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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128620
Mat M ladin "Fortuna tely , I don't read the rulebook every night like it' s a Bib le or so methi ng , but I kn ow certai n rules and the rules are at 50% race the AMA has the d isc re t ion to call the ra c e a nd at 8 0 % it will be c alled," he says. "Ant ho ny [Gobe rt] a nd I had com pleted eno ugh lap s that we 'd passed 80%, fro m fifth pla c e ba c k ma yb e d idn 't, something like that. And we were j us t unde r what we ne eded t o be fo r an a bsolute complet ion, which was 22 laps. We 'd don e 22 la ps; we we re on our 23rd out of 28 la ps. To me , it was to tall y ridic u lou s to st a rt it up as a s ix -lap Natio nal. That' s ho w I fe lt a nd I let the m know it when th ey dec ided.· It's a n old. ar gument: Sh ould th e races be scored o n ag g regate t ime as t he y do in th e Gr a nds Prix? "It' s confus ing to fa ns to do it th at way ," goes one a rgumen t, "b ut fa ir to th e ride rs .· Th e a rgument is irrelevant bec au se th e AMA rule is to score the races on track pos ition only. AMA ro ad ra c e manage r Ron Ba rric k sa w th e s ituation in La gu n a Seca that da y d iffe rentl y t h a n Mlad in. S TO RY AND P HOT OS H EN NY R A Y ABRAMS By a t Mladin had little interest in the podium ce le bration , t h e c h a m p a g ne , the h a t d an c e , the tra p pings of success . He was second, after a ll, beaten by fellow Aus s ie Anthony Gob ert, and was in no mood to tolerat e what woul d soon tra ns pire on that sunny Su nd a y a fte rnoon la st spring at La gun a Sec a. It had bee n a da rk day for Mlad in an d a dark da y for AMA road racing in gene ra l, ma ybe the da rkest of the yea r, or m an y years , a nd Mladin , who 'd found him self a t odds with th e AMA a time o r two , wa s a t th e c enter of it. In a nutsh e ll wha t ha ppe ne d is this : Th e 2 8 -lap Superb ike Nat ional had been red -fl agg ed o n th e 23 rd lap with Vanc e [, Hine s Duca ti's Gobert c omfort ab ly in front; Mlad in equally comforta ble in sec on d . Th e ride rs returned to the pits to await an AMA decis ion o n co ntinu ing th e race . The AMA wa s s low to make a d ecis ion , in Mlad in's view , a nd th at wa s th e c rit ica l e rro r. He pic ks it up from th ere . M 52 J U LY 5 . 2000 · cue I e n e vv s "It is in our rule book, " Ba rric k said. "Th at is the rule . The race wasn't 80 perc ent complete yet. The fans we re there to see ra cing and we wer e there to p ut on a raci ng event. And the ra c e rs are pa id to ra ce ." Wha t distresse d Mladin most was the indecis ion , a fa ult ofte n c ite d by AMA crit ics . "The y didn 't de cide an ything and that's whe re the big gest pro ble m was , I th in k," Mladi n sa id. "If the AMA wo u ld ha ve said , 'Listen yo u're goi ng racing, see you later, five min utes , you 're ou t of he re .' then I don't thi nk ther e woul d ha ve be en a prob lem , but it wo u ldn 't ha ve o pen e d u p the gates for peop le to come in. Th e gate was open and I c a m e in a nd expressed my be lief. And to this day I still believe I was rig ht. I ca n 't see how yo u can th row 22 la ps away a nd ru n a s ix-lap Nat ional and , to this day ... Anthony and I in qualifying both done five laps on a qualifier, five fast lap s . If I had a qualify ing t ire mounted and re a dy and hot, I could have won that race easily, because I wou ld have used it." Th e brouhaha was shown on tel e vision - Mlad in ha ving words with opposing team m embe rs , riders like Ben Bo strom, on th e pit lane . But th ere 's more. In the e nd, Mla d in finis he d second to Gobert in th e s ix-la p Nat ion a l. On th e victo ry sta nd he was handed a facsim ile ch e c k th at had his surname spelled wrong . It m ight seem like a s m a ll th ing , but it wounded the pr ide he takes in his name, and it was a mistake they'd re pe ated ly made . He could tolerate it no more. "I think the final st raw was on the podium ," he reca lls, st ill slightly smarting from th e incident over a year later whe n he discussed it before the Loudon National. "I st ill had the sh its . Obvious ly, I was still pissed off a bout the who le incident. I had to go a nd d o six laps . And th e AMA h a ve writte n a lo t o f checks to me since I've be en here for four years a nd they still ca n't spell m y name right - m y last name. And I said so me thing about it. It wa s a s illy thin g to do , but s till, the guy th at's writing the ch ecks should know how to spell someo ne' s name. It's disrespectful. It was so fa r o ff it was unb elie vable a nd I sa id somethi ng o n the podium , whic h I s hou ldn't ha ve . It was petty." Initially the AMA suspended Mlad in for the ne xt ra c e at Road Atlanta , offering to re voke the suspe nsio n if he wrote a lett e r of a pology. "I'm not too pro ud to write an apolog y lette r," he says . "I believe that what ha ppe ned shouldn 't ha ve happened at Laguna. I be lie ve th e AMA is at more fau lt than an ybo dy else for not making th e ir decision on th e spot. Th at's th e big gest proble m th at we 've had througho ut th e who le serie s - de cis ion s don't get m ad e straight away ." The senti ment was ec hoed just la st we ek when th ey to ok m os t of the aft e rnoon befo re de c iding to sc rap Sunda y 's Superbike Nat ion al a t Loudon . Th e troubles with the AMA didn 't end a t Laguna. Th er e were mo re at the season fina le a t Pike 's Peak Intern a t ion a l Racewa y whe re h e wa s acc us e d o f s lowin g down in front of V[,H Duc ati 's Ben Bostrom. Th e p enalty th ere was th e loss of th e p o int he 'd earned for winn ing th e pole po s it ion , bu t tha t was it. He ha d to beat Bostrom to win the race a nd he did