Maxwell was best at Phillip Island's ASBK opener last weekend.

Last weekend’s opening round of the Viking Group Australian Superbike Championship was surrounded by uncertainty going in, but by the end of the weekend it was clear that Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing’s Wayne Maxwell is the man to beat for 2010.

Maxwell was in incredible form during the second half of last season only to crash out of the final round and out of championship contention at the season finale, but that’s a distant memory after the 27-year-old clinched this year’s opening round victory at Phillip Island last weekend.

MotoOnline.com.au gave the Victorian-based title favourite a call to speak about his pole position and double race victory, as well as Dunlop’s new D211GP Racer control tyres and his prospects for Hidden Valley’s second round.

Maxwell, round one’s in the books and you’ve got 51 points to your name after scoring pole and two wins. Did you expect a perfect weekend going into the event?

To be honest I didn’t expect it to work out that way, but after the first session I knew that we were going to be fast and I definitely thought I was smart enough to win both races after what I learnt last year. So you know, I was very happy when I did win both races – I was a bit surprised.

We ran a poll on the website and you ranked third behind Jamie Stauffer and Waters, but were you quietly confident all along that you could continue to form you displayed during the second half of last season?

Yeah, I don’t know who the people are who go on the poll, but obviously they’ve got no idea and didn’t look at the races close enough last year. But you know, Phillip Island is one of my strong tracks but I won at Mallala last year too, which I’d never won at before so obviously I’m in good form. It’s just a matter of carrying it through the whole season.

You’re on a new team at GAS Honda Racing, supported by Demolition Plus, for this season, so what’s it like working with Geoff WInzer, Garry House and co.?

It’s really good. Demolition Plus GAS Honda has a good team – I don’t think I would have been able to win both races last weekend without Richard’s [Parry] support from Demolition Plus. Hopefully we can continue with our current form, we’ve got great support there, so

How much different is your Fireblade compared to last season’s Motologic-prepared bike? Any differences?

Well it’s still the same production bike, obviously the Honda CBR1000RR, so it’s a great bike to start with. We’ve just came up with a little bit different configuration that’s personalised more for me so I’m 100 percent comfortable.

They’re open to changes on the team so that’s why we were able to adapt to the new control tyres quite fast – to do the lap times that we did on the new tyres was fairly impressive late in the race when the tyres were worn. That’s what helped us get the result.

There’s also a new Dunlop control tyre for this year. So just how different is it? We saw a variety of lap times from testing, but come the race weekend the pace was quite fast.

We were on target to go into the high 33s in qualifying after the first sector, but I got traffic and it wasn’t to be. The main difference in the tyre is that the grip’s lower obviously, but we’re working with Dunlop closely to overcome it and move forward.

Last year you came oh so close to the title, so what’s the strategy for this year? Are you still going to be giving it all or nothing, or will you take wins when you can but try to be consistent?

My plan at this stage is just to win races, but you do have to finish every race to win this championship because it’s not long enough if you DNF any races. Fortunately Josh had a bit of a problem last weekend because he’s my main rival, but Bryan Staring will also be a big threat this year now that he’s back on a Superbike. Plus I guess Jamie [Stauffer] is also going to be quite competitive. It’ll be interesting heading into Darwin, it will be hot and I’m looking forward to the challenge. My plan is definitely to try and win both races again.

Looking forward to a new track at Hidden Valley? It would have been a while since you’ve had to learn a new circuit!

Yeah, it’s the first time since Tassie in 2006, where I was able to learn that track quickly and qualify on the front row. It went well the first time we went there, so I’m looking forward to going to the Northern Territory and learning another new track – we’ll see who has trained the hardest and adapt to the conditions the best. I’m honestly really, really excited. I can’t wait to get up there.

Okay mate, we’ll see you up there in the NT ready for round two.

Thanks, sounds good mate.