Mat Mladin

So do you think he's any good or is he just hiding in a domestic series like Fogarty did in the '90s?
The first time he was in GPs he got his ... whipped but he was a lot more inexperienced then.
Discuss.

I USED to rate Mladin as a rider, and I still do, but he's lost a lot of respect from me by staying in AMA, like you said about Foggy.

It appears as if he's scared of not being No.1, plus no more big fat paychecks.

How old is the grumpy Aussie anyway?

Well who would want to leave a place where you are top dog and getting paid out the whazoo and going to be a backmarker on a crap bike for less money.
If he got an offer for a top bike I'm sure he would have taken the pay cut.

AND I DON'T even like the grumpy ...... bag... but he is talented.

I think Mladin's comfortable where he is, big money and a top ride. He's no spring chicken. It's very easy for riders to get comfortable in the AMA, just look at Spies. It could cost America world champions in the future as more and more riders opt for less travel and better pay in the AMA over WSBK or GP.

I dont follow AMA much.........but I did read the other day he gets paid more than Troy Bayliss, and the above posts about cash tend to suggest he's on a cushy number.

Mladin is a good rider - there's no denying that, but I don't have a massive amount of respect for the guy.

As above, I don't think there's anything wrong with staying in AMA, getting your (considerable) money and going home to the wife and kids everynight if that's what you're in to BUT i think Matt would have got a lot more respect if he'd had a go at WSB

I seem to remember him telling the racing world that he was going to kick the WSB boys butts when the went to Seca for the first time only, on Race 1 he was ..... and Race 2, oh yeah - he was too tired to race.

Poor thing.

Spies will kick his arse next year too and that will be the end for Matt - retirement time (IMO)

This season is going to be great. I'd love to see what Matt has to combat Ben this season. It's gonna be a good one. If he can't win races I think he will retire.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Doctor @ Dec 20 2006, 04:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>This season is going to be great. I'd love to see what Matt has to combat Ben this season. It's gonna be a good one. If he can't win races I think he will retire.

I can't say I'm a big Mladin fan. Mostly because of the pompous attitude he gave everybody when he was coming up. I still have to give him respect for his accomplisment though. He's an incredible ridier and a good businessman. He operates his own AMA team as well as a dealership and Joe Rocket Distributorship in the land down under. Life seems to be good for him exactly where he is but you would think that a "Champion" would always be looking for the next big challenge, right? If you ask me....he's a big Sissy!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Mototorcycle Toy Store @ Dec 21 2006, 08:37 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I can't say I'm a big Mladin fan. Mostly because of the pompous attitude he gave everybody when he was coming up. I still have to give him respect for his accomplisment though. He's an incredible ridier and a good businessman. He operates his own AMA team as well as a dealership and Joe Rocket Distributorship in the land down under. Life seems to be good for him exactly where he is but you would think that a "Champion" would always be looking for the next big challenge, right? If you ask me....he's a big Sissy!

Yeah, and down here Joe Rocket sponsors the factory Honda SBK team, so they can't be doing too bad for themselves.
I guess Matt's a bit of a Carl Fogarty in that he's got a mouth to him. I also read somewhere that apparently he's not too fond of Americans, and I guess his attitudes have kinda made the feeling mutual with the locals over there. The WSBK thing was a bit stupid on his behalf, but he does have a reputation as a straight talker, speaking his mind and that.

I dug this up at superbiasplanet.com, makes for some good reading about Mladin:

The Man named Mladin

Up to this point I agree with 99% of what each and every poster said on this thread. I don't like the guy nor have respect for him. Yes, he is fast and talented, but I just think he should have gone to WSBK or GP and test himself with other boys. I can't think of anybody around here that likes him (and thats saying alot because everybody usually likes a champ). I've seen people boo him even when he wins while on the podium; (he took a verbal shot at Eric Bostrom at California Speedway during a post race interview, and the crowd was not pleased). Everytime I've seen him, I've asked him why he never went "up" to an international series, but he has yet to answer that question from a spectator fan like me during an autograph signing session (which for Maladin, is a very rare thing to do). I'm use to seeing guys that win championships their respective supporting class series, for example: supersport, superstock, 125s, 250s, move up to the premier class of national circuits and then move on to international series or MotoGP. If anybody here follows Supercross, imagine the respect somebody would get by staying in the 125 class and never going up to 250s. What kinda .... is that? Mladin's legacy will never be that he won a ton of AMA championships, but it will be his legacy that he never moved "up" to the international premier classes. The perception will always be that he did do this because he was scared/indolent/primoDana/stubborn/conceited/egotistical/condescending/supercilious, and arrogant; and for this, he will never be respected by racing fans thought the globe.

I can see why people criticize him, I mean he does deserve a bit for his choices. But I like him, then again the Poms like Foggy, so why not?

But Foggy raced on an international level and won quite a few championships. He even tried MotoGP, seeing that didnt work out pulled a Bayliss and came back to WSBK.

Foggy also cops a lot of crap for being "too scared" to get out of WSBK, his comfort zone where he was dominant, to challenge Doohan in MotoGP. Mladin is the same, but his copmfort zone is the AMA SBK series. I think Foggy and Mladin have a lot in common, in more than one way.

mladin did do gp's briefly back in the mid? 90's. cagiva i believe. still a tool tho.

Yes he rode for the Agostini Cagiva team in 1993 with Doug Chandler and later in the season John Kocinski as team mates.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (frosty58 @ Dec 27 2006, 02:00 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>mladin did do gp's briefly back in the mid? 90's. cagiva i believe. still a tool tho.

Foggy went to GPs once too, didn't he? I'm telling you these two guys have a lot in common. They both never made the next "Big Step" in their careers, they're both big talkers, and they both appear to have a knack for the business side of the sport. Anyone else think so?

Foggy rode in '92 at Donington but fell at redgate.
He rode in '93 for cagiva at Donington as a replacement rider (for Chandler I think) and got a 4th but that was the year smug ....... Doohan took out the Lucky Strike Suzuki team of Schwantz and Barros so he may have been further down the field if that hadn't happened.

If I recall Mladin shot up to GPs fairly early in career. Within a year or two of starting Road racing he was on a 500 in the world championship. He didn't do to well and thought he was in over his head. So I think he came back to Australia to get some more experience, and never ened up going back to GPs

I think mladin is a very very good rider, but perhaps not good enough to be successful on the gp circuit, and now almost certainly too old to get a job there. But thats only if he wanted one, and i'd imagine he is, since he hasnt moved on despite winning very regularly.

He's probably happy riding nationals and being able to continue in a relatively normal life earning money racing bikes and winning. As for the comparisons to carl fogarty, i dont know enough about him really but it think its unfair because foggy clearly rode at a higher level but was also very much more an ... hole.

But that's the thing, Foggy rode at a "Higher" level, but he was claerly in a position of dominance there, so why not "Move up" to GP? Mladin's not the same in that sense, and I'm not saying he's as talented as Foggy, but he's in a similar situation. Besides, I wouldn't say AMA superbike is exactly deprived of talented riders.