Alan Cathcart racing the Ducati Supermono in an AHRMA event at Putnam Park in Mt. Meridian, Indiana, sometime in the early 1990s. (Larry Lawrence photo)

I’ve always been a fan of single-cylinder motorcycles. I love Supermoto bikes, dual sports and even enjoyed one-lunger streetbikes such as Honda’s GB500 and Yamaha’s SRX600.

For me it all stemmed back to the early 1980s when I owned a Honda 500 Ascot. After riding a Suzuki GS750 for several years I was surprised how much I enjoyed riding that little Ascot with its simple, but distinctly American flat track styling. My buddies shook their heads, perhaps in sympathy, when I told them I was taking a two-week tour on the Ascot first taking in Road America then cutting through Canada to the Loudon National. That trip was one of most memorable I ever took, camping out at night and taking nothing but back roads by day.

Imagine my delight when I learned that Alan Cathcart was coming to a track just down road from me to race Ducati’s amazing Supermono in an AHRMA event. I grabbed my camera and was off to Putnam Park like a flash. Cathcart had always been one of my favorite moto-journalist and I really wanted to see the Supermono in person, perhaps the most highly developed single-cylinder motorcycle ever built.

I was not disappointed. Cathcart was blazingly fast on the lean and mean 250 lbs. Ducati. He easily won all the races he entered that day and I was just taken aback seeing firsthand how fast a 500cc single could be.

Ducati only made the trick little Supermono for a couple of years, and even though I never had the privilege of owning one, it’s a motorcycle that will go down as one of my all-time favorites. Watching Cathcart race the bike at Putnam Park cemented that for me.