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Casey Stoner was about to mount this bike and win the first race of the 2009 MotoGP season. But at the time, we still didn’t know just what riding the Ducati GP9 to victory took.

Nicky Hayden was at the beginning of a long five years without a win. Casey would win three more races in 2009, having spent three rounds away from the paddock to sort his health issues.

Ducati was still of the mindset that the carbon fiber swing arm attached to the engine in lieu of a traditional frame was a design that could succeed in the grand scheme of things. That design and that mindset are both long gone in 2015.

But it was a beautiful motorcycle, and a unique piece of motorcycle racing history.

Photograph: ©2009 by Scott Jones / PHOTO.GP – All Rights Reserved

[mgallery keyword=”Ducati”]