Matt Phillips has been a standout in the Yamaha Australian Off Road Championship of late, dominating the South Australian round at Callington and continuing the form that he displayed at the Australian Four Day Enduro and International Six Days Enduro.

The second half of season 2011 has marked a breakthrough of sorts for the 18-year-old former motocrosser, winning E3 and taking third Outright in the A4DE before taking fifth in E2 and ninth Outright at the ISDE in Finland.

Phillips’ recent results have him a prime target for international teams eyeing young Aussie talent for 2012, so MotoOnline.com.au gave him a call this afternoon to catch up on his season to date.

You were able to win both rounds in South Australia on the weekend Outright and in E3, carrying on your form from the ISDE. It seems like everything is clicking for you at the moment…

Yeah, that’s it. I was coming into that round on a high and my fitness is pretty good at the moment. It was just a matter of not making too many mistakes, so I had a good weekend, which was good.

As far as the series goes, you’re climbing up the leaderboard Outright and in class, so with two weekends of racing to go is the championship still a possibility for you?

Definitely. If I can I want to go out and try to make up as many points as I can Outright and in E3. If I can get good results for the rest of the season it should be good.

On the weekend we saw Toby Price was injured, but all in all a lot of the guys are saying it was a good event with good tests. What were your thoughts on the round?

All in all the weekend went really smooth. It was unfortunate that Toby’s wrist is so bad that his hand come off, causing him to crash. The track was awesome though, really technical and also fast in amongst the trees. It was a good all-round track.

You come from a motocross background, so what’s it been like for you adjusting to the off-road series?

It’s good, there’s always a good atmosphere and everybody’s welcoming. They’re always happy to lend you a hand or give advice, so the community is really good.

Adjusting to slowing down, getting all the lines right to make up time by hitting everything right, has been a big learning curve. I’m slowly getting there though.

I know guys like Josh Strang and that in the U.S. do a lot of training on motocross, so do you use it for training or do you mostly ride trails?

Most of my riding is based around motocross tracks. At home in Tasmania I have a big quarry, which has a lot of hills, jumps and berms – all the fun stuff – so that’s what I do for training. I also do a bit of supercross as well, so that’s good too.

You made a big impact in Finland at the ISDE, it seems like it was a big boost for your career, wasn’t it?

Yeah, it sure did. It was a good opportunity to go over there and prove myself. Dropping back onto the 450 helped a bit as well, just because it suits me a bit better than riding the big-bore. I met a lot of good people over there and also some potential sponsors.

Is going overseas full time something you’d be interested in as far as enduro racing goes?

Definitely. I’ve been talking about going over next year. I’m not sure where that’s going to take me, but I’ve had a fair few teams talk to me.

It’s just a matter of whether I take the plunge and go over, or if I wait another year and learn how to cook and clean for myself before I go [laughs]!

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