Victorian rising star Kris McLaren has made a welcome return to action at Symmons Plains following his scary high-speed crash suffered at Turn Three during last weekend’s Australian Superbike season opener at Phillip Island.

Just days following his dramatic incident early in race two, McLaren will contest round two this weekend with an injured left hand including a broken knuckle, a chipped tailbone, a dislocated right ankle and a “widened” C5 and C6 vertebrae in his neck.

“I just want to ride so bad this weekend,” McLaren explained of his quick comeback. “I’ve put a lot of effort into this season and unfortunately after my bad races last weekend, I felt like I needed to score some points here to make up for it.

“[The injuries] are sore, but hopefully I can be consistent and have a good weekend like I should have last weekend.”

The McLaren Motorsports team, consisting of Craig McLaren, Davin Templeman and Denis Ackland, worked feverishly to prepare for this weekend – piecing together parts from each of his CBR1000RRs to form one rideable bike for the weekend.

“It’s pretty much a ‘bitsa’ – it’s one bike made up from a couple of different motorbikes. We’re using the engine from the bike I crashed in race two, we put that in another chassis. It’s not full spec, but it’s good enough.”

McLaren is working closely with the Suzuki RACESAFE Medical Team this weekend in a bid to assist him in comfortably progressing through the weekend.

“I really need to thank my team for getting my bike ready for me, plus the tireless work of Simon and Mark at RACESAFE,” McLaren concluded.

A brave McLaren rounded out today’s practice 11th fastest with a 55.148, around a second and a half off the pace of fastest rider Glenn Allerton on his Procon Maxima Racing BMW.