Ducati Motologic Racing’s dual Australian Superbike Champion Jamie Stauffer has taken the positives from last weekend’s third round of the Viking Group Australian Superbike Championship, hopeful that the team can rectify teething problems on the factory 1198R that forced him out of contention in both races on Sunday.

An electrical problem ruled Stauffer out of the opening race before he reverted to his spare bike in the second leg, only to have a fractured clutch plate take him out of the running in the final stages of the race while running in third.

“I’m really disappointed this weekend, of course,” Stauffer admitted. “No rider wants to come away from an event without points, but I know the entire team put their heart and soul into everything at the track and it really was just a string of bad luck for us on race day.

“My times in practice were the fastest of the day and I recorded the fastest lap time of race one, so I was going strong. I’m disappointed not to have gained more points in the series, but I really have to thank the team for their dedication. When things got tough, the team came together really well and just got to work.

“It was disappointing for everyone that we couldn’t come away from the event as strongly as we began. There were some positives though and we will focus on those and look to the next round in Queensland in August.”

Motologic owner and race team manager Paul Free was also disappointed in the end result, however is confident that the team will be back at its maximum strength for round four.

“Overall we learned a lot about the motorbike and tested many new ideas,” Free explained. “We look forward to our next event on the Ducati armed with the information gained from round three and to continuing the development path of the 1198R.

“The bike showed so much potential and good overall speed so I’m sure once we can get over some of these niggling problems Jamie will be the one to beat.”

Superbike rookie Jordan Burgess continued his development as the team’s number two rider, finishing the weekend with 11-16 results outright for 10th overall in the Superbike class.

“My weekend had some definite highlights as I recorded some strong lap times in practice and was able to finish 11th in race one which was a solid improvement after my injury in Darwin,” Burgess commented.

“The second race did not go quite as well after we tried a different setting in the bike, only to finish in 16th place. I have learned a lot this weekend particularly from the team’s experience overall so I have some very definite points to work on and discuss both with my technicians and my trainer.”