Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Reigning AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin will make his return to competition during the Yamaha Superbike Challenge March 5-7 at California Speedway. The first of three California races this season will mark Mladin’s first race action since crashing in practice at Daytona, suffering a fractured elbow, and undergoing subsequent surgery.

Even though he was in pain and less than 100% healed, the three-time AMA Superbike Champion rode in a test at Laguna Seca March 26-28. Even more amazing was the positive attitude of Mladin, one of the most intense competitors in any arena.

“You’ve got to be positive,” said 30-year-old Mladin on March 28. “We’ve won three Championships in the last three years and we got injured in the first race. It’s always hard to handle when you can’t race the first race of the year, especially when you’ve won it the last two years. It’s the way it goes. We’ve had a good run.

“You have to put things into perspective and realize that we’ve had a good run for three years, we had a bit of trouble there at Daytona and we need to pick ourselves up and keep going. It’s just one of those things. I think any team in the paddock will take three Championships and miss one Daytona, if you gave them the chance. I’ve been lucky that I haven’t been injured the last three or four years and have been able to do the job we’ve done. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and keep going. There’s 15 races to go and we’re 38 points out of the lead. It’s not over by a long shot.”

Mladin admitted that he was having trouble riding his Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 at the Laguna Seca test due to his injured left elbow. “Just anything to do with the left-handers is bothering me,” said the Australian. “It’s just anything where I’ve got a lot of pressure on my left hand or I’ve got to hold with my left arm to accelerate out of turns. I just can’t get up (to) the front of the bike. I just can’t really do what I want to do. That’s alright. By the looks of things, we’re only consistently half-a-second off the pace, maybe a little bit more, 0.7-second.

“This track is probably a lot worse than Fontana (California Speedway) when it comes for my elbow. This place has a lot of left-handers where you’re laying on it a long time, and a lot of left-handers where you’re actually braking for a long time and tipping into the corner (under) hard braking.

“I think Fontana, the turn one section as you drop off there, that fast chicane thing. That long turn one (the apron turn) and that first flip-flop might be a problem. I don’t think it will be as big of a problem as here, and with another week’s healing, I think I’ll be alright to go. I mean, it’s no excuses. We crashed. I crashed it. That’s it. That’s the way it goes. Shit happens.”

In his first time on a V-Twin in over six years and first time on a Ducati in eight years, HMC Ducati’s Doug Chandler recorded the fastest lap of the recent test at the Monterey, California track. Many observers at the test felt that Chandler’s smooth riding style and the Ducati 998RS were a good match. When asked about the match of Chandler and the Italian V-Twin Superbike, Mladin said, “The bike and anybody is a good match. You don’t win 10 World Championships out of 12 if it’s not a good motorcycle. This is the only country in the world where V-Twins haven’t dominated.

“That’s not taking anything away from anyone. I guess the best way to look at it is Doug’s consistently quicker than he’s ever been at Laguna Seca.

“It’s a good bike and he’d be the first one to tell you. It’s a good motorcycle. It’s a different breed. You’re talking a lot more horsepower, a lot more torque, a motorcycle that’s very well sorted out, a motorcycle that’s been around for a long time – sort of hard to beat. Now Ducati has a good, solid, steady rider on the bike. There was nobody out here that you’d ever put in front of Doug for that ride. The sheer fact that Doug didn’t have a ride for this year was a bit of a joke, if you ask me. He didn’t have a great year last year because he wasn’t comfortable on the bike and that sort of stuff, but I mean there’s a lot of people in this paddock that could do with his services.

“And you know what my thoughts are on the Superbike rules (1000cc V-Twin machines racing against 750cc Inline four-cylinder bikes), I think it’s a joke. Then people say to me, ‘Yeah, but you’ve won the last three Championships.’ I won the last three Championships because we’ve been the most organized team in the paddock, the best team in the paddock. Not because of the motorcycle I’m sitting on. In the 750 race, we would’ve won the Championship easy, no problem, a lot easier than what we’ve been winning it.”