From a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

Yoshimura Suzuki team test
Sepang, Malaysia

MALAYSIA TEST SEES MLADIN SHARE TIME ON BOTH SUZUKI SUPERBIKE AND MotoGP MACHINES


Four times American Superbike Champion Mat Mladin has returned to Australia after completing a solid four-day test session at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia where he shared track time with fellow Team Yoshimura Suzuki rider Aaron Yates and a number of the factory supported MotoGP teams.

The off-season Malaysian test saw 31-year-old Mladin continue to work on the development of his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 in preparation for his title defence in this years AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship that commences at Daytona on March 6.

While at Sepang, Mladin was provided the opportunity to complete a number of laps aboard Team Suzuki’s factory prepared GSV-R MotoGP machine. Reports from the circuit had Mladin circulating at 2 – 3 seconds off the pace of regular team riders Kenny Roberts and John Hopkins. A remarkable effort given the short period of track time, difference in machine performance and characteristics and different brand of tyres that he is familiar with.

“I had about an hour on the bike which saw me do about a dozen or so flying laps,” said Mladin. “It turned out to be rather frustrating actually as I was initially told that I could have a full day on the bike to try and put an independent evaluation in it. In the end I didn’t get enough time on the bike to give them too much to work on.”

The main focus of the four-day test was for Mladin and his crew to take advantage of clear weather conditions and maximise track time aboard the Superbike. Rule changes that affect the performance of their championship-winning GSX-R1000 for this coming season have the team searching for the best possible overall package that will allow them to remain at the top of the championship.

“There wasn’t as much new stuff to test as we had here last year”, added Mladin. “We’ve run the bike for a season now, so we were here just trying to sort things out to comply with the rule changes for this year. The altered rules that have seen us go back to standard throttle bodies and air boxes has robbed us of a lot of horsepower, so we just have to work on making the bike better for that situation.”

“We’ll reconfirm a lot of what we did when we return to America and go to Fontana (California Speedway) in a couple of weeks time.”

“It was a tough test, where I had a few other things on my mind, so I’m actually looking forward to heading back to the States next week and knuckling down to the work that we have and make sure we are ready for the start of the season.”

No official lap times were available for either Mladin or Yates from the test.

Mladin will be aiming to stretch his unprecedented tally of American Superbike Championship titles to five as he heads into this years 18-race Championship.