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/128355
INTEl VIEW in Mr. ie-Timer Mat Mladin continues to dominate AMA Superbike racing eneve r he decides to retire, which could be as early as when his contract expires at the end of the 2005 sea son , Mat Mlad in w ill do so as the greatest rider in the history of AMA Superbike racing. Records are made to be broken, but the re's very little chance his will be. Not the Superb ike wins total - for that one he's tied with Miguel Duhamel, though Mlad in won h is 32 in eight years, wh ile Duh ame l's took 14. It's the rings, the five ch ampionships. No one will match that recor d, at least not any time soon - and probably never. Of the riders confirmed for the 2005 season , Duhamel is in second with one title won in 1995. Ben Bostrom also has one , won in 1998, but has no cur re nt plans to race in the United States . W 70 JANUARY 5, 2005 • CY CL E N EWS The future belongs to young riders , but they'll likely use the AMA ser ies as a springboard to the world stage , as Nicky Hayden and Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz and Col in Edwards did. Mlad in could have gone that route, but he wanted to go on his te rms - not as a grid filler - so he decided to make his legacy in America. Mladin finished all 18 Superb ike races in 2004 , winning eight times, was on the pod ium 14 times and was never worse than sixth. He added four more pole positions to his reco rd total of 37. Among active ride rs, Duhame l is second w ith 10. The Yoshimura Suzuki team arrived at the final Superbike doubleheader at Virginia International Raceway with Mladin holding a 42-point margin on Erion Honda's jake Zemke and 55 on Duhamel. Not a lock, but not a struggle. The unprecedented fifth title was secured with a cautious sixth in Saturday 's race. The title was dec ided at VIR, but the turn ing point had come four races earlier at Road Amer ica. The first of the high-speed road courses exposed the acceleration deficiency of the Suzuki GSX-RI000 . Revised techn ical rules for 2004 strangled the Suzuki. The team had to use stock injectors on its throttle bodies and a stock airbo x. Hond a had the all-new CBRIOOORR that had impressed in preseason test ing at Daytona. Ducati, being a twin, got a break, along with full factory support from Ducati Corse and the best Michelin tires . At tracks such as Infineon Raceway and California Speedway, the acce leration difference wasn't noticeable. At Road America, it was glaring. The Hondas cou ld get off the turns and reach te rminal velocity much sooner. Duhamel swept both races. On to Braine rd Inte rnational Raceway, where Zem ke had his breakth rough Superbike win ove r Duhame l in a controversial finish. The e nd res ult: Mladin's points lead was down to six on Duhamel and lOon Ze mke. "In a way, it was a time in the championship whe re we realized that if the wo rk wasn't done towa rds the end of the year, then winning the championship was going to be very difficult," Mladin reme mbers of Road America. "We' d seen how fast their bikes were. It was certainly the part of the year where we realized that we had to do som e work, or w inning the championship was going to be difficult." Mladin begged for more power. "I was almost on my hands and knees [for Suzuki] to come up with something," he recalls. "Let's not give this champio nship away just beca use the rules had changed at the start of the year and it hurt us horsepowerwise, let's not give it away just for that reason ." Mladin had plenty of allies in the cause. There was his crew chief Pe te r Doyle and Yoshimura Suzuki team manager Don Sakakura. Most important was Amer ican Suzuki's Masayuki Ito. A distinguished-looking japanese man, Mr. Ito is a quiet prese nce in the Yoshimura Suzuki pits who has the ear of those who matter. Any hesitance o n the part of Suzuki japan vanished. "Mr. Ito came thro ugh," Mladin said. The work being done in shops arou nd the world grad ually ma de its wa y onto the racebike. Fujio Yoshimura, the son of the legendary founder "Pops" Yoshimura , sent cams from japan. Henry Yukota, Mladin's engine builder, de veloped a new exhaust syste m at the te am's base in Chino, California. There was a ...