Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Contrary to statements he made at the December 2003 Dunlop tire test at Daytona International Speedway, four-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin will race in the 2004 Daytona 200 AMA Superbike season opener.

“I’ll do my absolute best to see that I don’t have to come and race here in March. I prefer to start with a 37-point deficit than come and race here (Daytona),” Mladin told Roadracingworld.com December 10, 2003, one day after the rear Dunlop tire on Jason DiSalvo’s Graves Yamaha YZF-R1 Superstock racebike exploded at 180 mph during testing at Daytona.

DiSalvo’s tire failure and his resulting long, high-speed slide down the Daytona pavement came less than two months after Mladin’s own teammate, 2003 AMA Formula Xtreme Champion Ben Spies, had another rear Dunlop explode at 186 mph at Daytona.

While DiSalvo was relatively uninjured, Spies suffered serious skin abrasions, some requiring surgical skin grafts, and was forced to miss three months of off-season physical training and preparations.

But Mladin’s feelings have now changed…somewhat.

“Sometimes you say things that I shouldn’t say you don’t really mean, but in the anger of the moment (pause) we were guaranteed that we wouldn’t have those tire problems,” Mladin told Roadracingworld.com Wednesday, February 4. “And when it happened near the end of the second day of a three-day test, it certainly becomes one of those things where it starts getting a bit old and you’re thinking as you go out on the racetrack it could be your last time out there.

“I’ll be at Daytona, whether I’ll be competitive or not is another story. I’ll certainly stay safe, let’s put it that way.”

Asked if anything had happened since the December test at Daytona to reinstall his confidence in Dunlop tires, Mladin simply said, “No.”