Image: Russell Colvin.

Three-time Superbike world champion Troy Bayliss is almost certain to race into his 50s in 2019, confirming plans to continue with DesmoSport Ducati in the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) as team co-owner/rider.

Set to celebrate his 50th birthday in March, Bayliss came out of a decade-long retirement this season and stunned by finishing third in the ASBK series including a spectacular final round win at Phillip Island earlier this month.

Bayliss is anticipating the brand new Panigale V4 to arrive following the opening two rounds of next year, however he and the team remain content to continue aboard their twin-cylinder 1299 Panigale R Final Edition in the season’s early stages. He was yet to finalise his 2019 plans as of Phillip Island’s finale, but intends to keep going for at least one more year.

“The plan is to be back again, yeah,” Bayliss told CycleOnline.com.au. “And everyone asks about the V4… Honestly, the production doesn’t start until January for them bikes and Australia’s – we’re down under – always the last to get them. We will get them, but I’d say we won’t have them for the first two rounds.

“I don’t mind, I’m happy with the work that we’ve done on this bike because we’re competitive and that’s fine! We made some really good steps [at Phillip Island] and we’ve gone so fast – we got the lap record in race one, which was good. We’ve had some really good results halfway through the year, but I think we really struck something because it’s hard to figure this bike out.

“We can’t compare it to overseas because we use totally different electronics and everything like that, so it’s a lot of hard work. We are on our own, a lot of trial and error with a lot of hard work, but today we really stumbled across something.”

The factory-supported DesmoSport Ducati squad of Bayliss and team co-owner Ben Henry was formed in 2016, fielding Mike Jones to fifth in the ASBK standings. Last season was a more difficult one for the organisation between Callum Spriggs and Corey Turner being on the bike, ultimately resulting in Bayliss suiting up for a high-profile return this year.