Image: Marc Jones (Foremost Media).

Western Australian Bryan Staring says he’s completely optimistic in his pursuit for the 2018 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) as four rounds remain in the series.

Staring heads to Hidden Valley’s fourth stop this weekend sixth in the standings with an overall win to his name, although despite sitting 56 points out of the top spot, he acknowledges anything can happen in the second half of the championship.

“I am completely optimistic, and I think we still have a chance,” Staring explained. “Troy [Herfoss] deserves the points gap he has at the moment, as he has been the picture of consistency. We all expected this from Troy and his team, but I really want to take it to him and be the guy who is contesting the championship with him at the pointy end of the season.

“You never know what can happen for the rest of the year, and I will be doing everything to make it go our way and give us the best chance of being in contention come Phillip Island.”

The Kawasaki BCperformance rider admits he’s lacked consistency in the opening half, although he’s reassured it will be an improved aspect of his campaign starting this weekend in the Northern Territory.

“We have just been way too inconsistent so far this year,” he continued. “If we look past the races at qualifying in round one we only managed 13th, but had the pace to win the race. To add to the inconsistency, we had a DNF and then we have been on the podium at The Bend, so its hard for us to say we are happy at this point, as we know we are capable of more.

“Moving into the back half of the season, we are confident we can improve our consistency, and this will be helped with a new soft tyre for the rest of the year. We have learnt a lot through the first half of the year and we will use this to fuel our improvement over the last four rounds.”