After a full year racing against the world’s best in the U.S, Tye Simmonds put it to good use with a spectacular win at the opening round of the Monster Energy Super X, Australasian Supercross Championship.

MotoOnline.com.au tracked down the 19-year-old after the event to speak about his return home, what he plans on doing in 2012, and just how much of a threat he’s shaping up to be in the Super X title chase this year.

JDR Motorex KTM's Tye Simmonds won the Super X opener in Melbourne. Image: Shayne Rice - Rice Photography.

First of all, you’re back from America, won upon return in the Pro Open class at Melbourne’s Super X opener. It must feel good to get those points in the bag considering the conditions?

Yeah, it was. She’s been a long year and I kind of wanted to have more time off and have something sorted in the States by now. We still haven’t got that sorted, so instead of sitting around home – which I’d like to do with family and stuff – I decided to get on the bike, ride the 450 and come out to race.

As we speak now, I’m glad I did come here and had a really good night.

How important is it to get these good results, send them back to the U.S. and try to get a ride over there?

You know, I think it’s really important and those guys are over there watching and stuff. To start out the series like this is always a good thing, so if something comes that would be sweet. Right now I’m just going to look forward to getting a championship.

I haven’t really fought for a championship since like my junior days. I think I got a few seconds in the Pro Lites behind Matt [Moss], but we will try hard and try get stuff sorted. We’ll just go in for it, go week in, week out.

In the main event the organisers changed it to a single 12-lap format, rather than the Double Header that was planned. You were in second for a bit and then made your way past Billy Mackenzie and ended up winning. How did it play out for you?

It was good. We all had a riders meeting on the line and as soon as they said one 12 lapper or two races, everyone threw their hand up for the one. It makes it a lot better, a lot easier on us if you crash or something goes wrong.

It puts you in bad spirits, so with one you can get it out of the road and it’s done. We can come straight back to the truck and everything’s all sorted. I think it was a good move on behalf of the race organisers and the riders.

I got off to not a bad start and just rode my own race. I didn’t want to do anything too silly, not make many mistakes and I did that to come out with the W.

Simmonds was pumped with his first round win ever in the Pro Open class. Image: Shayne Rice - Rice Photography.

Do you feel like you have extra confidence after a year in the States? Are you coming into the series with momentum on your side?

Yeah, for sure. I did a lot of learning this year, a lot of training and I feel like I’ve got a lot more knowledge than what I did a year ago. I put a lot of that into here, even though it was wet.

I only had a few mud races over there, but they are the fastest guys in the world and I felt like I learned a little bit. It definitely worked for this weekend.

We’ve spoken about it before, but you came into Super X on the 450, rather than the 350 you were previously riding. It’s something that you’re still adapting to, so do you think there’s a chance we will see even more from you in round two – hopefully in the dry?

Ah, I think so, for sure. Like you said earlier, I’m going home this week and going to do some more testing on the 450 and get it dialled a little more. Hopefully next weekend we can see where we are really at, and where these guys are at.

Practice wasn’t too bad today, still a little slick, but once we get that dry line I think it will be fun and it’s going to be good for me. Then I’ll be able to see where I’m at.

Okay, we look forward to that. Congratulations on the result, we’ll see you in Wollongong.

Thanks Gobert.

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