Mladin Looks Safe in Race for the Plate

While Americans are mining for gold in Australia at the Olympic Games, an Australian is closing in on gold here.

Mat Mladin, defending AMA Superbike champion, needs only to finish 11th or better in the final round of the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike championship series Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond to repeat as champion.

To be honest, though, there is no gold involved in winning the AMA crown. The gold is in the No. 1 plate on the champion’s motorcycle.

The money is good, but it comes from the manufacturer, in Mladin’s case, Suzuki. With only Willow Springs remaining, Mladin leads teenager Nicky Hayden of Owensboro, Ky., 365-346.

“Every manufacturer wants that No. 1 plate, that’s what we’re racing for,” said Mladin, 28, who came from Camden, New South Wales, a tiny village about 50 miles from Sydney, to the United States in 1996 to continue his racing career. “So winning Sunday’s race really isn’t important, but finishing it is. To get the No. 1 plate was a big achievement last year. This year will be even better because we also won Daytona.”

The Daytona 200, opening race of the Superbike season, is the year’s top prize. In 1999, Mladin lost to Canada’s Miguel Duhamel by .014 of a second, at the time the second-closest finish in race history.

“After 200 miles it came down to a few inches,” said Mladin. “I felt a pain losing like that. I waited all year for another chance. I said before this year’s race that I was going to make up for it.”

That he did.

On the last lap, Hayden passed Mladin for the lead going through the infield chicane, but the Australian blipped the throttle on his Suzuki GSX-R and powered by Hayden at the finish line.

This time the margin was even closer, .011 of a second.

“When Nicky went by, I knew I had a lot left,” Mladin said. “We were just cruising through the chicane, going maybe 150 [mph]. I kicked it up to about 180 and caught him just before the line. It felt extra good because I beat the factory that beat me. That was special.”

Duhamel and Hayden both rode Hondas.

After Daytona, Mladin won a doubleheader at Road Atlanta and threatened to make a runaway of the season. In the next eight races, however, he won only at Loudon, N.H., but scored a remarkable five second-place finishes. In 11 events, he has never finished out of the top five.

“Once I got that big lead, winning wasn’t quite as important,” he said. “Finishing second kept me well ahead in the championship and that’s what the factory wants, that No. 1 plate to show off.”

Mladin has not won at Willow Springs--90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, just west of Edwards Air Force Base--but it is one of his favorite tracks because “it is safe and fast.”

Qualifying today and Saturday will set the field for Sunday’s race, 60 miles or 25 laps. All of the Superbike races, except for Daytona’s 200 miles, are 60 miles.

“That’s about 34 minutes of racing at Willow,” the 6-foot, 155-pound Aussie said.

Mladin and his wife, Janine, split time between homes in Chino and Las Vegas, but he says that when he retires after a few more years, they will return home to Australia, where he hopes to have his own race team.

When he’s not racing, or riding his motocross bike at Glen Helen or Elsinore to keep in shape, Mladin can be found on the golf course. He is good enough to have played in the Ventura County Amateur with his Suzuki teammate, Jason Pridmore, a 1-handicap golfer from Ventura.

“I missed the cut, but I played pretty well, considering it was my first tournament,” Mladin said. “I kept messing up on those short shots around the green.”

It’s a wonder Mladin ever made it to this country to race.

In 1994, he broke his back while racing, then in 1995 he crashed an ultra-light aircraft and mangled his foot so badly it nearly had to be amputated.

“I was young and crazy then,” he said. “I thought I was the Red Baron. The foot was barely hanging on to my leg by a thread. Just when I thought I was about ready to walk again, infection set in and I spent three months in the hospital with my leg up in the air. I almost lost my foot.”

The ultra-light is at home in Mladin’s garage, but he hasn’t been back up.

“At the end of that season, I got a call from Suzuki to race Superbikes in the United States and I had enough sense to realize that if Suzuki was good enough to look after me, I had better look after continuing my career with them,” he said. “I still get a lot of pain when I run, but riding the bike doesn’t hurt. And that’s what matters.”

THE SHORT TRACK SCENE

Greg Voigt of Goleta has clinched the 19-race Food 4 Less super late model championship, Irwindale Speedway’s top NASCAR series, but Saturday night’s final race still is important. At stake is the $5,000 Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge bonus, given to the driver with the most points in 10 designated events. Voigt leads with 508 to 488 for Ben Walker of Santa Clarita and 486 for Tommy Fry of Simi Valley. Fifty points are available Saturday.

Tony Jones of Corona won his second Sprint Car Racing Assn. main event last week at Perris Auto Speedway with an interesting twist. Jones’ brother, Dave, recently left Tony’s team to become Rodney Argo’s mechanic. Jones won with a dramatic pass of Argo on the last corner of the last lap. The SCRA returns to Perris Saturday night.

Ventura’s special brand of sprint cars race again Saturday night at Ventura Raceway, along with IMCA modifieds and speedway midgets. . . . No racing this week or next at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway.

