On Track Battles Heat Up in Darwin

Three fierce 16-lap races in the Hidden Valley heat has seen West-Australian based Bryan Staring take two thirds and a fourth to secure third overall for the fourth round of the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) in the Northern Territory. The DesmoSport Ducati Panigale V4 R racer added 53 points to his tally to retain third place in the championship standings.  

Qualified: 3rd (1:05.330)
Race 1: 3rd
Race 2: 3rd
Race 3: 4th
Fastest Lap: 1:05.330
Championship Standing: 3rd

Team co-owner, Ben Henry: "The Darwin round is a bit of a favourite for us and although I would prefer to be leaving with the round win, the event itself was pretty spectacular. We went in quite confident, and we left the track on Friday certain of our strong race pace, but with some work to do to get a strong qualifying position. Bryan did a great job to put the bike on the front row, and his starts in all three races got us to the front, but we had some issues in the middle sector of the circuit and that's what hurt us in the races. Bryan was constantly in the mix, battling hard in the heat and we leave the Hidden Valley in a similar position as we came in, 3rd in the championship." 

Bryan Staring: "What a fantastic track. We did a track walk on Thursday afternoon and for a place that deals with such high track temperatures, it has an incredibly smooth surface, a fun layout and one enormous straight. Shane (Data Technician) tells me our top speed was just a little over 303km/h across the weekend, and I can tell you it was a lot of fun getting there on the Panigale V4 R! I felt really good on the bike right from the start, and to be honest, our best times really came as a surprise. I knew I was riding the bike fast, but I wasn't pushing for a lap time and yet it still came to us. It was a good feeling and that led to a front row start, two podiums and some solid points for the championship but I'm somewhat dissatisfied for sure. I felt we had the pace to be racing for the win this weekend and that's not the way it panned out. I had some incredible battles in all three races, and I hope we proved entertaining for everyone watching, but there's work to do if we're going to chase down the championship lead. I'll spend a few days here in Darwin with my wife before the team and I head to the track for testing as we shift to Morgan Park for the next round."

Team co-owner, Troy Bayliss: "It was great to see the team bounce back after a tough Wakefield Park and race at the front. If I'm honest, I would have loved to have been there for this weekend especially, Darwin is always a great weekend of racing. All of us at DesmoSport Ducati are ultra-competitive, and I know we all wanted more than a podium this weekend, so despite good points and spraying champagne in parc ferme, there's work to be done and I know Ben, Bryan and the team were already working on setup for Morgan Park before the truck even set off for home!"