Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

so h an d il y , earn in g him h is firs t AMA ti t le to go alo ng wi th the ones he wo n in A ustralia . T he events of th e c ha m pionship wee ke nd di m in ished M la di n's st ature in some people's view, bu t Mladin ste adfastly refuse d to allow it to detract from th e wo rk he and the team had do ne . T he eve nts of last se a son sti ll slightl y ra nkle M ladin, bu t not to the extent they mi ght have in th e past. Having su rvived the pressure of w in n ing the cha mpions hi p last year, Mladin is m ore rel axed at the rac etrack this year , less critical of others , less both er ed by th e see m ingly never -ending serie s of gaffes that affl ic ts the Superbike series . The focus is o n wi nni ng rac es, w h ich he's don e with increasi ng success, four out of the first six , eq ua li ng th e total he reached in 1997 when he ro de the Fast by Ferr acci Du cati. W in n ing has a way of curing all ills and , if he kee ps it up , he sho uld be able t o retain his title. He co uld lose , bu t he 'll have to bea t himself, w hich is how he nearl y lost th e title last year wi th his action s at Lag una Sec a. Mat M ladin has every reason to be p roud of wh at he and h is t eam accom p lished last year, and co ntinue to ac c om plish, though some will acc us e him of stepping over th e li ne into arroga nce. Well respected in the paddock fo r hi s wo rk ethic, he is not un iv ersally adm ired , which is fi ne wi th him. He has strong beliefs and opin ion s and has no trou ble dismissing criticism. Last year he and h is band of m erry men , lo ngtime wrench Reg O 'Ro urk e, co m pute r whiz Ammar Baz zaz. p lus engi ne man Yuji K ikuch i, work ed diligently to transfor m th e p er ennial m i s fortunes of t h e Yo shimura Suz uki tea m by winn ing th em their fi rst AMA Superbike titl e since 1989. T here is , and always will be , a deep em brace of th e bl u e collar , working cl ass upbring ing M l ad in lived in h is na tive Au stra li a. The now 28 -yea r -old AMA Superb ik e Champ ion was once a carpenter , lo ng hours of hard wo rk sw ingin g a hammer in th e broiling anti podean sun next to his f ather, a Croatian emigre . Wh ich help s ex plain why he did what he di d in Mo nterey last ye ar. He wo rks hard, probably hard er than any one else in the fiel d. If yo u w ant to beat Mlad in , y o u wo n't do i t by ou two rki ng h im. Th e sa me was al wa ys sa id o f f iv e -t im e 500c c Wo r ld Champ ion and fellow Austra lian Mick D oohan , on e of the few peop l e M l ad in o pe nly adm ires. M lad in infuses his team w ith a simil ar app ro ac h and is gen ero us in sharing the rec ognition . Mladin returns to Laguna Seca as something of the co nquering hero and with a good chanc e to win a rac e he 's never won . He' s been second twice in M ont erey , m ost re c en t ly last y ear . If th e re i s a fa vo r ite c o m ing in , it would hav e to be Mlad in o r American Honda 's N i cky Hayden, th e Sup erb ik e rookie who doesn't ride like one . Hayden has won th e two races Ml ad in ha sn 't , both ends of th e Superbike dou blehead er at Road America . Part of Hay den 's success at Elkhart Lake was du e t o th e impres sively strong Honda RC51 . Laguna won 't play to its top-end str engths, th ough it will all ow him to burst out of corn er s. Hav ing been fast everywhere they ' ve go ne , there 's no doubt that the techn ic al crew, led by Merlyn Pluml ee, will put a bike und er Hayden that he 's c omfo rt ab le w ith and capable of winning on . Becaus e the A M A race is be ing run th e sam e week end as the Worl d Superbike r ac e , it will be something of an aud itio n for Hayd en , th e firs t cha nce he' s h ad to show off his prec o c i o usn ess. M lad in , on the ot her hand , doesn 't see it as a stage, "beca us e I really d on 't care to go to World Super bi k e ," he says . In a perfect world he'd be given another chance to r ac e a 5 0 0 . Th e t im es he p o st ed w he n h e rode Ken ny Rob e rt s Jr.'s facto ry RGV- Suzuk i at Phillip Isla nd were im pressive for a number of reasons . F irst was th e fact that he ha dn 't bee n o n a 500 sin ce he rod e th e Cag iva in 199 3. S ec ondl y , h e wa s on Mich eli n ti res, a brand he ha sn 't use d since th e Fe r ra cci yea rs . Thirdly , he rode th e bi k e wi th Rob erts ' set -up and seating position , wh ich was m ore th an a little cramped for th e t all er and heav ier Mladin. Still , Rob ert s and th e team paid cl ose attention and were impressed with how he rod e, how p rec ise he wa s with his lines and in the co mers. Un fortunat el y , he 's not Sp an ish , w hich means he has ve ry little chance of getting a seat on th e Suzuki 500 c c GP team th