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/128245
Mat Mladin tell s you exactly what he thinks. He doesn't pu ll any punches. He worries not about hurting fee lings. He speaks what he believes is the truth, and if you do n't want to hear it, then don't listen. When we were fin ished with his story, there were several interesting little tidbits that didn 't make the final cut. Here are a few of those. O n th e GSX·R I 000 vs. the Rest •., and the new rules "As we see it now, and this is hindsight, Yamaha is not going superbike racing next year with a new bike that is apparently the be-ell-and-end-ell: Kawasaki's not going superbike racing next year. Why aren't they? They have brand-new motorcycles that they've brought out to suit these rules ... Suzuki was so committed to using the new platform (the GSX· RI 0001 that we tested and tested and got things working . even through the season but we had to do it. We were committed to trying to make the new platform work. We believe th at we could have been competitive on the 750 wit h the rul es allowing us to bump it to 800cc or whatever it may be, bu t it was a dead- end solution. What's the poi nt? The bike wo uld have been competitive, as Eric's [Bostrom ] Kawasaki was competitive all year - even though people are sayi ng, and Eric himse lf is saying, that his bike is an 800 and this and that, and that it doesn't accelerate and doesn't do this ... that is so far from the truth that it's absolu tely ridic ulous. There wasn't one racetr ack th is year where our bike has actually been the qui ckest on top end. It' s been either the Hond a or Eri c's Kawasaki. We'v e never been on top of the rada r speeds thi s year, and I think that shows the equality of the bik es. I'm in no way saying that our bike needs to be qu ick er or that our bike is not as good as any on the racetrack , but we'r e limited by the rules . A t Vir gin ia , for instance, I used thr ee gears · that's it. Down the front strai ght I was in third gear, do wn the back strai ght, I was second gear. I used first gear every where else. Th e way the gearbox is, only doing the extemal gearing, you just can't get it where you need it. Fortunately, we had the torq ue to be able to adapt to do that. I was locking forward to everybody getting on the 1000s next year and under standing that it's not all what it' s cracked up to be. We can' t pull gearbo xes when we need to, we can 't do this, we can't do that. "T he bo t tom line is that Suzuki and Yosh worked hard to get a cornpetitive motorcycle, and right now the AMA has gone and taken all of that de velopm ent off of us. They tell us we need to slow down for safety, and that 's disappointing, because they haven't slowed the V-twins down. At Virginia, Kurtis' [Roberts] bike was 3 m ph quicker than ours... 3 mph on th at little straight. So why d on 't they slow the V -t wl ns down, because they are still the quickest m o t o r c y c l e s when it comes to putting loads on tires and actual speed . Kurtis has shown that if you ride hard , yo u're going t o blow u p tires the same as we do: > On his friend and fellow rac er Jason Pridmore... "Whe n Jason was at Yosh, he was alw ays hard on him self, and I got to know him really well. I to ld hi m he co u ld n' t be that har d on h imself. I co u ldn't have won a ch am pionshi p wi th his crew, and I've always tried to tell him that. If he got on a gocd bike with a good cre w and got comfortable... well , you've seen wha t he can do . We 've seen ho w good J ason ca n do. Ma y be he' s no t quite as committed to focu sing on just racing, bec ause he has a lot of oth er stuff going on , but he's a really good ride r, and we hav e a lot of mutual respect for each oth er. I'll help him and talk to him about gearing and stuff we've tr ied , and I'd never talk to A aron [Yates I abo ut th at. My guys know tha t if J ason wants to know something, you let him kno w: O n his relationship with Doug Chandler... " Douq and I have always gotten on gocd . I wouldn't go about m y life the way Doug goes about his, and I'm not interested in a lot of the stu ff Doug does, but I have a lot of resp ect for the gu y becaus e he un ders tands wha t it' s all about. He understands that raci ng is j ust another ch apt er in yo ur life. He has a family and stuff, and he un dersta nds the import ance of that, and he knows how to put racing on a level with oth er thi ngs that are im portant in hi s life. I've always respected him for that. I really like Dou g, and I have a lo t of ti me for him. He's one of those guys who has never taken away from somebody else's performance. I rem ember when he ca me to Europe in '9 3, and I really liked him th en. When I ca me here in '96, we obv iou sly got to tal king a lot . I wa s youn g, and I'd co m plain, and he'd say , 'You' re all right, ju st keep going.' And that taught m e som e stuff . I listened to him, and I leame d, and tha t's the-most im portant thing : On the AMA making rules to make everyone competitive with Mladin... "If you lock at thi s yea r, it means th at Aaron [Yates} is not going to be competitive next year. When you look at it like that. Aaron won two races this year, but I gave him two races with tire