{"id":487640,"date":"2026-02-18T09:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487640\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:42:21","slug":"desmosport-ducati-enters-new-era-as-2026-asbk-season-kicks-off-at-phillip-island-info-moto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487640\/","title":{"rendered":"DesmoSport Ducati enters new era as 2026 ASBK season kicks off at Phillip Island \u2013 INFO MOTO"},"content":{"rendered":"

DesmoSport Ducati arrives at the opening round of the 2026 Australian Superbike Championship this weekend with its most ambitious lineup to date, fielding three riders across two classes as the series gets underway at Phillip Island alongside the Superbike World Championship.<\/p>\n

The headline addition to the team is Anthony West, who returns to the Australian domestic scene backed by Elite Roads and has spent the past weeks getting to grips with the Ducati Panigale V4 R. By his own admission, the adaptation process has been hectic but promising, with West confident he\u2019ll arrive at Phillip Island ready to race at the front.<\/p>\n

\"DesmoSport<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few weeks have been spent adapting to the Panigale V4 R, there are a lot of things to work out in a short space of time but I feel like we are going to be competitive straight up,\u201d West said. \u201cMy own expectations for this weekend are high, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining West on the Superbike grid is Luca Durning, who made the jump from Next Gen Supersport last season and has continued building momentum through a strong New Zealand Superbike Championship campaign, including his first race win. Durning arrives at Phillip Island with his confidence at a high and is eager to translate that form onto the world-famous 4.4km circuit.<\/p>\n

Completing the lineup in the Next Gen Supersport class is South Australian Olly Simpson, who has been working through the setup process on the Panigale V2. Simpson is enthusiastic about the bike\u2019s potential and is targeting the top step of the class from the opening round.<\/p>\n

\"DesmoSport<\/p>\n

Team owner Ben Henry acknowledged the challenges of preparing three machines in a compressed timeframe but says the squad is exactly where it needs to be heading into race weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year marks a massive change for DesmoSport Ducati. It\u2019s incredibly exciting to be partnering with Elite Roads to work with Anthony West,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

\"DesmoSport<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of different settings to evaluate for Westy and Olly as they make themselves comfortable, but there\u2019s a defined process and I feel that by the time race day arrives, we will be fully prepared to give it everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillip Island is a favourite for all three riders, and with the added spectacle of the WorldSBK field sharing the circuit, the opening round shapes as a standout weekend for Australian motorcycle racing fans. Live timing is available throughout the weekend at computime.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"SPENCER<\/p>\n

Spencer has a keen eye for hard news, and does some of his best living on deadline day. He loves more than anything to travel on his Aprilia Tuareg 660, and is adamant that Melbourne Bitter is a world-class lager. He also knows how to operate the big computery thing in the office. By night, Spencer plays guitar with Melbourne punk outfit LOUTS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DesmoSport Ducati arrives at the opening round of the 2026 Australian Superbike Championship this weekend with its most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-487640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}