at i s sponso re d b y Te lefonica Movi Sta r , a Sp an ish telecom m un ica t ions gia nt. Mo st likel y t he ride w ill go t o Marl bo ro Yamaha's Carlos Chec a. Kawasak i's Dou g Cha ndler wo uld have to be co n sid ered the next m ost lik ely threat. Chandler lives in nearby Sal ina s and wo n in Mon terey in 1996 and '9 7. Ho r sep ower is th e si ngle b ig g est imp rove ment, M l ad in says o f t he Suz uki GSX - R7 50 , a nd it w ill show on th e accelera tio n on the strai g hts of Lagun a, out of turn I I (or 12 is it?) and up th e hill o ut of turn six to the Co rkscrew. "Fast corners , o k ay , our bi k e wor k ed prett y well all t he tim e be caus e w e' ve ha d t o m ak e it work th rough the c orn ers," Ml ad in said. " If you don 't ha ve speed, an d in prev ious years we haven' t ha d an y spee d , then you've had to m ak e it work in corners . We'v e go t th at no w and we' ve got th e spee d no w. I shou ld say, I th ought w e had the sp eed u ntil last week [at Road A m eric a] . And the bi k e's good, on a clear la p we ca n go as fast as anyone . But, in th e [Road America] race , we realized that we need some m ore, but Laguna won 't be as critic al as Road A meric a. When yo u pu t that tall geari ng on the V-tw ins, th ey ha ve so much torque , that th ey pull through the g earing really eas y . Where w ith o u r thing , it j ust di es; it reall y does di e a little bit. That's the wa y it goes ." Th e team Mladi n assembled last year grows more sy ne rgistic w ith eac h pas sin g rac e and the resu lts ca n be seen in th e result s. " I t h ink o ur m a in th in g t h is year, is , o ne , t he eng ine's be tter, defin it ely . A nd , two , we have a great lo ad of da ta tha t we ca n refer back to . Since Amar r's co me o n the t eam and st arted working wit h m e and Reg - bet ween us we get a lo t of stuff sorte d out and we tweak a lot of stuff. We kn ow ex ac tl y where we are all the time, and that's m ad e all th e di ff erence in th e world ," Mladin sa ys. "We kn ow wh ere th e bike is now all the time ." More than most tracks , Lag una demands p reci sio n and to ach iev e that you have to have a motor cy cl e you 're very comfo rta ble w ith. T he na ture of the l ayout is such that a rider c a n break away , unlike o n th e faster h ig h -speed ci rc ui t s, which ten d to produce cl oser racing . " If you 're with in a second of t he lead er yo u' re g oing to ha ve a draft and so rt o f run in t here, " Ml adi n said of places like Road America and Bra in er d. "Lag una 's one of th o se tracks where yo u 've got to link all the corners tog ether and you 've got t o be smooth . And I struggled up the re fo r the fi rst c o up le of yea rs that I arrived here bec aus e I'm not that sty le of rider - I' m a point and shoot type of r id er. And Lagu na is definitel y one of those type tracks th at i f you m ak e a mistake in o ne co rn er and yo u try t o m ak e up in the next one, you land wrong . A nd that's why Antho ny Gobert 's done well there, h e's good at th at . Wh en he's o n , he's good at tha t. A nd t hat' s why he's done so well th er e. Over th e la st couple of yea rs we 've had a good set -up an d w e ' v e been u p th ere . We have n' t run w ith A ntho ny, bu t we were th e next best sort o f th ing. Bu t ag a in , t hey h ad so meth ing t ha t wa s pretty fast. " Mladin k nows th at with th e impending arrival of a new ra cebik e fo r 2001 th ere won't be an y new p arts for Laguna Sec a. "It' s a little worry ," he adm it s. "H onda have got th e new b ik e and th ey're dev elopin g hard and Nic k y [Hayde n] sai d he's got more pow er com ing , and I'm say ing, 'Well, the y don 't need any m ore power .' .. He did say th ey ge t almost ide ntical gear to the A lstare Suzuk i World Superb ik e tea m, and there's o nly a sli ght de lay in gettin g th e same parts. Th i s yea r , L a guna Sec a comes l a t e r in t he cha m p io nship th an usual. It's t he beginning o f th e second half of the sea so n, followe d a week lat er by th e fina l Superbik e doubl eh eader at M id -Oh io. Having padded hi s c ha m pions h ip le ad to 14 po ints with his Loudon wi n , Mladin is in co nt rol. O f more rel evan c e t o h im is th e chance to win three ra ces in a h urr y. "T wo rac es to go [w hich wo u ld be Pik e 's Peak Inte rn ational Rac ew ay] if we 're in a posit ion to th ink ab out th e ch am pionshi p , th en we w ill, " Ml adin sai d. "Unti l th en , I do n't reall y c are a bit , and tha t's the truth . I do want to wi n it: D on 't get m e w rong, bu t I want to win races . And I' ve proven th is year tha t if we want t o win ra ces we can." eN c u e .• e n e _ S • J U LY 5 , 2000 53

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