Mat Mladin

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Mathew "Mat" Mladin (born March 10, 1972, in Camden, New South Wales) is an Australian professional motorcycle racer currently competing for Yoshimura Suzuki in the AMA Superbike series. He has won the title 6 times, and holds series records for wins (51, breaking Miguel Duhamel's previous record of 27), poles 50, wins in a season 11 and poles in a season 10. He lives in The Oaks, New South Wales.

Born in Camden, a suburb of Sydney, Mladin began his professional racing career in 1992. In 1992, he won the Australian Superbike championship and in 1993, made his debut in the 500cc class (now MotoGP). A plane crash in 1995 nearly cost him his foot. [1], but he returned in time to finished 2nd in the Australian Superbike championship.

Mladin joined the AMA Superbike series in 1996, riding for Suzuki, and finished 4th overall. He switched to a Ducati the following year and finished 3rd in the championship before returning to Suzuki for 1998 where he again finished 3rd. He finally broke through to win the 1999 championship and went on to take the title in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005, with a second-place finish behind Ben Spies ^[1] in 2006 (despite winning the final 5 races) . All of his championships coming with the Suzuki team.

Mladin is a three-time winner of the Daytona 200 (2000, 2001, 2004).

As well as continuing his career as a racer, Mladin also lends his name to a company that imports motorcycle clothing and aftermarket accessories.

Mladin is a private individual; in 1998 he commented that "I don't enjoy all the press side of things at all, I enjoy my racing and I enjoy winning like nothing else." ^[2]