Bryan Staring
Racing is a strange mistress. It can embrace you and at times you can feel like King of the world. In the next instance she can kick you in the guts so hard you crash to earth with a ghastly thud.
For Bryan Staring the year 2022 may well be described as the year the mistress smiled on him for most of the year, but then left the biggest kick until the championship year was well and truly over. When the dust had settled it all went quiet and then he was informed that he didn’t have a ride.
The mad scramble began as it appeared all spots had been filled but Patrick Li threw Bryan a lifeline after Anthony West left the MotoGO team.
For the past few weeks the rumour mill has been strong that Staring had signed with MotoGO, but even though he was riding and racing the bike at the Hartwell club round on the weekend, right up until Sunday afternoon, he had not committed to anything and was emphatic to anyone who had the courtesy to ask him, that he definitely had not signed.
Bryan finished third overall last year in ASBK on the Desmo Sport Ducati, in what was his most successful season in many years.
Staring has won national titles in 125 GP, Supersport and Superbike classes. The only rider to do so. Bryan has also tasted success in the 2011 and 2012 Superstock World Championship, coming oh so close to winning that title in 2012. Leading the chase into the final round at Magny Cours he was caught out in atrocious conditions, typical of the French track, and crashed. He managed to remount in last place and charge through the field to salvage fourth overall. Yep, racing is a cruel mistress.
Bryan also completed a season in MotoGP in 2013 on an FTR Honda in what was the uncompetitive CRT second string class, but put his name in the books with a 14th place at Catalunya.
From there it was back to the WSBK paddock, first in the premier class in 2014 on a Kawasaki with the Grellini Team before stepping back to the Superstock class for 2015 and 16, but that year was disasterous after he broke his leg in an MX training accident. So it was back to Australia where he joind the Honda team alongside Troy Herfoss for 2017, where he replaced the departing Jamie Stauffer.
It was then another team change in 2018, hooking up with Kelvin Reilly on the BC Performace Kawasaki on Dunlop tyres. He stayed there for four seasons
You could say he’s been around the block once or twice and now it looks like he’ll be going around again.
MCNews.com.au caught up with Staring at the Hartwell meeting on the weekend.
Mark Bracks: Bryan Staring, great to see you back on the bike, good to be back on a bike?
Bryan Staring: “Yeah, I enjoyed my few days back on the race track, I’ve been really uncertain about – well not uncertain – I was basically thinking that I’d already had my last race in my career, so I didn’t expect to be here. So, I’m happy I’m back, and let’s say that I wasn’t coming back unless it was going to be correct for me to do so.
“So, really this weekend was just a trial for me, to see that this was what I wanted, where I want to be and what I want to do. I think it’s gone quite well, everyone worked together really well, and I can see some potential with the package that we’ve got. That gives me a bit of a warmer feeling to commit to continuing on.”
Bracksy: So you’re going to do it?
Bryan Staring: “Yep, I’ll line up.”
Bracksy: After talking to you on the weekend…
Staring: “The truth was, I wanted to come here to understand if this was worth doing and anyway it’s taken a few days, but I think that it is.”
Bracksy: When did you make that decision.
Staring: “I don’t know there was any one point in time, definitely, not on the first day, but over the last few days, I’ve got enough belief in the guys here and I think they have enough belief in me, that we can have a crack at it.
“I guess the racetrack is one of the most difficult places to be happy, after a lifetime of trying to achieve, because there’s always pressure to do well and desire to do well, which is really high. So it’s hard, it often doesn’t go the way you want it to at the racetrack, and that’s why it’s not always the most enjoyable place to be, on the difficult days. Anyway, it’s the good days that make up for it all, and I think we’ll have a few of them. So that’s why I’m happy to be back.”
Bracksy: How does this rate, not so much for the Desmosport Ducati, because that was a proven package, but going back a couple of years to the Kawasaki days. When you first jumped on that, can you recall your thoughts on that, compared to how you are feeling now, after a couple of sessions on the Yamaha?
Staring: “Honestly, they all compare, just because the Ducati package on paper is more competitive, that’s not true. Last year when we came here it took me a whole week to do basically the lap time I’ve just done, in a couple of days.
