Mladin, Mat
Name/Title
Mladin, MatDescription
Among a long list of AMA Superbike road racing champions, with names such as Pridmore, Cooley, Lawson, Rainey, Merkel, Shobert, Chandler, Duhamel, Hayden, Spies, Hayes, Beaubier, Gagne and others, one name stands above the rest. And that name is Australian Mat Mladin. In what some call the most significant “decade of domination” in road racing history, from 1999 to 2009, Mat Mladin notched seven AMA Superbike titles and won 82 AMA Superbike nationals in the process — each of those numbers more than anyone in history. Mladin also won the legendary Daytona 200 three times during that period, achievements that have him tied for third all-time behind AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers and multi-time Daytona 200 winners Scott Russell (5) and Miguel Duhamel (4). Mladin began riding and racing motorcycles at an early age, winning a motocross title in 1981 and going on to win the Australian Superbike Championship in 1992. That led to a brief stint with Cagiva in the 1993 500cc World Championship. Three years later he moved to the U.S., starting out with Yoshimura Suzuki before moving to the Fast by Ferracci Ducati squad in ’97, a season in which he’d win four races. He reunited with Yoshimura Suzuki in 1998, and in 1999 won his first of seven AMA Superbike titles — achievements that would make him, according to MotoAmerica, “the most dominant rider in the history of the AMA Superbike Championship.” Mladin announced his retirement during his championship-winning 2009 season. “I didn’t retire because I wasn’t quick enough,” he said later in a Cycle News interview. “I retired because I’d had enough. I will miss riding the motorcycle…and the competition.”Category
Class of 2024