Jay attacks the Launceston track on his way to victory in round one. Note the KYB suspension in his YZ450F. Image: Sport The Library.

We’ve just had the opening round of Super X last weekend and it was a perfect start to my series campaign with the overall win, picking up from where I started at last the end of last year, which is what I was aiming for.

Being the short formats I knew that I had to go out and be consistent in both races, so second in both finals paid off for me and we’re now leading the series with six rounds to go.

I didn’t really know what to expect heading into this year’s series, but I knew that I’d be close to be on the podium somewhere, although I knew that even getting on the podium this year was going to be tough with a lot of tough competition.

In qualifying I set the fifth fastest lap time and then was able to win my heat race, which gave me the first pick of the gate for the final, so from there I just had to get good starts and ride my own race.

Once we were in the finals I rode smart for the first one and finished second behind Dan Reardon and then in the second 10-lapper I saw Reardo make a mistake, so I knew there and then that the overall was in my grasp if I was able to bring it across the line.

It’s good to have guys like Chad Reed, Jake Moss and Reardon back from the States to contest the series. I always seem to be rated as the underdog and nobody really puts me up there as a front runner, but it really just makes me more determined and helps me grit my teeth and ride hard to beat those guys on the track.

When I’m able to go out there on the weekend and beat those guys makes me feel good, makes the training worthwhile and it all pays off. For me, it’s cool to know that I have the pace to run with some of the top guys in the world, it’s a good thing, for sure.

I found the two 10 lap finals pretty good for the weekend, but they felt really short even though they were half the length of a traditional main event. We’ve done a lot of suspension testing and since it’s my second year on the Yamaha I know what I want out of the bike, so it was just a matter of getting on some good tracks so we could get the testing done properly.

The Super X series is unreal now, they’re putting together a great television package and the sponsors are coming onboard, making it that much better for the series as a whole.

It’s good for the sport that our international guys like Reedy, Michael Byrne and even Mossy stepping up to the 450 is awesome, so us Aussie guys are stepping it up and the racing is only going to get better and better, I think.

Reedy has come into this year underprepared compared to what he was last year, riding a new bike and all, but I think that the local riders have gotten faster and the pace definitely feels quick even compared to last year. The formats help us too, because if Chad gets a bad start we have a chance to hold him off, whereas if it was the traditional 20 lap finals he’d be a lot stronger than us.

I’ll check back in after the next couple of rounds and give you guys here on MotoOnline.com.au an update on how the series is going for me.

Jay