Features 8 Nov 2016

Catching Up: Bryan Staring

Former ASBK champion on 2017 return with Crankt Protein Honda Racing.

Western Australia’s Bryan Staring will return to the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) for the 2017 season after signing with the title-winning Crankt Protein Honda Racing organisation alongside newly-crowned champion Troy Herfoss. Staring, 29, has competed in Europe – including winning three Superstock 1000 Cup races in 2012 and a stint in MotoGP during 2013 – since winning the ASBK title in 2010. CycleOnline.com.au spoke to Staring this week about his homecoming.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

You’re returning to Australia with Crankt Protein Honda Racing for 2017, you must be really excited about that…

Yeah, I’m really excited actually. I started to think about next year and, you know, coming home to race. I wasn’t too sure what sort of interest I would get when midway through the year I made mention that I wanted to come back and race here for next season. I didn’t know what interest I would have, but I’m so happy to come back with the team that has probably been the most successful in Australian racing and a team that I know well from my past. I know they put such a professional effort together, I feel like everything is really positive for me five months out from the first race. I’m so happy that I have everything lined up, organised and sorted for summer and I can get on with it.

How did it come about to return to Honda in Australia?

I guess I just started by getting in contact with Paul Free and everything just went from there – there’s probably not too big of a story to tell there, really. Obviously I know Paul and the team really well from all of the years here and, yeah, we managed to strike a deal, so that was good.

Honda obviously has a new bike coming out for next year, the CBR1000RR, so that will definitely be an interesting project for the team and yourself as well.

Yeah, definitely, we’re hopeful about that being a really great new tool. It’s exciting, I’m sure we’ll get a bit of attention with the bike to start with, as you do with all new models. But yeah, with Paul’s experience, Troy’s experience and my experience, I hope that we can knuckle down and get the development of the bike happening really quickly. I can’t be too sure on the bikes arrival date, everything seems to be changing around a bit and everyone across the world has a different schedule of when it’s going to arrive. Even the old bike though, Troy has done a fantastic job with it along with the team, so it doesn’t matter what we start with, I think we should be right up there.

Entering a championship that you won the last time you were here, on a familiar and competitive team, with the goal to win races and potentially another title, what will the mindset be like for you coming home?

Maybe that’s why I smile at the thought of next year, you know. I think that even before we’ve started, we will have a good harmony inside the team. Of course I really like the idea of being competitive – I’m obviously really hopeful that’s going to be the case and I’m quite confident that is going to be the case. I guess that’s why it’s exciting to me, it’s a feeling I’ve not been able to experience too much of over the last few years in my career internationally. So yeah, I’m all in, I love racing motorbikes and I’m super-eager to get started. I feel like it’s rejuvenated me, it’s almost like it has taken 10 years off my life coming back home.

Source: Supplied.

Source: Supplied.

Since you’ve been over in Europe, you’ve done everything from the Superstock 1000 class, MotoGP on the CRT bike, WorldSBK and World Supersport. What was your favourite experience over there throughout the years?

The favourite is easy for me you know, of all the categories and so on, it’s easily the Superstock class. It doesn’t sound real special because it’s not a highly-publicised class. There’s no substitute for winning races and being competitive and fighting for a championship. The guys that I raced against in that category aren’t jokers either, I really think that not everyone, but some of the guys in that class, if you gave them the right equipment in WorldSBK, I think they would all be competitive. I think everyone at the front of the Superstock class is capable of doing big things, just because there’s probably a lack of equipment to make everything worthwhile, everything is all filtered back from that. Anyway, in my head, it’s easy to say that my Superstock success years ago was the most significant in my career and everything after that had some moments of enjoyment, it’s just a lot of hard work and head-butting the wall. It was all part of a big experience, I probably make it sound a little bit negative, but I loved the experience and, you know, it’s been huge for my life. Everything I’ve managed to do inside Europe and living there for the past six years has been more than I could have ever imagined when I first set out to go. It’s been a good ride.

How would you compare yourself as a rider from the Bryan Staring who won the title in 2010 versus the Bryan Staring we’ll see in 2017? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you race at home…

I can’t see why I shouldn’t be a better rider than when I left, obviously I’m a bit older, but I think as far as our sport goes, I’m certainly not too old. I’d like to think that if everything goes well, I’ll have another 10 years left in me. I’m still hungry, I still want to win and like I said before, there’s no substitute for the feeling of winning – it’s an experience that money can’t buy and the sensation of it is huge. I feel like I’m hungry enough to keep fighting for that and, skill-wise, I mean, I can’t see why I should’ve lost anything, so we’ll see how I stand.

It should be pretty good to see guys like yourself go up against old rivals with familiar competition and some new ones as well. That should be really entertaining stuff, shouldn’t it?

Absolutely, I think the top 10 in Australian Superbikes next year will be a supremely competitive top 10, definitely with a lot of guys who are capable of winning. I’m excited about the series and everything there, I feel like it’s starting here to build and keep building I hope over the next five years. With all of the potential with Australian riders available overseas, or have been overseas, and the ones that are over here, there’s such a strong list of riders if everyone was able to find themselves in a position on a competitive team with the right conditions and everything. I think that potentially within the next five years the ASBK championship could rival in depth – it’s a big call – but it could rival with something like BSB. If the riders keep coming through in Australia and everyone comes home, makes a good go at it and there is enough support there to keep riders on the track, then gee, it’s going to be a really big, strong series.

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