Ducati Corse - Superbike World Championship (SBK)

Superbike World Championship (SBK)

Ducati has been taking part in the Superbike World Championship since it began in 1988 until 2010. Using 1000 cc V-twin engines Ducati was able to dominate the championship for many years. From 1994 to 1999 Carl Fogarty won the title 4 times on Ducatis. Australians Troy Corser and Troy Bayliss won the 1996 and 2001 titles respectively on Ducatis

In 2003, the recent rule changes in MotoGP to allow 4-stroke engines meant that the Japanese manufacturers had focused their resources there, leaving the Superbike World Championship with limited factory involvement. Ducati Corse entered the only 2 Ducati 999s in the field, taking 20 wins from 24 races in a season where all races were won by Ducati. Neil Hodgson won the title on a Factory Ducati, with the team finishing the season with 600 points, a record point score by a constructor in a season. 2004 was a similar story, James Toseland winning the title although Ten Kate Honda's Chris Vermeulen prevented a Ducati clean-sweep.

2006 saw the return of Bayliss to the Superbike World Championship after 3 years in MotoGP. The combination of Bayliss and Ducati proved unstoppable and they dominated the season winning 12 races.

In 2007, Troy Bayliss finished fourth riding once again a Ducati 999. Even though production of the 999 ended in 2006 and the bike was replaced by the Ducati 1098, Ducati produced 150 limited edition 999s to satisfy homologation requirements.

For 2008, Ducati raced a homologated version of the 1098R. The FIM, the sanctioning body for the Superbike World Championship, has raised the displacement limit for 2 cylinder engines to 1,200 cc. Bayliss won his 3rd world champion on 1098 in 2008. Bayliss retired at the end of the 2008 season, after ten years in which he had raced a Ducati every year except 2005 (in which he raced a Sito Pons Honda in MotoGP).

2009 saw Noriyuki Haga, who replaced Bayliss, partnered with Michel Fabrizio.Haga had the fantastic season on Ducati and only losing the championship by 6 points. In end, Haga ended the season as second while Fabrizio as third in overall championship standing.

Once again, 2010 began with Noriyuki Haga partnering with Michel Fabrizio for Ducati in SBK.

On 27 August 2010, it was announced that Ducati SBK will no longer compete with a factory team in 2011, after 23 seasons which had brought the marque a total of 29 riders' and manufacturers' championship titles, instead limiting their participation to privateer teams running their works bikes.