Alex Cudlin Interview

Our friends at Ride Rage Radio recently spoke to Alex Cudlin when he returned home from wrapping up his fourth straight Qatar Superbike Title. With their permission we have transcribed the yarn for your perusal. Enjoy.

RRR: Well guys, it was only a couple of weeks ago that we spoke to Alex Cudlin before he headed off to the Bol Dor 24 hour race and then of course heading to the next round of the Qatar Superbike Championship and more hopeful to wrap up his fourth championship, that’s exactly what happened and Alex joins us on the line to talk about it. Alex first of all congratulations on the great result over there in Qatar.

Alex: Yeah, mate, well thanks very much, it was nice to get the fourth title in a row, it was something I wanted at the start of the year, so it was good to get that accomplished.

RRR: When did the chain actually break? Was that in the practice and qualifying for the last round of the Qatar Championship, when the title was essentially on the line between you and your next closest title protagonist?

Alex: It actually happened in the second race. The Championship went down to the final round and there were two races to decide who was going to be the champion, and I had 26 points lead going into the round, so the plan was if I won the first race, I would win the Championship, and if I didn’t win the first race, say for example I came second, well then it would go to the final race. So in the first race I had a good feeling with the bike, everything was working good, my mechanic kept putting on the board to finish second, finish second and be safe, but I’m a racer and I wanted to go for the win, so I went for the win and won the race and the title. So luckily I did it, because in the second race the pressure was off, it was just a bit of a fun race for me then, because I had already sealed the title, and three laps to go, I was leading and the chain snapped, so thank God I actually went for the win in the first race, otherwise we would have been coming home second in the title.

RRR: And of course this is your fourth title in a row now in the Qatar Championship, and when I think of the Qatar Championship, there’s a couple of handy punters over there, and some of them with GP experience too.

Alex: Yeah mate, it’s getting bigger, every year we’re getting more and more competitors and we’ve had the likes of guys from BSB, Scott Smart and a few other guys and Bradley Smith from MotoGP and Ant West even had a go at it, so it’s nice to definitely win my fourth title, I didn’t actually expect four years ago when I signed with the team that I would win four in a row, so it’s been quite a good run to be honest. And this year it was tight going to the end, it was probably one of the hardest seasons I’ve had out there, but it all worked out in the end.

RRR: You came home from wrapping up that Qatar Championship, so what does a racer do? Hops right back on a dirt bike and heads out to the Australian Dirt Track Championship, it was not this weekend gone, just the weekend prior.

Alex: I got home, and I was actually racing in Qatar when the Aussie Titles at the Old Bar were on, so I missed that, and I’ve got a new Kawasaki KX450, so I got home from Qatar and thought the best way to get rid of the jet lag is to go racing again, so I dusted off the old motocross boots and went out for a dirt bike race. So that was fun, I ended up second in the race, I got beaten in the final by a young fella who was quite fast, but it was a good day and I’m going to be doing a bit of that now, I’ve got six weeks off before I head back to Germany, so I’m going to try and do some dirt bike riding while I’m home.

RRR: Well I think the next round would be the Oschersleben 8 Hour in the World Endurance Championship, but once again congratulations on those four Qatar Superbike Championships and second place the other weekend as well, and hopefully we’ll be able to talk to you after Oschersleben to see how you go over there, but congratulations and thanks for joining us today.