HMC Ducati’s Scott Russell won Friday’s five-lap CCS Heavyweight Superbike race at Daytona, riding his HMC Ducati 996 Superbike.

“This is the most important five laps of my life!” joked Russell to a reporter as he headed to the grid. Russell started in the second wave on row 16 of the 70-bike grid and wheelied his Ducati 996 Superbike to 20th after one lap. Russell moved up to 10th through the infield on lap two and continued to reel in the battling lead duo of EMC2’s Ted Cobb and Anthony Fania. Russell’s forward momentum didn’t stop until he passed the leading pair of riders on the brakes for the Chicane and took the checkered flag. Russell crossed the stripe 2.9 seconds ahead of Fania, who just edged out first-year Expert Cobb at the line by the slimmest of margins.

On the Roadracing World stopwatch, Russell ran a best lap of 1:53.4 in the race, through traffic.

“That was the first couple of decent laps that we got all day,” said Russell . “We’re just trying to get set up for next weekend. I’ve got a limited amount of seat time on the Ducati here at Daytona. I know that I still have a lot of work to do before next weekend. That was the first race I’ve won in two years. I love it. This is enjoyable. Racing is supposed to be fun. I’m just trying to get back to the basics of racing and enjoying it. When I can do that, good things come to me. We’re hoping that that repeats itself this year. I didn’t go too fast in that one, 1:53 flat I think. This is all a race set-up. That’s what we’re focusing on. We’re not worrying about qualifying. I’ve got enough watches. I want to win the race.”

During the race, Russell appeared to have passed Chuck Chouinard under a waving yellow in the West Horseshoe during the race, but was not penalized by officials.