Image: Russell Colvin.

Bryan Staring says his crash in race two at Sydney Motorsport Park’s Motul Pirelli Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) finals came as a result of riding his absolute hardest as he looked to deliver Kawasaki BCperformance one more podium for the season.

The former champion was competitive in both 13-lap stints, finishing fourth in race one – just 0.014s shy of third’s Wayne Maxwell (Team Suzuki Ecstar).

Staring put on an excellent display of riding in race two as he challenged for the top three, however his campaign came unstuck 10 laps in when he crashed at turn nine.

“Again, it was a weekend where we had quite good potential, so I was pretty disappointed to miss the podium in race one,” Staring explained. “It was a shame because we’ve been a bit light on with podiums in the second half of the season and I really wanted to deliver one for the team.

“In race two I was pushing for the podium again and I went down riding my absolute hardest to get that top three finish. I went down fighting, but it doesn’t make it feel any better! The positive thing is that we were super-competitive racing in the front group again and we will take the positives from that.”

The Western Australian completed the series ranked sixth with an overall victory to his name at The Bend Motorsport Park.