From a press release issued by Carolina Breeze and Carolinabreeze.com editor Bruce Wilkins, who covers road racing at VIR in his local newspaper and on his website, and who in conjunction with this award made a contribution to the Roadracing World Action Fund in Mladin’s name:
Mat Mladin Named Carolinabreeze.com’s Athlete of the Year
By Bruce Wilkins
When his game face is on, Mat Mladin can be arrogant, cold-blooded, cocky, and outspoken. This 31-year-old Australian can even be a sore loser who refuses to come to the podium or post-race press conference if he finishes as high as second. But make no mistake about: in the ranks of the AMA Superbike series, Mat Mladin is the greatest motorcycle racer in America.
Controversey followed in his blistering wake all season long which culminated in his fourth AMA Superbike national championship. Always one to speak his mind, no matter who it bothered, Mladin dominated the track just as he did the topics of discussion in the corporate boardrooms of motorcycle and tire manufacturers, and no doubt, the AMA itself.
Forget those comparisons to other colorful Australians like Mel Gibson or Russell Crowe. This isn’t a pampered, overpaid actor with stunt men doing the dirty work. This is a man as tough as steel who can walk away from a tire blowout at 170 miles an hour and later roll his eyes when asked how scary the incident happened to be. “Hey, this is road racing. Things like that happen. No big deal,” was his response to my question several weeks after the Road Atlanta incident.
Yet, it WAS a big deal, especially if you happened to be among the numerous racers who had high-speed blowouts throughout the season and even into a post-season testing session at Daytona. But when it comes to rider safety, there is clearly no other person in the paddock who will stand up for safety issues as often and as effectively as Mat Mladin.
Of course, he can do so, because what is anybody going to say? Is he going to be fired from his team? What team in their right mind would fire one of the all-time great motorcycle road racers, especially when he has mastered the courses across the entire United States?
No, Mladin will not be fired nor thrown out of the sport. In fact, he’s the Dale Earnhardt Sr. of AMA Superbike racing. No holds barred, completely and absolutely totally without any fear whatsoever, and so intense that he could eat through the chin section of his helmet. For the legions who complain about Mladin, it’s not that the sport doesn’t need him…it’s that the sport needs about five more like him and the well-financed teams that such a scenario would require.
Mladin won a series-high ten races in the 2003 season, including one at our home track of VIR, appearing out of nowhere on the first race, shooting to the front when Kurtis Roberts blew a tire after dominating the race. Mladin is far more than just a tough, fearless rider. He’s perhaps the most intelligent rider on the circuit and even though he was wisely playing a late-season points lead protection strategy, he saw an opening for a win and he expertly took it. He is, after all, THE MAN.
A couple of years ago during the off-season, Mladin posted several times on the WERA BBS, an extremely popular internet chatroom for club-level motorcycle road racers in North America. When he first posted, most doubted that it was really Mladin, including myself. In fact, his posts were so intelligent and his writing was so stylish, I even offered that this couldn’t be the work of a professional athlete, but instead, that it had to be a publicist. I was wrong. Mat Mladin’s career has blossomed more than just because of his dedication to staying in shape and an immense amount of natural talent. His high intelligence is a major factor that has helped him to dominate American motorcycle road racing.
Oh, he was severely criticized by many fans and even by many of those in the paddock for not always standing rigidly at attention when the Stars and Stripes were played before races. Well, even though I’m a proud former Marine, I will have to say a few words in his defense. Yes, he should have been more respectful, but then again, have we as “true-blue” Americans ever adequately respected what Australia went through in World War II, not to mention how they have always been a valuable ally in virtually every war we’ve fought?
No American city was bombed during World War II, but the Australian port city of Darwin was bombed by the Japanese over 50 times. Some of the roughest fighting in the entire war, under the most horrible of conditions, took place in New Guinea, with Australian soldiers leading the way through jungle conditions worse than in Viet Nam. In fact, not only was it an intense jungle, but much of it was up and over the Owen Stanley Mountains, compounding the situation. But how many American history books have mentioned that?
Even in modern times, the nightclub bombing in Bali took a higher per capita kill ratio of Australians than what the 9-11 bombings took in the United States. But how often do we stop to reflect on that? And Australian Special Forces accomplished quite a bit during the War in Iraqi, including finding a squadron of Iraqi jets hidden in the desert. I talked to several Marines who came back from the Gulf and they were highly complimentary of Australian troops. And do I even have to mention Gallipoli? So, before American citizens jump so fast to criticize Mladin’s pre-race antics, let’s just put everything in perspective.
Besides, any close and astute observer of AMA racing will tell you that there is nobody out there who can play the “mind game” of the sport better than Mat Mladin. Nobody — no nation — is going to out-psych this dude. He probably loves this country a great deal, but he’s also probably thinking, “Let’s get on with the bloody race!”
Another angle of criticism often heard about Mladin is that he wasn’t successful in his move to the world level of racing, which is the epitome for motorcycle road racing. So what? He didn’t have a good ride, the stars were not aligned properly, and so he came back to dominate the road courses in America.
That experience cannot in anyway detract from his immense success in our country and frankly, I’m glad he DOES race here. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to photograph and interview Dale Earnhardt Sr. many times when I covered Winston Cup racing in the late-eighties and early-nineties. Is anybody going to say that Dale Sr. wasn’t a true racing legend because he never went to Europe to win in Formula 1?
Switching over to extreme sport coverage with motorcycle road racing, I certainly appreciate watching Mladin on the track, and yes, even interviewing him on pit lane or in press conferences, which he probably enjoys about as much as having a root canal. I will venture that I know why he is like that. He knows the dangers that he and his fellow racers go through, yet he sees how little they are paid in terms of salaries and endorsements as compared to virtually every other professional sport in America. So, why should he put up with the annoyance of reporters, worrying about if they will quote him correctly or in the right context? He obviously wants to mainly focus on two things: his family and winning on the track.
This is all one of the truly ironic aspects of AMA Pro Racing. There are several great talents — legends in fact — walking around any AMA paddock. But while they may be paid well and known well throughout the motorcycle world, they are paid almost nothing compared to the likes of the babies who play such safe, grandmotherish sports like golf.
Motorcycle road racing is a sport so dangerous that in a split second a rider can be killed instantly or paralyzed for life. In a phony world that seems askew in how money is handed out in professional sports, road racing represents the best of what a true sport should be: competition, danger, strenuous effort, and ultra fine balancing and reaction skills. This is not a sport that when a mistake is made, there’s a stroke added to the score card or a two-shot foul is rendered. This is where you can suddenly be launched like a rocket over the top of your handlebars to land who knows where and who knows how.
There is absolutely nothing phony about motorcycle road racing, which is why it has become our favorite sports beat to cover on www.carolinabreeze.com.
In the year 2003, there was one masterful athlete who overcame deteriorating tires, a hidden sickness, and even maintained his complete focus through the birth of his first child. Nothing came in the way of this living legend in his goal to win his fourth national championship. Focused, tough, fearless, and take-no-#@%& from anybody, Mat Mladin is our clear choice for the 2003 Carolinabreeze.com Athlete of the Year.
