Image: Jeremy Hammer.

Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) regular Bryan Staring returned to his roots last weekend, contesting the Shannons Insurance Manjimup 15,000 motocross event in Western Australia as a one-off showing.

Staring, who recently celebrated his 30th birthday, completed the day 12th overall in the Allstars category, leaving the Crankt Protein Honda Racing rider content with his efforts in what was his first motocross race since 2005.

“It was really good and I really enjoyed it,” Staring shared. “It was a lot of fun, I raced with a lot people that I haven’t raced with since I was a kid – I wasn’t going quite as good as they were – but yeah, I enjoyed my day so much.

“I started off quite strong in the first race with an 11th place finish and I think that was pretty good with all things considered. My starts gradually got worse and the track got rougher and I couldn’t adapt to it, to be honest. I loved it – I got really dirty, roosted like hell, my arms have welts all over them and I’ve still got a smile on my face.”

The Western Australian regularly utilises a motocross bike as a training tool and maintained it was easy to manage himself in racing conditions, although he was quick to shut down any further competitive meetings in the discipline.

“I tried to stay within myself the whole time and stay consistent,” he continued. “It’s pretty much what I do during training on the motocross bike. At best, I was racing for a top 10, not a win, so I think it was easy to keep within myself. But yeah, no more [motocross] racing this year – I’ve had my fun and, yeah, it’s time to go home.”

Staring sits fifth in the ASBK title hunt as the championship heads to Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin for round four of the series, scheduled to take place on 6-9 July.