AMA SuperBikes | Mat Mladin prepares for rematch at Daytona Tire Test

Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki rider Mat Mladin

(AMA Pro Racing Release) Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin seemed satisfied with his day’s work at the conclusion of Saturday’s session at Daytona International Speedway, appearing relaxed and excited as he talked about getting his preparations for the 2008 championship rematch underway.

Mladin clocked a 1:36.8 lap time around the shortened circuit on the day, second only to his primary rival, Ben Spies (1:36.0).

“It was good to get back on the bike for a while,” Mladin said. “It’s been a couple of months, so I had to shake the cobwebs out and get a feel for a few things. We went through a lot of new stuff today -- daily grind, going through things.

Commenting on the times, the Aussie remarked, “I know Ben’s going reasonably speedy and our best lap on last year’s race tire is 1.7 quicker; last year we did ‘8.4 in the race, I think Ben did ‘8.3, so yeah, we’re quite a bit quicker than we went in the race last year.

“The track is a lot shorter, so it’s going to be quicker naturally, but our bike is a lot better than when we came here too. We didn’t even test the bike here last year, remember? They had a problem with them coming from Malaysia. And when we came here, this was the first race and we kind of had half of the old bike in the new bike and after that is when we had the complete new bike ready to race.”

Speaking about his workload this test weekend, Mladin explained, “We’re just trying to get into things. We have a new fork, which we really haven’t used before other than a couple days at Fontana after Laguna Seca. We have a couple of new swingarms that we’re trying to get ready for the 2009 rules -- we may possibly use them in 2008. There’s a whole heap of new stuff and it’s just a matter of going through everything. We’ve got another full day tomorrow and hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we can consistently punch out some decent lap times. At the moment we have a lot of stuff to get through, and we just need to keep throwing it in and going through it and then rechecking it. Hopefully by lunchtime tomorrow we’ll be in the ballpark of where we need to be and can start putting a few runs together.”

Last season Mladin emphasized race wins above all other goals. In the end he captured a record-breaking 12 victories and fell just one point short of a record-extending seventh AMA Superbike crown.

Despite (just) missing out on the title, Mladin is not second-thinking the strategy and will take the same approach into the ’08 season in order to meet the challenge of two-time series champion Spies.

"Yeah, we’ll go out there and ride hard and have fun and prepare Ben for if he goes to GP in ’09… As I’ve said before, I’m glad he’s not going to GP next year because it’s a good challenge for me and it gets me up every morning to work hard because I have to in order to race him. He’s a great young talent. For his career it would have been nice to see him go next year over there. I think he could have and give him a year to build up without too much pressure. But I certainly hope they give him the chance in ’09, he certainly deserves it. He’s a very good young rider and honestly, I’ve raced against a number of people and there are not a lot of people around who can do what he does on a motorbike. I think he’s got a bright future, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve got to get home on Monday and keep training (hard) so I can be in the race next year.”