Queensland Raceway is always a difficult round for me as a rider. I’ve always struggled with it, it just doesn’t suit my flowing style one bit. The races a fortnight ago were much the same. Not only did I struggle with the track but I had a lot of fatigue and arm pump in both races. I was basically, from lap 10, just sitting there and being a passenger and trying to bide my time until the end. In that first race I waited until about four laps to go to pass Robbie [Bugden], but there was no chance I was going to run Glenn [Allerton] down then. The race was too far gone. Race two was a bit the same. I had arm pump early and had to just sit there. I tried to pass Josh [Hook] with about four or five laps to go and it didn’t stick. That set me back in the run for the win. I had to put a fairly aggressive pass on him with two to go and lost that tow from Robbie. I didn’t quite have it, but to come away second in both races is still strong.

Maxwell confers with team principal Phil Tainton at Queensland Raceway. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

It was good to be able to finish in front of Glenn in the second race, in championship terms. Glenn’s been super fast and he was in the mix in that second race but faded away for one reason or another. It’s going to take a few more rounds to iron out who is going to be fighting for the title. Obviously Glenn was dominant early but Robbie has momentum too. And Hooky is going to only improve with experience and of course Jamie [Stauffer] will be looking for a turn-around after a pretty average start to the year by his standards.

There was a great atmosphere in the pits at QR, it was the best crowd I’ve seen there for quite some time. The crowd was really interactive and followed the racing really closely and knew who a lot of the riders were. It was great to get that level of interaction with fans, hopefully we can keep that up and get them to more races. It was disappointing that the round wasn’t filmed though, that’s another thing that IEG and ASBK have dropped the ball on. I don’t want to be negative but Yarrive Konsky told me out of his own mouth that he’d have a television package sorted for a week after Tassie and that still hasn’t happened. There’s a few things that concern me there. We’ve had Phil Harper come on board now, I’ve known him for some time and he’s really respected throughout the motorcycle community so hopefully he is able to steer IEG and ASBK in the direction it needs to go.

It was a positive showing for the Suzuki rider who rounded out the weekend on the podium. Image: Andrew Gosling/TBG Sport.

Eastern Creek has always been a good track for me over the years so it was good to go there and start preparing for our first actual race there in some time. I’ve always been reasonably competitive there, but to go there and to be as fast as we were I kind of shocked myself a little bit. I didn’t expect to be that fast. It’s set us up well. There’s still areas to improve which is positive, and I’ve got a good understanding of the bike now and that’s making it easier for both Phil [Tainton] and Warren [Monson]. Warren’s been good, I’ve made a good connection with him and he’s really understanding what I want. When you understand each other at that level it takes the pressure off and does make thing easier. I’m looking forward to getting back there and showing what we can do with the Suzuki.