New Superstock 1000 Champion Brendan Roberts will graduate to the World Superbike Championship in 2009 with Guandalini Ducati, Crash.net can reveal.

Roberts, who prevailed in a title fight of five riders at the concluding Portimao round, has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks regarding his whereabouts.

Most recently he has been linked with a British Superbike ride, possibly with North West, but Ducati have confirmed to Crash.net that the Australian rider will instead race in the world series for the Italian-based Guandalini team having sealed a deal this week.

Guandalini ran a single Ducati 1098RS for Jakub Smrz in this year's championship, but while the Czech driver showed impressive flashes of speed, particularly in qualifying, his overall performance proved to be inconsistent.

Nonetheless, he managed his best result of sixth place on three occasions, at Donington Park, Assen and Miller Motorsports Park, and was classified overall in 13th as the second best privateer.

It isn't known whether the team will expand to two bikes in 2009.