The race has been on so far in 2010 to put an end to five-time Formula Xtreme Champion Kevin Curtain’s stranglehold of the FX1000 class, and it was North Coast V-Twins Ducati rider Beau Beaton who managed the feat on Sunday.

Beaton won the overall at Eastern Creek with a second and two race victories to his credit, again displaying his immense talent round the Sydney-based circuit.

Making his Sunday win in the FX1000 class all the more impressive was the fact that he competed in and won the Pro-Twins Nationals on Saturday, switching bikes, categories and on to Dunlop’s treaded control tyres on Sunday for the championship round.

MotoOnline.com.au gave Beaton a quick call on Monday afternoon following the round for this post race chat about his thoughts on the weekend of AFXC racing.

North Coast V-Twins Ducati Beau Beaton rider won the Eastern Creek AFXC round yesterday.

Beau, you managed to win your first AFXC round yesterday, it must be a pretty satisfying feeling?

Yeah, I didn’t expect it at all. I mean, with the pace Cru and Curtain were doing on Saturday, I really didn’t expect to win on Sunday. I went out in qualifying and surprised myself with my times and we went on from there, so it was good.

You took second in race one by just 0.008sec behind Curtain before beating him in the second by 0.033, and then you won the third by 0.011 over Jeremy Crowe, so it looks like you had some close racing on your hands!

It definitely wasn’t easy. We had to last all day on the one set of tyres, so it wasn’t like you could run away and burn out the tyres. You had to take care of them, but Steve Mudford had the suspension working well enough to last the whole day on the tyres and I was really happy with it.

Coming into the weekend did you expect to be challenging for the win? What were your expectations for the Eastern Creek round?

Honestly, I didn’t expect to be going for the win [laughs]. I expected to be up the front, but when we got into the first race and I was staying with Curtain for the first few laps, I thought to myself, “hey, I can hold this pace”, and just sat there for a few laps. We kept going with it, the bike had the pace on the day, so yeah, it was great.

You’ve been contesting the ASBK Superstock 1000 A and B category on slicks during the season, so is it difficult to switch back to the treaded GP-A tyres for FX?

Well after what everyone had been telling me on Saturday about the tyres, it didn’t seem like it was going to be real good, but they were just as good as the slicks, nothing wrong with them at all. My bike was set up great for them and I enjoyed it.

While you also rode round one of FX at Wakefield, you rode the ASBK round in Queensland so missed the second FX round. What’s the plan for the rest of the year?

Well the ASBK is our main focus and our plan is to finish that, but we’ll be back in any other FX round that doesn’t clash. We’ll concentrate on the ASBK and see if we can take out that championship.

You are right in the hunt for the B-grade Superstock 1000 title at the ASBK and also battle right up there with some very strong A-graders, so how’s that series been going for you to date?

I had a mechanical failure at the first round, which put me behind a little, but we’re catching in the B-grade championship now. We go out there and try dice with the A-graders as well, try to push those guys and really have to, because that’s where I want to end up. I need to try to keep up with them and hopefully I’m doing a half-good job of it [laughs].

As a rider who has been competing in both ASBK and also AFXC when you can, do you notice any massive differences between the series, or you just focus on getting good results?

I do really focus on my own results and try to go into both rounds with the same attitude, but the main difference with the ASBK is that you get longer races. You need to have a bit more of a strategy, where having seven to 10 lap races at the FX is more of a sprint. There’s a lot less room for error in those shorter races. They’re both pretty well ran meeting and both levels of riding is high in both series.

Well thank you for your time and congratulations again on the round win mate!

No worries, any time! Thanks.

Beaton has been a podium regular in 2010 Australian road racing.