Mat Mladin

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Mathew Mladin
No free image
Nationality	Australian
Date of birth	March 10, 1972 (1972-03-10) (age 36)
Place of birth	Camden, New South Wales, Australia
Website	Mat Mladin Imports
AMA Superbike Record
Current team	Yoshimura Suzuki
Bike number	6
Championships	1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005
Race starts
Race Wins
Podium finishes
Pole positions
Fastest laps
2008 Championship position	1st (113pts)

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 (nobody else has more than 3), 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. He won the Australian Superbike Championship that year, and made his debut in the 500cc class the following year. A plane crash in 1995 nearly cost him his foot, ^[1] but he returned in time to finish second in the Australian Superbike championship.

Mladin joined the AMA Superbike series in 1996, riding for Suzuki, and finished fourth overall. He switched to a Ducati the following year and finished third in the championship before returning to Suzuki for 1998 where he again finished third. He finally broke through to win the 1999 championship. Remaining with Suzuki as of 2007, he went on to take the title in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005, with a second-place finish behind Ben Spies ^[2] in 2006 (despite winning the final 5 races, after making some riding style changes to cope with his young team-mate ^[3]). Mladin also finished runner up in the Championship to Spies again in 2007, losing by one point ^[4].

Mladin is a three-time winner of the Daytona 200 (2000, 2001, 2004). He has also made wild card appearances in Superbike World Championship races, taking pole position in the class at Laguna Seca in 2003.

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." ^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mat Mladin profile at AMAProRacing.com
• MatMladinImports.com.au - Mat Mladin Imports Official site

Preceded by Aaron Slight	Australian Superbike Champion 1992	Succeeded by Troy Corser
Preceded by Ben Bostrom	AMA Superbike Champion 1999-2001	Succeeded by Nicky Hayden
Preceded by Nicky Hayden	AMA Superbike Champion 2003-2005	Succeeded by Ben Spies