Image: Marc Jones (Foremost Media).

Carrying the points lead into the weekend’s second round of the Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) at Wakefield Park in New South Wales, Bryan Staring bitterly regrets a mistake in race two that ultimately relegated him to sixth in the standings.

The Kawasaki BCperformance ace finished the opening outing in a respectable fifth position, although in race two, an untimely error at the halfway point saw him crash out of the race, resulting in a DNF while crediting him 14th overall.

Now 29 points out the lead, the Western Australian has acknowledged the dent in his championships hopes caused by non-finish, although with the series still in the early stages, he’s remaining focused on recording wins to position himself right back in the title hunt.

“Race one was okay to finish in fifth, but crashing out of race two was a disaster for my championship,” said Staring. “It was just a disappointing way to finish the round and everything seemed to be a bit of a challenge this weekend. Anyway, it was my mistake when I went off the track and I couldn’t restart the bike, so that was it.

“By no means are we out of it, right now it’s still early in the championship and we have some tracks coming up that I imagine will be well-suited to myself and the Ninja ZX-10R. Winning is definitely still the target and we’re confident that we can bounce back in the rounds to come, so a big thanks to the team for their efforts all weekend.”

Staring’s next opportunity to make up ground in the standings will be at The Bend Motorsport Park on 19-22 April in South Australia, a newly-opened venue which will serve as an equal playing field for the entire ASBK contingent.