Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts with files from Bob Dragich

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin threatened Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts with violence during an AMA Superbike practice session Friday at California Speedway in Fontana, California.

“He (Roberts) blocked me in the morning session. He blocked me at Daytona, too. But I never said a word about it,” Mladin told Roadracingworld.com. “After he blocked me again (at Fontana), I had to go have a word with him.”

“Mat came over to our pits and said he was going to knock Kurtis’ head off, lots of expletives, lots of threats,” said David McGrath, Roberts’ Crew Chief. McGrath added that several people overheard and witnessed the incident, and said “I stood between them and told Mat, ‘No, you’re not.’ I can’t believe a rider of that caliber making threats like that.”

When asked about Mladin’s allegations of blocking, Roberts said, “Mat’s full of shit, and you can put that in the paper. Mat is in his own world. If it’s not me, it’s somebody else. The guy just ain’t right in the head. He’s so bored he’s looking for somebody to complain about. I didn’t block him at all.”

Later, during the post-qualifying press conference, Mladin, the fastest qualifier, had finished his interview and Roberts was asked his first question by the California Speedway representative running the press conference. Before Roberts could answer, Mladin spoke into his microphone and asked if he had to stay and listen to “this crap.”