Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127772
ladin ·IN R IE Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat M TE V W , (Left) Mat Mlad inwlll be working aga in with Reg O'Rourke (right), the man recruited to tune the young Aussle's Suzukls for the '96 AMA Superblke season. (Below) When th ings are rig ht, Mlad ln Is an undeniably fast racer, Bad lu ck has haunted him over the past few years and he hopes to tum th ings around In the United States th is season, Things didn't quite go as planned here, either. After showing promising signs of his old form, Mladin crashed, uninjured, at 160 mph in Tasmania, but broke his collarbone during qualifying at Philip Island. In the race, he tried a silly move around Gobert through the last tum in driving rain, high-sided and exacerbated the injury. All this against the back drop of Corser m aking a stunning bid for the AMA title in his de but year with Ferracci. But the tale of woe didn't end there. In Western Australia, Mladin hit a false neutral at the end ofa downhill straight. He flew off the track, crushing five vertebrae and was lucky not to suffer a serious spinal injury. Despite his run of bad luck , Mladin managed thi rd in the national championship with eig h t victories to Gobert's seven, in spite of missing several roun ds and suffering a few m e ch a ni ca l mis ha ps. But there was little solace to be drawn from his efforts. He had to watch cha mpionship wi nner Gobert walk straight fro m h is Honda Australia garage to become Scott Russell's partner on the M uzzy Ka w as a k i superbike team. It was all pretty hard to take. With any hope of securing a Yamaha factory world superbike ride go ne when Peter Doyle opted out of negotiations to ru n the team, Mladin again stayed put. With 1993 an d '94 bu t a m em o r y, By Darryl Flack Photos by Arthur Thornton f everything had go ne as p la nne d, th e only th ing Ma t Ml adin wo uld have kno w n a bout the 1996 AMA Su perbike Championship w as th at 1993 Cagiva teamm ate Doug Cha ndler is sa ddling up on a Muzzy Kawasaki. Back in 1992, at just 20, Mladin signed a three-year deal with Cagiva to ride its ever-improving C593 Grand Prix bike for a reported $1 million. That the young Australian Superbike champ so readily agreed to . join the rarified w orld of 500 racing without even riding the Cagiva might surprise some, but not Mladin. "When I saw the money for the first year, then th e seco n d a n d thi r d , I di d n' t th ink twice." Fast forward to 1996. Mladin will race in th e AMA Su perbike Cha mpionsh ip for Yoshimura Suzuki, accompanied by a bad lim p and the knowled ge that Mick Dooha n an d Dary l Beattie will be the only Au stralians racin g 500s. In add iti on, Supe rb ike co n tem pora r ie s Troy Corser a nd Anthony Gobert a re ti p ped to figh t it ou t fo r the Wo r ld Superbike Cham pio nship. Both ri ders , who Ml adin d efeat ed m or e o fte n than not in Australi a, are also slated as the Next Big Thin gs in the cove ted 500cc World Ch ampi on sh ip , Still, Mladin is not bitter, or even jea lous. "Troy and Antho ny deserve to be there. lf the re' s anybody that I'd want to win, it'd be one o f th e two Auss ies," Mlad in says. "May be one day I m ight get back up there . That's what I' m doing in America - rebuildi ng my career." For in 1993, Mladin, the rider tout ed I 46 a s th e n e xt Mi ck Doo h an, co mpl e ted just on e year of h is contract after a season of bit ter ac ri mon y w ith Ca giva team boss Giacomo Agostini. Finish ing a di sta nt 13th, and with th e p all of Ag os ti n i' s drafting ofJ ohn Kocinski onto the team h an gin g over bot h him an d teammate Chandler, Mlad in returned to Australia, bitter and deep ly despondent. Now, on reflectio n, he has a different perspective on h is sp lit fro m Ca giva. "May be I wasn't su pportive of myself, r~th er tha n th em not suppo rting m e. I've see n how the big, bad w orld can w ork," he sa id . "I've definitely learn ed from that expe rience." Dooh an has said Mladi n should ha ve stayed in Europe, but he rejoined th e fam ily th at made hi s origi nal suc cess , Team Kaw asaki Au st rali a, and its driving force, Peter Doyle. Rejecting Ago' s offer of a Du cati rid e in th e W orld Superbike Cham pionship and privateer 500 rides, homesick, and unsure of the nu ances of Europe, Mladin, the son of a Croatian father and an Australian mother, left Gr an d Pri x racing to recapture the dom inance he etched so devastatingly in 1992. I 995 looked like it would be a cakewalk in th e absence of Gobert. Then it all went terribly wrong in the New Year. Tr y in g o u t hi s n ew p ara- g lider, Mladin cras hed, doin g severe damage to his left foot. His heel wa s broken in half, he fractu red three toes and susta ined se rious ligament an d muscle d amage, H e had . tw o corre c ti ve o pe ra t io ns including the rem oval of muscle, and a third, to stop the sp rea d of the golden staph infection that saw his weight drop from 185 p ounds to 134. Am p u ta tion was considered . " It wa s sort of eating awa y at eve ryth ing. It sp read four inch es u p my leg above my ank le, and to the en d of my toes," Mladin explai ned . Because his foot wa s fixed in a down-