Victorian privateer Kris McLaren was 11th in race two at Barbagallo despite technical issues during much of practice.

Victorian rising Superbike star Kris McLaren endured a difficult debut at Western Australia’s Barbagallo Raceway during round four of the 2011 Australian Superbike Championship, credited 15th overall.

The talented 24-year-old was plagued by a series of mechanical gremlins during practice, delaying his progress as he learnt the undulating 2.42-kilometre circuit in the event contested alongside the V8 Supercars’ Trading Post Perth Challenge.

After qualifying 16th, race one saw McLaren ruled out at the halfway mark before he bounced back in Sunday’s second race to claim a promising 11th – setting his best lap of the weekend by over a second with a 57.047 in the process.

“We had a few mechanical problems through the weekend, the first of them coming in practice one so that made it difficult to learn the track, being my first time there,” McLaren explained. “I struggled there a bit and had to learn the race track in qualifying one.

“In the first race we struggled with the lack of development for race but, but by race two the bike was okay and I rode it to 11th place. It’s not where I want to be, but it is what it is.”

After being struck by bad luck in the opening four rounds of eight, McLaren sees the halfway point of the season as the perfect time for him to reverse his fortunes in a bid to climb the championship ladder.

“We need to move forward and I like the Queensland track,” he added. “All of the tracks are good fun to ride on so we’ll keep trying hard and see where we end up. I just really need to thank Paul Free from Honda for transporting my equipment to both Darwin and Perth.”

McLaren remains 11th in the standings following four of nine rounds, the series set to continue at Queensland Raceway in the Sunshine State on 3-5 June.

McLaren Motorsports is proudly supported by Peter Stevens Motorcycles, Kittens, RST, Megacycle, Alpinestars, LBR Racing, Wurth, TM Performance, Wiz, Techspec, Cumagutsa and Telstra Business Centre Frankston.