Words: Bill Hunter.
Regarding accomplished achievements in South Africa’s motorcycle industry the story behind the RACE! Brand is one of the most enviable. A man who began by only importing fancy motorcycle accessories has now evolved into owning one of the most flamboyant motorcycle dealership’s ever seen in our Country. His name is Marco Casciani, a feisty Italian unpleasant child that arrived here with his parents during the 80s. His educational years were based at the Wits University training to become a mechanical engineer. Marco didn’t really adhere to this because he was far more interested in the practical side, which means ‘fiddling’ with motorcycles.
After many years of racing, modifying and refining motorcycles, both here in SA and back in Italy, he opened the RACE! Brand in 2004. Since then RACE! has expanded like a petite Universe into this new, and dramatic, establishment in Sandton, which also contains the new Ducati Johannesburg dealership. Marco’s passion for the Ducati brand is only exceeded by Donald Trump’s passion for himself, or very close. If you chopped off Marco’s head it would certainly ooze Ducati infused blood, if you know what I mean. He also has some strange obsession for Lego, even at his age?
Marco (aged 50, so he says), and married for 13-years to his Dutch wife who he vehemently denies he met in an Amsterdam weed shop (no offence), and they have a delightful 11-year old daughter, who’s also a Ducati enthusiast. In fact they often go out for Sunday rides on his Ducati Scrambler, which is very cool for such a young lady indeed. He also drives a Ferrari Superfast 812 in bright yellow, which leads me onto the other side of RACE!
RACE! is not just about Ducati though, but caters for the extremely wealthy with a large range of high-end hyper cars of all kinds. Not only that RACE! have Luxury Time on their premises who deals in exuberant watches (sorry- time piece) that you can trade or buy, high-end art, and even a new venture into designing the ultimate man cave. I don’t want to get into too much detail, just click on the link at the end of this article for more information.
Ok, let’s go back now to the Ducati Johannesburg dealership. It really is the Crown Jewel for Ducati in SA, providing everything from expert sales, spares, apparel, and a state of the art workshop. Marco also retails his personal brands (RACE MOTO), with names like, AGV, Dainese, Arrow, Rizoma, and even more. So you’ll certainly have no problem discovering a matching outfit and then you can stuff your new V4 R with exclusive decorations. Talking of which, would you like to ride one? Well you most certainly can, and nine other Ducati models across the entire range from the RACE! Demo fleet (hurrah, at last!) Just drop in with your license, and a smile, and their friendly staff will happily accommodate. Oh, while you’re there you can also bathe in coffee at their new www.corsacafe.co.za. And maybe stay and watch MotoGP and WorldSBK?
So Marco is ‘Living the Dream’ for sure, and deservedly so because of the time and effort he’s crammed into the RACE! Brand. He knows everything there is to know about the Ducati Brand and will happily share it with any customer in his unique, vibrant and congenial manner. Oh, I also hate him because he’s just ridden Bagnaia’s MotoGP bike and Bulega’s SBK bike, jammy, lucky bast’ springs to mind and hope yer feet fall off! However, again, he’ll gladly share these enviable antics with you with his inimitable and ardent style. After my informative day there, and slightly depressing due to financial reasons, I couldn’t recommend a visit to RACE! more, for any of the reasons mentioned above. I’ve just bought a lottery ticket though, for the first time, which might help?
Go to www.RACE1.co.za to view what’s on offer. (011 466 6666)
RACE! is also very easy to find on Bookface and Instagram - to view their very entertaining videos.
