The first two-plus-four round of this year’s Viking Group Australian Superbike Championship marked one of the best rounds of the season, where the battle for supremacy reached its climax for 2010.

Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing’s Wayne Maxwell emerged the victor for the round after his thrilling race two win, tying on points for the round with series leader Bryan Staring after reversing the result of race one – Maxwell getting the overall on countback after taking out the final leg.

While the win is always all-important, especially with Channel 7 broadcasting the round live on free-to-air television, Maxwell’s championship hopes didn’t receive any clear boost as he remains 17.5 points behind Staring with one round remaining.

MotoOnline.com.au called Maxwell on Monday afternoon to get his thoughts on the weekend and what it’s going to take to clinch his maiden ASBK crown come Tasmania in November.

Maxwell leads the ASBK field during race two at Phillip Island on his way to the overall.

Wayne Train, solid job on the weekend. You got the overall round win but didn’t make any real inroads on Staring in the series. What’s it going to take to run him down?

It was definitely a good weekend for the Demolition Plus GAS Honda Racing team, but yeah we really needed to win both races to keep it well and truly alive. It’s not completely dead in the water, so all that we can do from here is try and win in Tasmania to finish out the season and hope that somebody else has a bit of bad luck rather than us.

You finished over six seconds behind Staring in race one after burning up your tyre early, so what was the big difference for Sunday’s second race that helped you win?

We just went back to the drawing board, went over everything from the front to the back of the bike – from electronics, to suspension to the chassis position, to gearing so it would be easier on the tyre. We made a lot of changes, which is unusual for our team, but I think we were a little bit lost and moved away from the correct setting that we had at the beginning of the year. Once we had that in place then that was what well and truly put us at the front and the result came in the second race.

It was a spectacular race between yourself, Bryan and Jamie Stauffer – definitely not your easiest race win! The boys made you work for it.

Yeah, it didn’t come easy so it was definitely a satisfying race win. At about the halfway point I thought we were in trouble, but then I realised it would all be okay. With about two to go I knew that I had their measure, so I just had to make sure it went my way on the final lap. Thankfully I rode smart and Jamie made a little mistake that gave me a bit of extra breathing room, so it was good to get away with the win.

You’re actually friends with Holden V8 Supercar driver Garth Tander and do some training with him, so it must have been pretty satisfying to win the two-plus-four round…

It was good you know, I guess I will see the boys at training tomorrow and it will be interesting to see what they’ve got to say about the race. I left them alone after my race since they were getting ready for the big L&H 500, so yeah, it was good to get a win in front of the guys.

What’s your opinion on the whole two-plus-four concept? Is it the type of thing that can help the ASBK expand in the future? How was the reception from the four-wheel fans?

Definitely after that second race the reception was really good. There were a lot of fans in my pit box, I was signing a lot of posters and taking a lot of pictures with people. For me it’s a positive, especially for the sport. It’s a tough time in the sport at the moment, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel and I’m confident that it’s all going to work out for the ASBK championship.

Now, without getting too far ahead of ourselves, what’s the plan for next year? Has there been any progress on your overseas aspirations or are you content to stay here for 2011?

Ah look, you know I’d love to race overseas and try to cut my teeth over there, but I’ve discussed it with my management and it’s not really worth it to go over and push for something that’s not there. If there’s something there we’ll take it, but I’m not just going to go over or any team to say I race overseas and boost my own ego. The racing in Australia is good enough to keep my level where it needs to be, so if I could go over and do some more guest races like the Suzuka 8-Hour again with Honda if I continue with them – which I’d love to do – then that would be great.

Okay well good work once again, thanks for your time and we’ll be sure to see you at the MotoGP round.

Thanks, Al.

Maxwell was all smiles in front of the healthy two-plus-four crowd on the podium.