Ducati Motologic's Jamie Stauffer claimed his first victory on the 1198R at Phillip Island last weekend.

Ducati Motologic officially reached victory lane last weekend for the first time this season as former dual Australian Superbike Champion Jamie Stauffer scored the team’s maiden win with the 1198R Superbike during Phillip Island’s MotoGP Superbike support races.

Stauffer won the third and final race of the weekend to clinch the overall for the event, thrilled with the result despite the points not counting toward the official ASBK title chase.

“I’m really happy to finally get that first place – we’ve come really close a few times this season,” Stauffer beamed. “The conditions were pretty ordinary early in the day and the first race wasn’t too good. I got in front early on, but had trouble with turning the bike on the left hand corners and went backwards rapidly.

“In the second race it was the first dry session of the weekend. We had a really good set–up for the dry conditions and got off the line well. It gave us the round win for the weekend. The team has worked so hard all season so it is great to have turned the corner and won the race. Now we can go into our final round with a view to finishing the season on a high.”

Stauffer’s win marks Ducati’s first national Superbike victory since 1999 when the Italian manufacturer last fielded a factory-supported ASBK effort, the result marking a satisfying moment for Motologic owner Paul Free.

“It’s so good to see Jamie take a race and round win, he has wanted this so badly,” Free commented. “It’s also good for team moral, its hard for guys to keep putting in event after event and not getting a win every now and then.

“The team have put so much into the season to develop the Ducati 1198R and watching Jamie record the fastest lap times at quite a few rounds and also lead many races, only to miss the win has been pretty difficult for everyone.

“I’m really proud of the team and the riders. I am really looking forward to our final round in Tasmania now and I feel sure both the Ducati riders will finish their seasons strongly.”

Returning to Dunlop’s N-Tec tyre for the weekend’ Stauffer’s fastest lap of 1:32.644 was marginally off the lap record despite limited dry track time during the weekend, and also good enough to rank as the 13th fastest race lap of the entire weekend amongst the MotoGP machines – faster than Spanish rookie Hector Barbera managed on the Team Aspar Ducati Desmosedici GP contender.

The final round of the Australian Superbike Championship will be held at Symmons Plains Raceway on 12-14 November.