Ducati Motologic’s Jamie Stauffer is eager to score his and the team’s maiden Australian Superbike Championship victory of the season in today’s final race of the season at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.
The former dual Superbike and Supersport champion took Superpole yesterday before racing to second behind Glenn Allerton in the opening race of the weekend, and he’s determined to reverse the result this afternoon in a bid to win the overall.
With a victory at last month’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix support races, Stauffer will now be looking to match that performance in an official ASBK round.
“It was a pretty good race,” Stauffer said. “I didn’t get a good start and went back to fourth straight away. The track is a hard one to pass on and it took me a couple of laps to get up to second.
“By the time I got into second Glenn had pulled a fairly comfortable gap. I tried closing the gap but didn’t quite have enough grip to catch him.
“He rode a great race and second isn’t bad, but hopefully we can make some changes and have more grip tomorrow to take the win.”
With Motologic speculated to be reverting back to Honda for next season, today could mark Ducati’s final appearance as an official factory ASBK effort with the Victorian-based team.
The second Superbike race of the weekend will be live on Channel 7 this afternoon at 2.00-2.30pm.