1098 to race in British Superstock

Ducati’s new 1098 V-twins might not be eligible to race in the superbike class for 2007 but we’ll still be able to see the exciting new Italian machines in top-class British racing next year.

Ducati UK, JH Performance Racing and Midlands-based Buildbase are spearheading a Ducati Corse-supported challenge for the National Superstock title with John Laverty and Kieran Clarke.

Last year JHP ran a very successful two-man British Supersport team with a Ducati 749 while Buildbase fielded leading contenders Laverty and Tristan Palmer in the superstock series on Suzukis.

JH Performance boss John Hackett said: “It’s a great honour to be invited by the factory to run a pair of bikes in the National Superstock Championship.

“We’ve signed two young riders who we believe have a lot of potential and will be very competitive on the new 1098s against the four-cylinder bikes that have previously dominated the class.”

The team take delivery of the race bikes later this month and plan to have them “race prepared and ready” for an extensive testing programme in Spain during February.