Team Volvo Group Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden broke through for a maiden overall Australian Superbike Championship win on the weekend in front of a huge crowd of home supporters.

It’s a significant achievement for Bugden, who is eager to make the most of his opportunity in a return to a factory role at Suzuki after spending a number of years piloting the satellite bike.

CycleOnline caught up with Bugden following his stellar showing and found out what the result means for him and his title tilt.

Robbie Bugden converted his strong testing pace to a race and overall win at Queensland Raceway. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

You often come to Queensland Raceway with the home favourite tag. How does it feel to actually break through for your first ASBK overall win at your home circuit?

Yeah without a doubt. I’ve been trying for a long time, and every time I come to Queensland it’s always a goal. It’s good because I know I’ve got a lot of support here. To get it done on the weekend was a pretty emotional time for me really – I had a lot of people out there to watch me and it’s great to be able to give a little something back by getting that result.

A lot of people sacrifice their time to come out there and get behind me and it really gives me a bit of a second wind. It was a massive result, I’ve been dreaming about it for a long time. I can’t thank the team enough. They obviously gave me a great bike, and we’re showing that the Suzuki is as good as anything out there.

You came into the event after having those three test days out at Queensland Raceway. Was this momentum an important part of your weekend and the ultimate end result?

Yeah I think that was massive for us. I didn’t get to ride the bike before Tasmania. Even though I’ve been on the Suzuki for a long time I hadn’t worked with Phil and his team for seven odd years. They do things a little bit different to what I’m used to, and that always takes a little bit of time to settle in to. We kind of just got through Tassie, and showed some good speed considering the limited time.

Then to come here and have the three good days that we did was great. We tried a lot of stuff and built up a lot of momentum. It gave us a bit of wind in our sails. The team made some really good choices with the bike and it was going quicker every time we rode.

Bugden stood stop the podium at day’s end in front of his home fans. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Take us through the first race. You got a good jump off the line and were able to hold on to second up until lap 13 when Wayne Maxwell made the pass. How would you rate your performance in Sunday’s opening race?

Yeah I think that was pretty important, even though we didn’t quite get the result we were after. For the first time all year we matched Glenn in those opening laps and we didn’t let him get away. I could see that he was feeling the pressure of me being right on his tail and he was making some mistakes. I think that was important, not only just for me, but for the whole team to see that we’re right in this championship hunt. And the Suzuki has strong points that we’ll be able to build on.

Towards the end of the race we kind of struggled a bit with being able to carry those early lap times, but that’s something that we’re going to be able to work on. I think the Dunlop tyres are a great tyre and have been dominant for a reason. We’ve got a head full of steam and we’re looking forward to Sydney.

The second race was obviously the highlight of your day. Can you tell us how the win came about for you and what was going through your mind before the race when you saw Glenn’s bike being wheeled from the grid.

Well obviously there was a bit of commotion there – it definitely caught my eye. I didn’t really know what was going on there. I tried to just block that all out, it was nothing to do with me, so I just tried to keep my focus and concentrate on what I had to do. Once I got out there I got the holeshot and started to build my own strategy and control the race from the front.

I had a big push about mid-race to try to make a bit of a gap but the guys were just too strong and towards the end I just had to cover my lines and make sure I didn’t make any mistakes. To get it to the chequered it was an amazing feeling.

Thanks Robbie, and congratulations on your first overall ASBK round win.