Reigning Australian Superbike Champion Bryan Staring has set himself a goal of qualifying for Superpole in what will be his maiden Superbike event at Phillip Island this weekend.

In his official debut as a wild card for Pedercini Kawasaki today, Staring qualified in the provisional provision of 16th – the top 20 transferred to Superpole after tomorrow’s second session.

Gold Coast-based Staring continues to develop the all-new ZX-10R on debut, already quicker than regular Pedercini riders Roberto Rolfo and Mark Aitchison.

“Today we tried many different things during both the morning and afternoon sessions,” the 24-year-old commented. “During qualifying we made some useful improvements on the bike.

“The problem we have right now is that the faster I go, the more problems we seem to find. It’s normal in racing I guess and we have to work hard to have a better bike.

“My Kawasaki is now going better than it was during testing and we just need to make a few changes to make it faster.

“I’m working very well with my team and so I’m confident for tomorrow’s qualifying session. I’ll do my best to get into Superpole.”

Staring will focus on the Superstock 1000 category in Europe with the Italian-run Pedercini squad for the duration of 2011.