Australia’s Alex Cudlin has forged a successful international road racing career, centred around his involvement in both domestic and world championships.

CycleOnline caught up with the multi-time Qatar Superbike Champion to review another winning weekend and find out a bit more about the series which continues to grow in profile.

Source: QMMF Racing Team.

Thanks for speaking to us Alex. We haven’t looked too in-depth at the Qatar Superbike Championship, can you fill us in on how you arrived there and some of your successes over the past few years?

The Qatar championship came up through my endurance racing, which I started in 2006. I went to Europe when I was 18, and only did a couple of years in Australia. I spent a good two or three years racing in endurance. The Qatari team had their own endurance team, and they contacted me and wanted me to ride for them. After signing for them in World Endurance I was flown out to Qatar to meet all the staff inside the team, and that’s when I heard of the Qatar Superbike Championship. Because I was already riding for them, it was an obvious choice just to jump over and do that as well to keep me bike fit.

Since then it is getting bigger and bigger each year. It is getting more international riders. In 2012 Bradley Smith and Ant West came and did a few races, along with other guys like Scott Smart and a few guys from the BSB. Each year it gets bigger. For me it’s a good way to keep myself on a bike and keep working on the Kawasaki. It’s a great championship to race in.

The championship is a bit different in structure when compared to the other domestic series. Can you tell us why it’s split over years and how much the weather in that region affects things?

They can’t run the conventional championship basically because it’s too hot out there. Even the race I had on the weekend out there was 37 degrees or something, and that was at 11 o’clock at night. If they were to run in August you’d be racing in 50 degree heat. The other thing is that they have Ramadan in August, so a lot of the sports stop for that four weeks. Because of those reasons they run it split.

Its been another good season for you. How many rounds and races have you won to this point?

I’ve won quite a few rounds. We’ve had five rounds, and 10 races, and we have another two to go. I think I’ve won six races, and come second in the other four. At the moment my lead is 46 points, I think. The only problem is that each time I win, my main competitor comes second. So I never really get a big gap in the points. The season has gone good. We’ve had no mechanical problems, and no crashes. This year we’re on a Kawasaki, where in the past seasons we’ve been on a Suzuki. It took a little bit of time just getting that sorted with no settings. But I’ve broken the lap records and all that stuff since being on that bike so it’s all good.

15 laps around Qatar at over two minutes a lap is a long time. I think Moto2 are 17 laps, so it’s almost the length of a GP. It’s good to race because you’re out there for a long time. It’s not like the Australian races which tend to be more short sprint races. It’s good fun, and it keeps me bike fit.

Source: QMMF Racing Team.

Onto the races and starting from your regular place on pole position. Two great results once again, can you run us through the first race?

The first race was actually quite hot, hotter than most people expected and quite windy. The day before in qualifying the track was in better condition, with no wind and better temperatures. But come the race it was windy and a bit difficult. A lot of dust got kicked up which made the track really slippery. The race itself went quite good. I had a bad feeling with the front tyre in the first five laps, so I sat in third position for two or three laps. Once I started to get a bit more comfortable with the tyre I moved through and got into the lead by about lap five.

I had a battle with Nasser al-Malki on the BMW for a few laps. We were swapping back and forward. His bike is quite a bit faster than mine, so in the straights he could get past me all the time. When we got into the lappers I was able to get through him a bit better than he was, and I think I was able to win that race by about two seconds.

You took another win in race two. Were you able to make any changes ahead of the second race to balance out the tyre issue?

We changed the suspension settings for the second race to see if we could get a better feeling with the front tyre at the beginning. From the start I led, and me and Nasser pulled away from the group again. It was the same scenario. We kept swapping positions – he would pass me on the straights and then I got back by on the corners. But again, by about lap seven, I put in a few fast laps and I got a gap to about four seconds which I was able to hold.

There’s a little bit of an issue with our bike in that it uses too much fuel, and we’re only just finishing the races now. So I was wary of that, and once I had that gap I backed off to get it across the line. It all went to plan and I increased the lead in the championship.

What comes next in terms of your World Endurance schedule?

The Superstock class doesn’t do the Suzuka 8 Hour so our next race is Oschersleben. The team have some more testing scheduled, though I’m not exactly sure when yet. We need to get this bike working a bit better. Obviously at the Bol d’Or we were up the front, but the engine blew up. We need to work out why. We’ll definitely be working on that at some point. As for the lineup for the Oschersleben race, well I’ll be there. There might even be a few surprises there – I can’t say exactly just yet. But we should be competitive there.