Testing And More Testing For Mladin

Testing And More Testing For Mladin

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by Mat Mladin’s publicist:

MLADIN RELISHES SUPERBIKE TESTING PROGRAM

Australia’s Mat Mladin may be leading the 2003 American Superbike Championship at present, but this position has not altered his Yoshimura Suzuki team’s attitudes to continually improve the Suzuki GSX-R1000 that they are campaigning for the first time in the championship.

Fresh from a double victory at the California Speedway in Fontana (April 6), Mladin has had little time to relax as he and his Yoshimura Suzuki team have completed two valuable test sessions at Road Atlanta (Georgia) and Pikes Peak (Colorado) over the past week.

As he has been for much of this season, Mladin was the fastest rider at the three-day Road Atlanta test which was held last week. With all of the major teams present, Mladin recorded a best time of 1:23.88 around the Georgian circuit, outpacing teammate Aaron Yates who recorded the second fastest time of the test with a 1:24.18.

“It was a good test for us at Road Atlanta as we were able to get further ahead with the bike,” said Mladin. “With the new bike we have had a lot more input and attention from Suzuki, who sent out two of their leading technicians for the test. To have these people present at the test is invaluable. We can learn so much from it and getting a better understanding of what we are doing with the bike.

“At the end we were consistently quicker than the other guys, so that’s the main thing. We were quick from when we first rolled the bike out of the truck on the first day, so that’s a nice feeling in itself.

“We have been able to improve the chassis set up of the bike immensely over what it was early in the year. It’s a shame we aren’t heading back to Daytona to race this year, because the bike is running so much better now than what it was in March and we have sorted the chassis out to a point where we are getting much more improved tyre wear.

“The new Suzuki is coming along nicely, but we are still down a little bit on top end speed, which does come down to the aerodynamic package that we have. Some of the other teams have spent a lot of time working on this area, but we are still to do so.”

With the Road Atlanta test completed, the team headed to Pikes Peak in Colorado where they tested for two days. In contrast to the Road Atlanta test, they were the only team present at Colorado.

“Pikes Peak is certainly one track that I’ve struggled on in the past, so it was good to come up and get our bike onto an oval type track and see what happens. The lap times were encouraging compared to what we did last year, so we were very happy with what we have achieved here along with last week’s test.”

With this series of testing completed, Mladin is preparing himself for the upcoming double header round (rounds 4 & 5) of the championship at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California on May 3 & 4. The three-times AMA Superbike champion heads the championship points chase with a total of 99 points, seven clear of Honda’s Miguel DuHamel.

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