Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown Teleconference Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) Note: Six-time AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin, who is the most decorated rider in AMA history with 54 career Superbike victories, took part in a teleconference with media members from Northern California in advance of the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, presented by Supercuts, at Infineon Raceway, May 18-20. Below is a transcript of the teleconference: Mat, you are certainly off to a tremendous start to the season. Can you talk about the start to the season and your motivation for recapturing the championship? MM: You know, this year’s been a good year so far. From a motivation side of things, there was a little bit of talk last year that maybe my time was up and maybe it was time to move over and let the young kids have a bit of a go, but the fact of the matter is I won’t go away that easily. I worked hard in the off season, and since Daytona we have wins in three of the last four races and have had a good, hard season so far. It really has been a contentious season so far, particularly with you and Ben Spies. Do you see any of yourself in Ben? Maybe when you were 20 years old? MM: I don’t know him that well, to be honest with you. We are teammates, but we don’t really see much of each other or speak to each other. When I was his age, I won a national championship back in Australia, so from a results standpoint there are certainly some similarities, but otherwise not really. There are a lot of young riders getting into the sport, what would your advice be to them? MM: I think it’s important that first and foremost these guys get themselves to (the) race track to go fast and stay off the street. All professional racers ride fast, but we do it safely and within the limits of the law. Unfortunately, there’s too much of this other stuff going on. Get yourself to a track day, to a day when all of the bikes are going the same way. Get yourself there and see how you go. Things like that are probably the easiest way to get an idea of where you stand. The AMA has scheduled the Hangtown event in Sacramento on the same weekend as the Superbike event in Sonoma. What do you see as being the big difference between two sides of motorcycle racing? MM: The main similarities are that they’re both motorcycles and they’ve got two wheels. That’s about it. I’ve done both on a professional side, including motocross in my early days, but they’re very, very different. Ben Spies swept the two races at Infineon Raceway last year, is that on your payback schedule? Is this one weekend you’ve marked on your calendar? MM: You know, he swept the two at Barber and the two at Fontana last year, as well, and we’ve taken three of the last four this year. It’s not something we’re taking on a negative note, perhaps it’s something he’s taking on a positive note. Certainly we’ve taken away that positive. I’m looking forward to getting together and putting a good solid race on, and getting inducted into the Wall of Fame will be fun. I’ll get to see me ingrained in that track for a long time, which will be fun. You passed Miguel Duhamel for the all-time Superbike win record a while back. Do goals like that cross your mind? MM: Not really. Miguel’s got wins in a bunch of different classes. My records have all been set in the premier class, in Superbike. I think Miguel might have 32 wins in Superbike, but I’ve got 50-something (54) and six championships to Miguel’s one. Do tracks where you’ve broken records become your favorites? MM: Every track has to be my favorite track. You can’t go to a track and say you’re not going to perform. You have to be comfortable on most of the tracks. I’ve always looked at racing that way. I’ve always said, a racetrack is just a bunch of corners, connected by a bunch of straights, and that’s how I look at them. Can you talk about the unique personality of Infineon Raceway? MM: Infineon is probably one of the most challenging tracks we go to. It has a bunch of corners connected by very few straights. It’s a rider’s track, that’s for sure. It has a lot of blind corners over little hills. It’s certainly one of the most challenging tracks each year. This season is shaping up to me one of the more competitive in AMA history, is that how you thought it would be? MM: I knew Ben would be tough, although I’m not sure that everyone was so confident that I’d be as tough as I’ve turned out to be this year. It’s going to be a competitive year since both of us are riding pretty good, and it’s just a mater of who’s going to get the most wins. The race in Fontana seemed to be a particularly exciting one. MM: The race in Fontana was a good race, and it was reasonably comfortable for us the first two-thirds or so. We had a bit of tire delamination that we were fighting, but then it was just a matter of staying strong and holding him off, and we managed to do that. Do you think the AMA needs more races like that to help generate interest for the casual fan? MM: For sure. Anyone who says that AMA races have been pretty boring so far needs a new set of bifocals, right? You mentioned that you’ve been working hard in the off season. What have you been doing to get ready? MM: