Mat Mladin on Daytona
For the first few years after I retired and returned home from the States, every time the second weekend in March would come around, I was on edge. I was angry. I couldn’t settle. I never thought about it until I was telling a friend and they said, “you are supposed to be at Daytona”. I was so conditioned around the time of, or on my birthday, to be getting my brain back into the game for another shot at a championship, that I just didn’t see it in the few years preceding.
It’s time for Daytona again, and it has come to my attention that there are a couple of top Aussie racers competing there this week. Troy Herfoss and Tommy Toparis, both of whom herald from Goulburn, the hometown of my good mate and mechanic for the fourteen years we spent in the USA, Reg.
I personally had a hate-hate relationship with Daytona. I just simply couldn’t figure out why we were running 300 km/h up against a concrete wall on a thirty one degree banking with tyre temperatures over 200 degrees celsius. I won three of the 200s, and three or four more superbike sprint races, after they changed the 200 miler to a 600 race.
I have done a lot of testing at Daytona with Dunlop. I am not sure how the Dunlop boys actually did their job there! It was very stressful for them, my mechanics and the dummy sitting on the bike.
The last tyre test we did there, whilst the 200 was still a superbike race, was sketchy. Dunlop wouldn’t permit even one flying lap. It was, leave the pits, come past the pits once and back in. The Dunlop boys were very worried as were we, but the laps had to be done. From the start of my road racing career I never had a problem getting up to speed very quickly and have always put a lot of force through the rear tyre and always ran higher tyre temps than most. It’s not from spinning up the rear or backing it in, either. I rarely did this. It’s from how I set my bike up. It worked for me.
Anyway, let’s get back to Daytona this week. The current ASBK Champ has traded in his CBR for a big girl with bags for 24 and joined the official Indian racing team in the Bagger and Super Hooligan classes. I enjoyed watching some of the baggers in 23, so I will definitely be tuning in to see how Troy handles the big girl. It’s been 15 years since an Aussie won a bit in the USA. No pressure, Troy.
A few pics showed up in my inbox this week from the team owner who is running young Tommy Toparis aboard a GSX-R750 this weekend. They were at a shakedown day, and the team owner was happy with how it went. Tom touched base this week and asked for a few pointers. Hold it wide open and close your eyes, haha. Nah it’s not how the 200 works. It’s how I raced my first 200 back in 96 and ended up taking about 15 pit stops for tyres before it was over. I’m not exactly sure of the tyre situation these days, but the race was all about tyres and the draft. I gave Tom a few tips, I hope he didn’t listen!
The Gixxer 750, is a motorcycle with an engine capacity that was pretty much forgotten long ago, but is a bike that I have always said is the one of the best sport bikes for the road. It has good power and feels very light compared to the thousands. Of course there are many more sexy looking bikes out there these days, but that doesn’t mean they are better. I’ve been out on the Harley alot and have watched many riders who have purchased more motorcycle than they can handle. Maybe people are starting to wake up to this, hence why worldwide sportbike sales are in the tank.
Another rider having a crack at another 200 is Josh Hayes. Josh has won a bunch of Superbike championships and races in the USA and hasn’t slowed down much since retiring from full-time Superbike racing. I don’t think Josh has won a 200 so the old fella (he’s gotta be coming up on 50) will be giving it a red hot go again this year. Experience always plays a big part in the outcome of Daytona, and Josh has loads of it. In last year’s edition, Josh got to the front with a few corners to go and went through the final chicane like a dog shot in the arse and with a small mistake from second place he came out onto the east banking and the final run to the line with at a dozen bike lengths, but it wasn’t enough. All I remember thinking was that his bike was a turd. Needs more top end for this year’s race. It reminded me of when Miguel pulled me back by a similar margin back in the late 90s, on the RC45 bullet, and beat me by 0.14 seconds. Two hours of racing and 0.14. It hurt. We got some revenge back on Honda the next year or the year after when we beat Nicky by 0.11. Nuts!
I’ve had some good superbike sprint races at Daytona with Ben, the most memorable being when we were stuck to each other, and I tried to get away and couldn’t. The same chicane that I mentioned Josh flying through last year, I rolled off and drew Ben in, then on the exit of the chicane, I pulled over and let him go by. The adrenaline is pumping so hard at this point that Ben was only thinking about drafting me for the win and he would have easily. I had to change the game and I had to let him have a few bike lengths, so I could actually get sucked into the draft and slingshot by and not too close to the finish line. Pucker factor was very high!
I’ve spoken a bit about Ben always having top speed on me, I used to say it was because he was Suzuki’s favourite boy, but in reality it simply came down to engine configuration. I used to be hard on equipment especially on the down changes so my engines were built to accommodate occasional 16,000 rpm on back shifts. I was always scared upon entering turns so if I got it all wrong I just started bashing down gears and hoping hahaha. When they are leaving that much clearance because I had a heavy left foot, you will suffer at the top end. I got it just right and pulled back by with a few metres to go.
Good luck lads!
