Jamie Stauffer and Paul Free have worked hard in developing the 1198R for Ducati Motologic in 2010.

Ducati Motologic Racing team owner Paul Free says this weekend’s return to two-plus-four racing alongside the V8 Supercars at Phillip Island is a vital round of the series for the Italian manufacturer in its return to the Australian Superbike racing in a factory effort this season.

The last time Ducati fielded a factory team in the Superbike category was in 1999, where Steve Martin raced to the championship in the two-plus-four series.

“It’s an extremely important event for us being the first event in 10 years that Ducati have competed in the Superbike championship in conjunction with the V8 Supercars so we would dearly love to pick up where Ducati finished 10 years ago, which was in a winning position,” Free commented.

The Ducati Motologic team will feature just Jamie Stauffer on the track this weekend, with rookie teammate Jordan Burgess sidelined with a broken foot following an incident at the Queensland Raceway round last month.

“Jamie seems really confident on the 1198R going into the event and with the information we gained from the previous round and the day spent at Phillip Island, I believe we have a really good setting for this round,” Free continued.

“It’s really disappointing for the whole team that Jordy can’t be riding this weekend, but I’m glad he is here albeit on crutches.”

Stauffer, a dual Superbike and Supersport champion in the ASBK series, is also confident that he can continue his late-season surge on the 1198R after a successful test at the Island last week.

“The test at the Island went really well for us,” he commented. “We have been using the 200 profile rear tyre for some time now so the bike was pretty close in terms of set-up and we made some real headway in the changes we made. My lap times were really encouraging and I’m confident we can keep the momentum going into this round.”

Ducati Australia CEO Warren Lee has previously made it clear that the two-plus-four combination is important to Ducati in Australia, believed to be a crucial aspect in the manufacturer’s return to Australian road racing this season with Victorian-based Motologic in a factory guise.

Stauffer finished third in the opening round of the series at Phillip Island in March, scoring a podium on debut in Ducati’s return to the series alongside the Superbike World Championship. Stauffer also scored his best result of the year last time out in Queensland with second overall behind title leader Bryan Staring.