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Posts Tagged ‘Mat Mladin’

Mladin to Compete in Final Round of AMA Pro Racing Competition as No. 1 at New Jersey

August 21st, 2009 No comments

Mladin to Compete in Final Round of AMA Pro Racing Competition as No. 1 at New Jersey
7-time Champion’s Bike to be Renumbered for AMA Pro Superbike Championship Weekend

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (August 21, 2009) – Mat Mladin, the most successful rider in the 34-year history of AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited competition, clinched an unprecedented seventh title last weekend and will close out the season’s remaining doubleheader aboard his familiar Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 with the No. 1 plate symbolic of his 2009 championship during the AMA Pro Superbike Championship Weekend, to be held September 4 – 6 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

“The request came in from Yoshimura Suzuki that Mladin be allowed to renumber his Suzuki GSX-R1000 with No. 1 for the final round of the 2009 season,” said Roger Edmondson, President of AMA Pro Racing. “We consider it a fitting tribute to the most prolific champion that American Superbike has ever seen.”

The 37-year old Australian has raced motorcycles for the past 28 years, earning championships in amateur Flat Track and Motocross before being picked up by a factory team and claiming his first Australian Superbike Championship in 1992. The road racing standout arrived in America in 1996, leading portions of several races during his rookie season in American Superbike competition. Mladin signed with Ferracci Ducati for 1997 and earned his first four AMA Pro wins that year. His most successful years began when he signed with Yoshimura Suzuki in 1998, taking seven poles and winning the Las Vegas finale in his first season with the team. From 1999 to 2009, Mladin amassed seven championships and an additional 77 official victories for Yoshimura Suzuki and will have the opportunity to score two more race wins in New Jersey.

“In the end we’re looking forward to getting home, both of us, and getting home to our family,” said Mladin, who will return to New South Wales with wife Janine and their two young children after the New Jersey event. “As much as a lot of people don’t realize, we both have mothers and fathers and you don’t see them that often. It’s going to be nice. In a couple of weeks in New Jersey, my mom is going to come over, and my sister. They were obviously a big part of my career in my early days and it’s going to be nice to get home, for the kids to have their grandparents around and for Janine and I to dump the kids with the grandparents every now and then and go catch a movie.”

The AMA Pro Superbike Championship Weekend will be featured in a pair of same-day telecasts on SPEED. Saturday’s American Superbike and Daytona SportBike finals will be shown that night in a two-hour show at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT) while Sunday’s premier class races and other highlights will air in a two-hour show that evening at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).
AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines.  From its Daytona Beach headquarters, the organization operates and manages AMA Pro Road Racing, which includes AMA Pro American Superbike, AMA Pro Daytona SportBike, AMA Pro SuperSport and AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT.  AMA Pro Racing also manages and works closely with the day-to-day operational organizations of the AMA Pro Flat Track Championship and the AMA Pro Supermoto Championship Series in addition to other two-wheel and ATV series.  Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com.

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Motourage Video of the Day: Mat Mladin gets the #1 plate at VIR

August 19th, 2009 No comments

Motourage was in the front row at the AMA Big Kahuna Nationals this past weekend when Mat Mladin was named the 2009 AMA Pro Racing American Superbike champion. His seventh title came after three years of losing out to World Superbike rookie Ben Spies, the most recent title loss partially due to a controversial disqualification at last year’s VIR round.  As of Sunday’s race, Mladin had amassed enough points to clinch the 2009 championship, and he was awarded the #1 plate immediately following race 2.

Throughout his 13-season AMA career, the 37-year-old three-time Daytona 200 winner has racked up an impressive number of records including most starts, podiums, poles, wins and championships.  He has been an outspoken opponent of many of the new DMG-instituted rules for the new AMA and an advocate for rider safety.  Following this year’s Heartland Park round, Mladin announced he would retire at the end of the season.

Today’s Motourage video of the day features Mat Mladin being awarded the #1 plate at this past weekend’s AMA Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.

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Motourage Video of the Day: Mat Mladin at VIR

August 18th, 2009 No comments

Although Mat Mladin only managed to reach the podium once at the Big Kahuna Nationals at VIR this past weekend, he still scored enough points to clinch the AMA Pro Racing American Superbike championship.  Motourage got the inside view of his Speed Channel interview immediately after Sunday’s Superbike race 2.

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Motourage Video of the Day: Mat Mladin Interview

August 13th, 2009 No comments

This weekend is the 10th-annual AMA Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.  If you were there last year, you’ll remember the way Mat Mladin dominated the racetrack, besting teammate and rival Ben Spies by eight seconds in race one and nine seconds in race two.  VIR in 2008 marked Mladin’s fifth and sixth consecutive AMA Superbike wins.

Without the challenge from Spies, the AMA American Superbike class has been the Mat Mladin show this year. He currently leads the championship chase by 83 points over teammate Tommy Hayden and could clinch the title at VIR, although Mladin refused to race at the last round in Topeka citing safety concerns.  Hayden, who finished third in both races last year at VIR, secured a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the previous Big Kahuna weekend and is very likely to continue his success at this track.  Although it’s obvious the fire still burns, Mladin’s domination had to come to an end sometime, and the six-time AMA Superbike champion has chosen to go out on top, announcing that he will retire from professional motorcycle racing at the end of the season.

Mat Mladin will certainly leave behind a legacy.  His six championships are an AMA Superbike record; no other rider has won more than three.  He holds series records for wins (75), poles (50), wins in a season (11) and poles in a season (10), and has won the Daytona 200 three times.  He is an outspoken advocate for rider safety, and, most recently, has been extremely vocal about his dissatisfaction with the decisions and actions of DMG in its management of the series.

In today’s Motourage Video of the Day, Yoshimura caught up with Mat back in June to get his views on mental toughness.  Enjoy the video, and we’ll see you this weekend in Virginia.

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