LAST LAPS

Johnny Campbell of San Clemente, three-time Baja 1000 motorcycle winner on a Honda, drew the first starting position for the Tecate SCORE Baja 2000--an Ensenada-to-Cabo San Lucas odyssey--on Nov. 12.

The first Trophy Truck driver off the line will be veteran desert racer Craig Corda of Calexico. It will be Corda’s first race in a 750-horsepower unlimited truck, but he has won the Baja 1000 three times on a four-wheel ATV and once on a three-wheel ATV.

More than 200 entries, including Baja veterans Walker Evans, Larry Ragland, Ivan Stewart and Robby Gordon, are expected.

Bobby Boone of Palmdale and Wally Pankratz of Orange are scheduled to continue their battle for the U.S. Auto Club’s western midget car championship Saturday night at Kings Speedway in Hanford. Boone leads by a single point. . . . Aaron Justus of Crestline closed in on the USAC Formula 2000 national championship with a wire-to-wire win last Saturday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park. It gave him a 57-point lead with only 64 points available in the final races.

Chip Ganassi, whose Target team has lost both of its drivers, Juan Montoya and Jimmy Vasser, for 2001, tested Casey Mears, Buddy Rice, Nicolas Minassian of France and Bruno Junqueira, Formula 3000 champion from Brazil, last week at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix. All drove 125 miles in a Toyota-Lola. Ganassi said he will pick his new drivers in the next few weeks.

The U.S. team of Ricky Carmichael, Travis Pastrana and Ryan Hughes won the Motocross des Nations in St. Jean d’Angely, France. It was the first U.S. win since 1996. . . . The Santa Ana Drags Reunion is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge. Among those expected are C.J. Hart, who ran the first strip on the Orange County Airport, and Doug Hartelt of Orange, a pioneer drag racing champion.

Paul Newman, 75, will drive Saturday in the Petit Le Mans sports car endurance race at Road Atlanta. He will team with Randy Wars and Mike Brockman in a Dick Barbour-owned Porsche 911 GT3 in the 1,000-mile race. Also in the race will be an all-woman team of Belinda Endress of Newbury Park, Divina Galica of England and Cindi Lux of Aloha, Ore.

NECROLOGY

Bob Hurt, who broke his neck while trying to qualify for the 1968 Indianapolis 500 and became a paraplegic, died last Saturday in his sleep in a Toronto hotel room. Hurt, 61, was taking outpatient treatment for prostate cancer in Toronto.

Hurt never drove in the Indy 500. In 1967, he qualified at 161.261 mph but was bumped from the field by a faster qualifier. Before his accident, he drove in 21 champ-car races, with a best finish of sixth in the Trenton 200 in 1967. He drove his own Ferrari to victory in the Puerto Rico Grand Prix in 1962 and competed in a Lotus 18 as well as driving USAC stock cars in 1963.

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This Week’s Races

NASCAR WINSTON CUP

NAPA AutoCare 500

* Site: Martinsville, Va.

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11:15 a.m.; Sunday, race (ESPN, 10 a.m.)

* Track: Martinsville Speedway, (oval, 0.526 miles, 12 degrees banking in turns).

* Last year: Jeff Gordon, racing for the first time after crew chief Ray Evernham resigned to start his own team, took the lead from Dale Earnhardt with 25 laps remaining and hung on to win.

* Last race: Tony Stewart won the MBNA.com 400 in Dover, Del., becoming the first driver since Gordon in 1996 to sweep Winston Cup races at Dover Downs International Speedway. Stewart started 27th in the field of 43. In June, when he won the MBNA Platinum 400, he started 16th.

* Next race: UAW-GM Quality 500, Oct. 8, Concord, N.C.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com

CHAMPIONSHIP AUTO RACING TEAMS

Texaco-Havoline Grand Prix

* Site: Houston.

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 4 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 2 p.m.; Sunday, race (ABC, 1 p.m.)

* Track: Houston street circuit (temporary road course, 1.53 miles, 10 turns).

* Race distance: 198.9 miles, 130 laps.

* Last year: Winner Paul Tracy finished 13.733 seconds--nearly a quarter of a lap--ahead of teammate Dario Franchitti.

* Last race: Series champion Juan Montoya jumped from 11th to eighth in the standings by winning the Motorola 300 in Madison, Ill., for his third victory of the season and 10th of his career.

* Next race: Honda Indy 300, Oct. 15, Surfers Paradise, Australia.

* On the net: https://www.cart.com

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION

Advance Auto Parts Nationals

* Site: Topeka, Kan.

* Schedule: Today, first-round qualifying, 2 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, final eliminations, 10 a.m.

* Track: Heartland Park Topeka.

* Last year: John Force won the Funny Car division, defeating Tommy Johnson Jr. Doug Herbert, Mike Edwards and Bob Panella were winners in their respective categories.

* Last event: Five-time NHRA champion Joe Amato got his 52nd career Top Fuel victory, taking the Keystone Nationals title in Mohnton, Pa. Bruce Sarver, Kurt Johnson and Matt Hines also were winners.

* Next race: Autozone Nationals, Oct. 8, Memphis, Tenn.

* On the net: https://www.nhra.com