around Misano in front of the crowd.
The Heritage Village will also host interviews, meetings and discussion sessions involving Ducati legends, giving fans the chance to hear first-hand from riders who contributed to some of the company’s most important racing chapters.
The Heritage Village will be open to the public throughout all three days of World Ducati Week, from 0900 to 1830. World Ducati Week 2026 takes place at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli from July 3-5.
