Josh Waters to race at World Ducati Week
Josh Waters will represent Australia on one of Ducati’s biggest stages this year, with the five-time Australian Superbike Champion securing a start in the Lenovo Race of Champions during World Ducati Week 2026 at Misano.
It is a significant honour, and a rare one.
The Race of Champions is not generally the domain of domestic superbike champions. It is Ducati’s own red-carpet grid, a showcase normally built around the brand’s current MotoGP and WorldSBK heroes, along with a very select group of riders who carry Ducati colours in major championships around the world.
This year, with World Ducati Week also falling in Ducati’s centenary year, Waters will line up at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” alongside current headline names from Ducati’s MotoGP and WorldSBK orbit, including Marc Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli, Nicolo Bulega, Iker Lecuona and Alvaro Bautista.
For Waters to be included in that company is a considerable nod, not only to the rider himself, but also to the standard of ASBK and the job done by the Craig McMartin-led Ducati program in Australia.
A rare honour for an Australian domestic champion
Australia has had plenty of Ducati royalty over the years. Troy Bayliss remains one of the most important names in Ducati’s racing history, Jack Miller carried full factory colours in MotoGP, and Oli Bayliss has also represented the family name at World Ducati Week.
Jack Miller and Oli Bayliss were both part of the 2022 Race of Champions, with Miller only just missing the podium as Pecco Bagnaia took the win ahead of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi.
Miller and Bayliss just missed podiums at the WDW Race of Champions
in 2022, underlining the strength of the company Waters will now keep at Misano.
Waters’ invitation, though, has a different flavour. This is not a former world champion being brought back as a hero of the brand, or a current grand prix rider simply fulfilling the duties that come with factory colours. This is an Australian domestic champion being given a place on Ducati’s global stage, against the current headline acts from the MotoGP and WorldSBK paddocks.
That does not happen often.
From late call-up to Ducati’s global stage
For MCNews readers, the story also carries a neat symmetry. Waters’ Ducati chapter really began as something of a late call-up. In 2022, he jumped on the Boost Mobile Ducati V4 R at the Phillip Island MotoGP supports as a stand-in, with very limited time on the bike, and immediately made it work.
He won on debut in a near photo-finish against Cru Halliday, then went on to complete a perfect Phillip Island Superbike trifecta and set a new Australian Superbike lap record in the process.
That Phillip Island weekend helped change the shape of the next phase of Waters’ career. What began as a stand-in appearance became the start of one of the defining rider/team combinations of the modern Australian Superbike Championship.
By 2024, Waters had become the most successful rider in Australian Superbike Championship history. By the end of 2025, he had extended that benchmark to five crowns, further underlining his place in the domestic record books.
MCNews’ 2025 coverage noted that Waters had already cemented his place as the most successful ASBK rider in history with his fourth title, before pushing that record out to five.
Waters wins opening bout at The Bend as Nahlous impresses in second, covered that latest benchmark in the context of his fifth championship campaign.
Waters and McMartin
The partnership Ducati has recognised
The numbers tell one part of the story. The way Waters and the McMartin crew have done it tells another.
In MCNews’ post-title interview with Waters, the Victorian spoke about the demands of modern high-tech Superbikes, and pushed back against any idea that electronics make the job easy. In his words, “you quickly find the limits and wish or want more.”
That interview also highlighted the constant adaptation required to keep extracting lap time from the Ducati package, and how much of Waters’ recent success has come from refining his own approach as much as refining the motorcycle beneath him.
Likewise, MCNews’ feature with Craig McMartin painted the picture of a small, precise, tightly knit operation built on trust, data, rider feedback and a very clear technical direction.
McMartin credited Waters’ natural talent, work ethic, willingness to improve and fit within the team as key parts of the program’s success, while also explaining how the crew had learned to unlock the strengths of the Ducati platform in ASBK trim.
No parade lap
The Lenovo Race of Champions itself is no sleepy parade lap, either.
Recent editions have shown that once the lights go out, the promotional polish quickly gives way to proper racer instinct. In 2024, Bagnaia won the Race of Champions at Misano, while Marc Marquez and Nicolo Bulega produced a final-lap flashpoint that made it very clear these riders were not merely circulating for the cameras.
MCNews’ own blow-by-blow Ducati Race of Champions report captured the intensity of that 2024 contest, where MotoGP and WorldSBK names raced hard in front of the Ducatisti faithful.
Waters will not head to Misano with the expectation of beating factory MotoGP stars on their home turf. That is not the point. The point is that Ducati has looked beyond the obvious list of world championship regulars and decided that Australia’s most successful Superbike champion deserves to be part of the show.
That is a major compliment to Waters, to McMartin Racing, and to the ASBK paddock more broadly.
From uncertainty to international Ducati recognition
For Waters, it is another remarkable turn in a career that MCNews readers have followed through lean times and championship highs.
In late 2021, he was talking about an uncertain future after budget issues sidelined his team. At the time,
MCNews wished him well in finding another shot at a record-breaking fourth Australian Superbike crown.
Since then, he has not only found that shot but also made the absolute most of it.
Now, after domestic titles, lap records, and a run of success that has made the McMartin Ducati the reference point in ASBK, Waters gets to roll out at Misano in front of the global Ducatisti faithful, on a grid populated by some of the biggest names in motorcycle racing.
Josh Waters
“I was a bit taken aback. Pretty cool to be asked. My goals are pretty realistic. I think I’m the only one there who has not ridden the circuit before, and I’m riding against the best riders in the world. I’m going to enjoy the experience though.”
And if recent history tells us anything, it is that when Josh Waters gets an unexpected chance on a Ducati, he tends to make rather good use of it….
2026 WDW Race of Champions Entry List
 |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Rider | No. | Team | Category |
| Marc Márquez | 93 | Ducati Lenovo Team | MotoGP |
| Francesco Bagnaia | 63 | Ducati Lenovo Team | MotoGP |
| Michele Pirro | 51 | Ducati Lenovo Team | MotoGP |
| Alex Márquez | 73 | Gresini Racing | MotoGP |
| Fermín Aldeguer | 54 | Gresini Racing | MotoGP |
| Fabio Di Giannantonio | 49 | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | MotoGP |
| Franco Morbidelli | 21 | Pertamina Enduro VR46 | MotoGP |
| Nicolò Bulega | 11 | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati | WorldSBK |
| Iker Lecuona | 7 | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati | WorldSBK |
| Alvaro Bautista | 19 | Barni Spark Racing Team | WorldSBK |
| Yari Montella | 5 | Barni Spark Racing Team | WorldSBK |
| Lorenzo Baldassarri | 34 | Pata Go Eleven | WorldSBK |
| Alberto Surra | 19 | Team Motocorsa Racing | WorldSBK |
| Tarran Mackenzie | 95 | MGM Performance | WorldSBK |
| Tommy Bridewell | 46 | Superbike Advocates | British Superbike |
| Cameron Beaubier | 6 | MotoAmerica | MotoAmerica Superbike |
| Hafizh Syahrin | 55 | SBK Asia | Asia Road Racing |
| Josh Waters | 21 | McMartin Racing | Australian Superbike |
| Lukas Tulovic | 3 | IDM | IDM Superbike |
