When Jay Marmont lines up at this weekend’s Australian Supercross Championship opener, it’s difficult to believe he’ll once again be an underdog of sorts.

MotoOnline.com.au spoke to Marmont this afternoon in Darwin to see how he’s feeling ahead of Saturday and Sunday’s double-header at Hidden Valley Raceway.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jay Marmont will be seeking his fifth career Supercross crown. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Entering this weekend’s opening rounds of the championship at Darwin it’s an exciting time for you, so how are you feeling just days out from the opener?

I feel good. The biggest thing is a fresh start after coming off a horrible Motocross series, the results didn’t come to me at all, and I couldn’t get momentum at any point of the series. I didn’t have one good race.

Heading into Supercross it’s a chance to redeem myself, run the number one proud from last year and go out to get a result.

Last year you had a tough outdoor season and then managed to bounce back for Supercross. Does that experience in itself help you gain confidence for the 2013 series?

It does. You know, for some reason I’ve always gone really well in Supercross and I’ve never ever finished off the podium in Australia. It’s always been a strong point that I can go out and get results, so I have to look at it as my strength.

The plan is to come out swinging at the first few rounds. This year there seems to be a lot of guys that are at a similar speed. In saying that, we have Josh Hill and Weston Peick from America, Lawson Bopping, the Moss brothers, McCoy just to name a few that are all a similar pace.

Being strong at every round, trying to carry momentum and confidence will be the key.

You turned your attention to Supercross midway through the nationals, earlier than most, so how’s the preparation been?

Yeah, it’s been tough actually. I opted to go Supercross earlier than most would because of my Motocross season wasn’t going well, but I actually think it helped me. For everybody it’s been tough just having one weekend off since Motocross, plus Abby and I had a little baby in between that time.

That took up a good chunk of time and it’s actually come up really fast. Everybody’s in the same boat though, preparation is definitely down, but I feel we’re in a better position than most people as we’re starting with a bike that I ended with the championship last year.

All as we’ve really done is tweak the engine a little bit, got a bit more power through the mid-range, but overall my package is similar. If anything it should be better than what it was last year.

Marmont has confidence he can rebound for ASX despite a tough outdoor campaign. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

I know you recently sampled the track at Hidden Valley and there’s been a lot of hype behind this Darwin event. How’s it all shaping up in Darwin?

I think it will be a great event. As we can see now, Superbikes are on track now and they’re giving us a good hit-out tomorrow with practice. Then obviously we race Saturday and Sunday, it will be a very active weekend around the complex and hopefully it will be good racing. Hopefully it’s not too warm!

Just finally to wrap this up, if you had to name one guy who will be your biggest title threat this year, who would that be?

The guy that comes to my mind is Matt Moss. He’s carrying momentum from Motocross and you know he’s a little bulldog. Mossy’s won a lot of championships and he’s on top of his game at the moment. There are a lot of guys that will finish on the podium, but in saying that he’s the one who will come out swinging.

Awesome, well thank you mate and best of luck throughout the weekend.

Great, thanks a lot Al!