“So it doesn’t matter which team is bolting together the bike, when you come here and start from scratch, the workload seems the same, or always has been from my perspective.
“After that it comes down to what resources the team have, and if they’ve got the materials that they need to find some solutions to the problems that you have along the way, whether it’s just suspension parts or engine parts, or engine management parts, knowledge, experience between the personnel, all these things that you need to be competitive in ASBK.
“It’s not easy to have a team that can put a motorbike together that’s capable of being at the front of the Australian championship, it’s a very very difficult task to attempt. That’s why there’s only a few people at the front. Can we do it? I don’t know, am I happy to try? Absolutely.”
Bracksy: Jonesy told me after Darwin last year, having that dice up there on the Ducati and Yamaha, he said following you, he can understand why it was so difficult to ride the Ducati, because as he said ‘I look where I want the Yamaha to go, where on the Ducati I had to fight it to go’, now that you’ve jumped on this, have you got a similar sort of opinion on that?
Staring: “Yeah, I guess so. The thing is that he’s correct in what he’s saying, every bike has its strong characteristics.
“I can already see where on the racetrack, where the guys in the Yamaha could pass me, where and how they did, if they did last year at this circuit. I already understand the attributes that the Yamaha has got, and where those guys could do it, and I could see that my bike is the same, has the same characteristics as what the factory guys had there last year, racing with them.
“That’s ingrained into engine characteristics, chassis performance, it’s not all about the guys tuning the suspension. The bikes have character, and they do different things well. Jonesy is right, in maybe my experience slightly different, in that what I’d say the strong points are, but that’s all true to everyone.”
Bracksy: Coming into this now, was one of your stipulations to be here was to get some satellite team support from Yamaha, so it wasn’t all on Patrick and Radar to be doing it all.
Staring: “Absolutely, I was prepared to walk, I wouldn’t say I walked away from the sport but I was ready to... ”
Bracksy: You were pretty disheartened, and I can empathise with you completely…
Staring: “I was disheartened – I didn’t expect to be in the position I was in, and didn’t think I deserved to be. But racing has nothing to do with what you deserve, it’s just what you manage to get for yourself.”
Bracksy: But you had a great year.
Staring: “Yeah, I’ve had a great year in the past and ended up in worse positions as well. Basically, I was only going to come back and ride if a manufacturer was behind the riders.
“Because there’s multiple different motorbikes that I could have ridden, but if there’s no appreciation and respect for the riders at the front of the series, taking the risks to get the results the manufacturers want, and the teams want and the sponsors want, for me, that’s immoral to completely reduce my value and worth as a rider, capable of standing on a podium, especially the podium at the end of the championship, and I would more happily have sat on the sideline than be devalued by another manufacturer.”
Bracksy: How many other people approached you?
Staring: “Only a couple.”
Bracksy: I know Kelvin said he approached you.
Staring: “Only a couple, it’s not like there’s a million teams here to choose from. Yamaha are completely behind the series, even though they’ve got their issues with it. I’m going to say essentially Yamaha are completely behind the sport and certainly the riders, and I don’t think that many other manufacturers can say that.”
Bracksy: You’ve had a pretty good track record with Yamaha, if I remember rightly.
Staring: “As the years go by, now I’ve had a relationship with almost all the manufacturers, yeah. This suit that I’m wearing from 2008, which is 15-odd years old, has a lot of good memories.”
Bracksy: It still fits!
Staring: “If anything it’s a little bit loose. There’s a lot of great memories in this suit. In 2009 it had a very successful season.”
Bracksy: Thanks for your time.
2023 ASBK Calendar
| 2023 ASBK Calendar | |||
| Round | Circuit | Location | Date |
| Test | Sydney Motorsport Park | NSW | Feb 1-2 |
| R1 | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | VIC | Feb 24-26 |
| R2 | Sydney Motorsports Park | NSW | Mar 24-25 |
| R3 | Queensland Raceway | QLD | Apr 28-30 |
| R4 | Hidden Valley Raceway | NT | Jun 16-18 |
| R5 | Morgan Park Raceway | QLD | Jul 14-16 |
| R6 | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | VIC | Oct 27-29 |
| R7 | The Bend Motorsport Park | SA | Dec 1 – 3 |