problems, so really we sho uld be 12 and he should be zero. So, okay, they are trying to make everyone competitive with me, but at the same time they are going to hurt the guys in our team who aren't competitive at the moment. Not that they aren 't going to be next year, but they aren't at the moment. So that's totally the wrong way to go about it. We need equality in the rules , and we need everyone on the same rules. If someone happens to be bett er one year, then that's just the way it is. All of a sudden, Mat Mladin has been winning all these races , and the championship would have been won if earlier if it wasn't for ti re problems, but everyone forgets what we had to race on in c ha m pionships in the past. We raced and won championships on a motorcycle that couldn't wi n a chock (Australian for "chicken"] raffle against what it had to race. A gainst other 750s, the motorcycle wasn't bad, but agai nst the V-twi ns· it was a different class of m ot orc ycl e. We weren 't even in the same class. And I ma nage d to beat 'em on that bike, but now I get on something competitive and of cou rse it's going to make my life easier . "The AMA wanted to cha nge the rul es so that everybody cou ld be competitive with me. They will deny tha t , but that's why they did it. Why didn't they change the V·tw in rules if they are trying to slow us down? Th ey have advisory board meetings with the guys in the indu stry wh o obviousl y kn ow abo ut raci ng, and they don 't listen to th em . Th ey do wh at th ey like. Th ey listen instead to a bunch of pen pushers who don't kn ow any th ing abo ut rac ing. Th ey need to li sten to th e guys who k now raci ng. Th ere ju st needs to be equality in the rul es, and the y need to stop cha ng ing thei r minds." On the pampering of the modem American road racer.,; "One thi ng tha t I notice in A merica (a nd I don 't hold it against anybody , bec au se I think it's the w ay th ey are brought up over here, and it's a way that a lot of the race mechanic s are . bar a few that I've noti ced) is th at all the mechanics over here pamper the ride rs. It' s lik e they pu t the ride r up on a pedestal. When I first started road racing in Au str ali a, I believe I had one of the best learning curves ever and the bestleaming experience ever. When I got to Team Kawasaki, I had a team manager who wasn't going to take any crap in Peter Doyle, and I had a crew chief who was going to take even less crap . H e was just a grump. If I didn't feel like ridi ng the bike, I got to ld to get on th e bike. That's it. They didn 't give a shit if I didn't feel like rid ing the b ik e. It was just, 'Go and ride the bloody bike and tell us wh at's going on.' It doesn't work like that over here. You see guys turn ing up for tests at II o'clock in the moming. You see gu ys who ha ve a sore finge r, so th ey go ho me early in th e aft ernoon . i pu t th at down to th e rid ers being p amper ed too mu ch . For some reason , th e riders are put on a d i ffe ren t lev el . I'v e n ev er p ut myself on that level. T hose oth er guys are working hard as wel l. If it wasn' t fo r m y cr ew , I wou ldn 't have won everyth ing that I' ve won . I beli eve th ere are a lot of geed rid ers ou t th ere, but I believe there are a lot o f bad crews . I trul y believe tha t. bu t in the last six, seven y ear s, I've really worked hard to get the rig ht crew, beca use I understeed that you ca n't do it by yourself. If you think you can , then you're dre am ing ." On the save of the year , when his tire exploded at Road Atlanta... "I've had tha t happen be fore - not in America , but in Australia a co uple of tim es. It' s one of those things where th e first th ing I thought of is that it blew, and I knew it went, and the firs t thi ng I thought of was to get it und er con tro l. I had it und er control... but the re's two ways to lock at it. I got luc ky that it di dn' t hap pen 200 feet earlie r, becaus e I'd probably still be in hosp ita l, so I was lucky. And th e other thing was , I just coul dn't get the bike steered at aU, and I ended up ha ving to jump off the thing. All I was thi nk ing was getting back to the p its. I was ju st thinking, 'I need to get this thing back to the pits.' I stuffed up a little bit by cra shing the th ing on the right- ha nd side. I' ll know nex t tim e not to do th at , because you've got yo ur throttle over th ere and your brake and everything. Th ings got twisted up , and I couldn 't get it back to th e pi ts. If I'd crashed on the left, everythi ng woul d hav e been okay. It' s j ust one of those th ing s: On the growing problem of tire failures ••. "Peopl e think th at GP bi kes are fast and hard on tires, but GP bikes are easier on tires th an th e superbikes. We're 20 to 30 hp short, but we ha ve 200 hp or a bit less, and we 'r e 370 po unds, and that weight is wh at ki lls th e tires . What are yo u going to do? I think Dunlop should make tires that are going to stay undemeath me. I don't thi nk I should have to slow down to make sure the tires are okay. That's ridiculous." On how yo u co m e bac k and win th e next day aft er a tire failure... • "You just put it out of your mind. If it's going to happen again, it's going to