A relative newcomer to road racing, Michael Blair is a rider making his mark on the Australian scene. The talented teenager transferred a two-year dirt track background to bitumen in 2011 and was running competitively within the Formula Xtreme ranks from the outset.

While he rode somewhat under the radar at the 2013 Australian Supersport opener at Phillip Island, last weekend at Queensland Raceway signalled his arrival as a true title contender.

CycleOnline spoke with Blair following his resounding double win.

Michael Blair was in his element at Queensland Raceway. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

You come away from Queensland Raceway with your first overall win in Supersport. It must be a pretty good feeling to achieve this?

Yeah, it’s awesome. The weekend couldn’t have gone any better. The team worked awesome, were on the ball all the time and I’m just stoked to come away with the win.

The year started solidly at Phillip Island but you were hampered by a few problems, including a crash. Fill us in on that…

We did race at Phillip Island, but I was there on my FX-spec bike. We had a few dramas there – I had a crash in race one, but a strong fifth in race two.

You work with the same trainer as Glenn Allerton, and coming into this weekend he said he thought you’d be the one who would come out and win. You’ve obviously put in a lot of effort off the track leading into this weekend as well.

I have been training every day with Karl McCafferty and working really hard on the longer race distances. I haven’t really had the chance to do a long race in Australia, this is the first weekend. It definitely worked out well!

Blair topped the Supersport podium ahead of Ryan Taylor and Daniel Falzon. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Did you think it would be possible to win both races, and as comfortably as you did, after qualifying in fourth this weekend?

Definitely not, we won over lots of boys who have had a lot of time on 600s and road bikes in general, I’m still pretty new at this. I was stoked to qualify fourth and to come away with the win is even better.

You’ve spent quite a bit of time racing overseas recently as well. What are your plans for this in 2013?

Yeah, we’re racing in the Asian Road Race Championship with Team Petronas. It’s a lot harder competition over there, you’re battling for 15th which you’re not really used to over here. It’s definitely a massive learning curve and it’s good to be able to see the results.

You had a tough round at Phillip Island but the double race win here must really motivate you to go after the title. You’re right in the hunt now.

Definitely, now we’re in it, there’s no point in letting it go. We’ll go all out and try to win the whole year.