There are a bunch of different types of trainings that we do. I actually started a training company, and you can join and see what I do, if you’d like. Would you have the motivation to push yourself like you do without Ben? MM: No, I think it would be very difficult. Things were pretty easy for a few years, and I got a little lazy and complacent. It all caught up with me in the end. You really like your privacy. Is that hard to balance when you’re a star of the sport? MM: As motorcycle racers, we have a lot on our plate at the race track and away at testing. Away from the track, we don’t do much press stuff. I certainly enjoy promoting the sport, but away from the track I like to spend time with my family and get away from it, but I certainly try to do what I’m asked to do to promote the sport and get it to the next level. Suzuki is dominant in Superbike, and has been for a while. Why is Suzuki so dominant? MM: To be honest with you, I think Suzuki makes great sport bikes. Also, over the years, Suzuki has become very strong and having the right riders to keep pushing you along, and good development riders, certainly helps develop the motorcycles into race-winning motorcycles. Is that because they put so much into the development? MM: Yeah, for sure. They’ve worked very, very hard at delivering us good bikes and over the years, Suzuki has certainly proven that when it comes to building good bikes, they’ve won a lot of championships and their record speaks for itself. With all of your wins at Infineon and with all of the improvements there, is it one of your favorites? MM: They’ve done a lot of work on the race track, and we tested up there a month or so ago. There is still some work that needs to be done, but they’ve come a long way. It’s certainly one of my favorites because it’s so challenging. I like a good challenge and Infineon is a fun track to race around, that’s for sure. What is your relationship like with Ben Spies? MM: We don’t have one, really, to be honest with you. He’s a lot younger than me and he does a lot of different things. We’re teammates and we’re competitors, and we seem to be the two guys on the track who seem to be fighting it out. There’s certainly no love lost between us. What are your expectations for Infineon Raceway? MM: My expectation is to win a couple of races. We need to do that to gain some points on Ben and really make a run for the championship. You’d mentioned that you may have become a little complacent after wining all the championships, how has Ben helped you rededicate yourself to winning championships? MM: Well, the biggest help was obviously kicking my butt last year. That was the number one thing. Number two, knowing how strong he is and knowing that he’s a very good motorbike rider. Knowing that I’d have to really work to keep up with him and beat him. I know I’m a pretty good rider, I’ve got a few wins myself, but at 35 years old, it certainly takes a lot of work to keep up with a 22 year old. Can you talk a little about the health of the AMA and how it’s grown the last few years? MM: For sure, we’re seeing record attendance at most races we go to these days, and certainly since the late ’90s and 2000, things have taken off quickly. Walking around the paddock and seeing how much money the manufacturers are spending and the good riders they’re putting on bikes, and the number of people and fans you get around the paddock, it’s very, very hard to miss it. It’s there in your face, and the growth of the series has been very good the last few years. When you first came into the series, Miguel Duhamel and Doug Chandler were the leaders, and you were the young-gun coming up. Do you recognize how things have come full circle? MM: Not really. I don’t see myself as somebody who’s been in the position to win and then decided to go away and not win anymore. I’ve seen myself dedicate myself for years to come, and I’m certainly not a rider who’s going to hang around when I believe I’m not able to get the job done anymore. I’ll be the first to admit when I can’t beat the younger kids or I can’t get the job done. Any idea how much longer you’ll keep racing? MM: It’s really year by year. Obviously I’m 35 and I’ve been a professional now for 15 or 16 years. I’ve been around a long time. I won my first Superbike championship in 1992. The thing that I look at is that I’m in better condition now than I’ve ever been in my life, and from a mental perspective I want this more than I ever have before. I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to be competitive. I’m contracted with Suzuki through the end of next year, which means I give it all I can through 2008. If I still feel like I’m competitive then, I’ll make my decision. Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown WHAT: Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, presented by Supercuts WHEN: May 18-20 CIRCUIT: 12-turn, 2.22-mile road course 2006 SUPERBIKE POLE WINNER: Ben Spies (Suzuki) 2006 SUPERBIKE WINNER: Ben Spies (Suzuki) NOTABLE: The race weekend will feature a doubleheader of AMA Superbike racing, as well as Supermoto and SBFreaks Freestyle. TICKETS: $15-$35 single day/$60 weekend; 12-and-under FREE and parking FREE INFORMATION: 800-870-RACE, www.infineonraceway.com, www.ticketmaster.com