In our first edition of the ‘Pro Perspective’ blog here on MotoOnline.com.au, Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing’s Wayne Maxwell gives us a brief report on his quick trip to England last weekend where he attended the Cadwell Park round of the British Superbike Championship. As one of the most experience riders in the ASBK and also a real challenger for the 2010 championship, Maxwell has his say on the difference between the ASBK and BSB, as well as his hopes for season 2011. Stay tuned for more Pro Perspective blogs, where we’ll get the opinions from some of the best riders in the business on various topics in the sport.

Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing's Wayne Maxwell made a quick trip to the UK following the Queensland ASBK round.

Directly after I left the Queensland round of the Australian Superbike Championship I flew over to the UK with Josh Brookes with the aim of seeing what it was like in British Superbike and to meet some people to try and sort something out for next year.

Straight away I could see that the paddock over there is a lot different than what I’ve been used to in Australia. All the riders stay at the track in the motorhome and hang around at the track unlike here at the ASBK rounds.

When we got to the track on Friday there were already at least 5000 people there ready for the weekend before it even started since the race was run on Monday at Cadwell Park. The crowd itself was awesome and a really great thing to see for domestic motorcycle racing.

When the first practice started on Saturday it was awesome to see that the Superbike and Supersport guys were definitely the main classes in the paddock, while the other categories were all support classes.

They get less practice and qualifying sessions, plus less laps in the races, obviously because having the two premier classes as the main part of the show is how the crowd is drawn. That’s how it works over there and it seems to be pretty good.

Even during the practice sessions on Saturday there were about 30,000 people there in the crowd already even though it was raining – that was quite an amazing thing.

Once qualifying started on Sunday there were about 50,000 people at the circuit by the afternoon, which was just huge. It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before except for at the Australian Grand Prix and World Superbike rounds here at home.

The riders have big followings and can’t really go anywhere without security or they get swamped by the crowd. It’s a good thing and they really enjoy it, so it’s something that I’d definitely like to be a part of in the future.

But it’s the same with everything in the world right now, there aren’t a lot of riders getting paid over there at the moment and that makes it hard in a lot of ways.

As far as the Superbike class goes it’s very difficult to get into, but I think the Superstock 1000 or Supersport classes are a good starting point. The depth isn’t quite there like the Superbikes, and you don’t quite have to have the machinery under you to do well, so you can still get good results if you’ve been a top rider on Superbike here in Australia.

I’d like to try and get over there full time, but I still need to be realistic. I have financial commitments here in Australia with living and stuff like that, so I still have to make money and earn a living somehow.

I guess if you push the point to get overseas when the time’s not right you can do more damage than good, because usually if everything’s indicating that the time’s not right then it usually isn’t.

I’ll just have to wait and see what happens, because if I could get a ride there in once of the supported teams then I’d definitely try to, but we’ll just have to see how I go!