happen again - you just hope it doesn't. If you can't do that, then it's time to get out ." On just how long he can continue to do this... " I've always had the motivation to want to wi n, but, li ke many young people, I didn 't understand what it tock to keep winning. You become spo radic. You do geed one weekend, yo u don't do geed the next. That's not the way I am now. Ob v iously . in the last th ree or four years I've und erst oo d that I'm getting ol der, and I'm not getting an y yo unger. I'm 31 now, and I'll be 32 wh en the season starts, but th at's not old by any stretch of the imagination, because if yo u' re work ing hard and you can stay health y , the n it' s not a problem . Mentally, the older you get, I think you should get better. As long as you don't get scared. Physicall y , if I can kee p it going to match what m y m ental perc eption is, then I don't see why I can't keep going. But fatig ue is ce rtainly one thing th at is goi ng to creep in, and it happens to all th e best athletes. Aga in, I don't want to put m yse lf at a level of som eone else , but I look u p to what [La nce ] Arm strong has done. Even he said thi s y ear that he believes he will be better next year when he goes back to try and win number six, but he doesn't hav e to be as gocd as he ha s been . But he believes he will be bett er than what he was this year. You get olde r, and a lot of th ing s change. Your bod y gets older. I enj oy the fac t that I get to go home after the season and tak e a break and I get to re -eva luate how I want to trai n for next ye ar. I enjoy that... I enjoy trying to ma ke myself better." On not having the natural ability... "I've worked hard for it , and nothing has just come to me. I do n't have the natural ability like a [Antho ny } Go bert. I've never been able to ju st jum p on a m oto rcycle and all of a sud den always be at the front. I do n't have that natural gift that j ust kee ps you there no matter what you do. I've had to work for it . The past thr ee, fou r, five years, I've learned to work for it, and that's when th e resul ts starte d to co me, and I've really seen the difference it can make. That's just th e way I am ." On being hone st wit h yourself... "We get lost [on setup) . Don't get me wro ng, but one thi ng riders have to do is be honest with themselves. If you tu m up to a racetrack one day and can't do the jo b, don 't send yo ur crew beating around the bush trying to fix a motorcycle that th ere's nothing wrong wi th. You have t o say to yo ur guys, 'Listen, I don't have it goi ng on today, and I' m not all there. Let's just work thr ough it toda y and do th e best we can, go home and have a good sleep , and co me back tomorrow in a different fra me of mi nd.' Honestly, I' ve done th at on th ree or fou r occasions thi s yea r, just becau se I kn ew on Friday m orn ing or whate ver that it just wasn't hap pening. The brain wa sn't up to speed, and it j ust wasn't hap pening. At that poin t , it's bette r not to just try and fiddle with th e bike. It 's ju st a case of leav e it alone and we' ll co me bac k tomorr ow and I'll have anoth er go." On being sick and the disappointment of Laguna Seca .. . "Th ere are a lot of th ings that hav e gone on thi s year that a lot o f people do n' t know about - ac tually, nobod y knows about exce pt for a couple of people in my crew and a few at Suzuki. Peopl e don't know, and I'm not one to use excuses and/or injur ies or anything else to ma ke excuses for why I couldn't do something. I'll take the blame and then we'll go hom e. I was ti red and I j ust couldn't do it. I don't car e what people think , especially people in th e industry. I care what the fans think, but I don't car e wha t peop le in the industry think. They ca n think wh atever they lik e - I don 't care. "La guna wa s a shame, because we were fast , and I th ink we show ed th,;lt we're competitive. A lot of people d on 't understa nd hOI>- str enu ous something like that weekend is on someone who is in geed shape . On Saturday, I did the equiv alent am ount of laps to almost four races , with pr actic e and qualify ing and our race and all the rest of it. Then you ha ve to back things up on Sunday with another couple of races . It was j ust toc big of a weekend. I've heard, 'Well, (Aaron} Yates did it.' Well, wha t did Yates do? Yates took hal f th e field out and the n finished sixth. If that' s what you call a successful weekend, the n that' s geed, but I certa inl y don 't see it like that: On overthinking the motorcycle... "That's one thi ng I see a lot of over here, and that's a lot of fiddli ng wi th th e bike for no reason . The bi ke we had th is ye ar has turned up at every racetr ack - and I m ean every race track except for Dayt ona , whic h is an exceptio n - and we were within hal f a second of wh at the bike end ed up do ing at the end of the weekend · without touching any thing. Th ere's a lim it that your bike can go to, but that's just th e w ay I lo ok at it , and some p eople think I'm crazy bec ause I don 't really do a lot to m y bike, If I've got som eth ing that feels good , I th ink it's up to th e guy sitting on it to make up th e rest: cue I e n e _ S • JANUARY 7 , 2 004 17