Staring in action on the FTS Honda at Phillip Island on Monday. Image: Steve Duggan - sdpics.com.

It’s been an interesting week in Australian road racing, first with the revelation that Yamaha would be quitting the Australian Superbike Championship in favour of Formula Xtreme, and then with the aftershock that Bryan Staring would quit the team to chase his Superbike dreams.

Staring and Yamaha enjoyed a phenomenal season together as Australian Supersport Champions last season, the Queensland-based talent dominating on the YZF-R6 alongside then teammate Jamie Stauffer.

A first blow for Staring came when it was announced that YRT would be pulling out of the Superbike class for 2010, crushing any hopes he had of stepping up to the premier class, however the major impact came when the boys in blue announced it’d be the lone factory team to campaign FX instead of the ASBK.

From that point on, just a few days later, Staring made his debut yesterday at Phillip Island on a Full Throttle Sports Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade that he’ll enter in this year’s ASBK series.

MotoOnline.com.au spoke with Staring to find out what the deal is and what he plans to achieve in what will be his return to Honda and the Superbike category in the new season.

Bryan, it’s been a big week for you mate – what’s the lowdown on 2010 for you?

You’re right, it’s been a massive week that’s seen me have a massive 180 degree change for the 2010 season. I’ve done a deal to ride with Full Throttle Sports to ride a Superbike in the ASBK championship, which I’m really happy about – it’s a big step forward for me and something I’m quite excited about.

Some people may think you’re somewhat crazy for turning down a factory offer, but the truth is that you’ve long yearned for an opportunity to race Superbike again right?

Definitely. I really had to follow my heart when making this decision and it was a huge one, but I want to race with guys like Josh Waters, Glenn Allerton, Wayne Maxwell, Shawn Giles, Robbie Bugden, Jamie Stauffer, Shannon Johnson, just everyone.

I feel that I deserve to race those guys in the premier category, so in the end this was the only way that I was going to be able to do that and here I am. It’s not anything against Yamaha or the direction that they want to take, this just fits in better with the direction that I want to go on in my career.

I’m grateful for everything that Yamaha has done for me in my career, and obviously last year we had a really successful year, plus the year before was a good one with them as well.

So having the opportunity to race against the top guys on a Superbike was the sealer for your decision?

Yeah, that’s it. It’s the premier Australian championship and the one that I want to race in. I have nothing against Formula Xtreme and I do think that’s a good championship, a fun series as well, but for me the true Aussie title is the ASBK and all the best riders in the country race in that championship.

So while I consider myself to be one of the best as the current Suprsport champion, I feel I need to race against the best guys that I can. I hope that there are no hard feelings or any harm done, but it’s just the fact of the matter.

As you said, you’ve had a lot of success with Yamaha, so were they understanding of your decision to remain in ASBK and not go to FX with YRT?

I think so, yeah. Wen I was in at Yamaha last week I’m happy to say that Ray Howard and Steve Cotterall wished me all the best of luck for the rest of the year and my career, so I guess there’s not too much more to say than that.

Whether they understand my decision or not, I’d like to think that they do, but there’s no hard feelings from me and we’re all looking after our best interests. Yamaha has decided that FX is best for them, I’ve decided that the ASBK is best for me, so I don’t think there is any reason to have hurt feelings about it – it’s just the way it is.

So how did this deal, reuniting you with Honda, come about then?

I’ve had a really good relationship with Honda in the past and their motorbikes are obviously competitive. I got a phone call from Full Throttle Sports and they said they were interested in starting a team, albeit three weeks before round one, however Full Throttle already runs a professional team in Motocross and many things that they’re involved in.

Staring celebrates his Supersport title with YRT at Phillip Island last season.

There’s no avoiding the fact that there’s going to be a hell of a lot of work to do, but I’m lucky that we have a very competitive base package to start with and the rest of it we’ll be working on in the next few weeks.

I’m happy to have the support of my long time crew chief Russell Farrow, as well as Allan Watts, who has been with me since I started road racing in 2003. Those guys have offered support when I need it, and I really appreciate their willingness to support.

I’m hoping that we can get the job done this year for everyone involved.

You’ve obviously watched the likes of Glenn Allerton and Wayne Maxwell win championships and races on the Fireblade, but what was it like in your first ride on it at the Island yesterday?

It’s a really good motorbike, it’s got two years of development now, and we’ve been lucky enough to have access to selected data from what they’ve been using.

I started on a new bike with a new tyre so everything was new to me, but the motorcycle was relatively easy to ride considering how fast it is – it’s a great credit to the bike really.

We went well, didn’t set the world on fire just yet because I haven’t ridden since the last round, but we worked really well all things considered. We moved forward during the day, but we need a bit more time and I think we can be right up there.

We’ve got less than three weeks until round one alongside the World Supers, you’ve had very limited time on the bike, so what are you expectations going into the round and for the rest of the year?

Well it’s a tough question to answer. I don’t want to expect too much, too early, but I do expect quite a lot out of myself to be honest. For now I think it’s more for me to race against the track more than my competitors, not really judging how well I’ve gone on the results sheet.

At the moment we’ve got a job to do and that’s get the team ready, so hopefully we can get a good result for round one and I’m sure that we can gradually improve during the season.

Alright, well thanks for the interview and we’ll see you in a few weeks!

Yeah, no worries. Thanks.