WSBK » Mat Mladin announces retirement

The bloke may be successful in AMA terms but he's dodged WSBK for his whole career, so we'll never know how good he really was. At least our BSB boys have got the balls to show their hand at WSBK level whether it be for better or worse.

Please explain Anthony ?

redline: Ill reply even tho the gestapo removed my comment. for the past 10 plus years, Mat Mladin has made american superbike racing boring as hell. The only riders near his level were Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies, both of whom have gone on to bigger and better things.

Its obvious that Mat has had the talent to compete at the world level for many years now, but he continued sandbagging in a national series forever. He's on his way to a record 7th AMA SB title...which IMO is like passing the 9th grade seven times...when are you gonna man up and go to high school? Of the other title holders, one rider has 3, and a handful have 2, because they move on to bigger challenges.

Ive been a bike racing fan for a long time and remember watching mat struggle on the beautiful but crap Cagiva 500. He didnt do well, but then neither did his teammate, Doug Chandler, a man who already had 1 AMA title to his credit at that point and would win another. Then Kosinski got kicked off the suzuki 250 team, and Ago & co snapped him up. Cagiva all but forgot about their colonists. It was a season to forget for mat but I guess it left a bad taste in his mouth for world-level competition.

I don't know why everyone gets so worked up over this guy? It's not like he's running off saying he's the greatest sbk rider in the world.

He likes his family, the states and lots of $$$. Does that make him a bad person? Spies says if he raced wsbk he would be an immediate title contender I guess that's enough for me.

Glad he's leaving the the bad joke that the ama has become - good luck to him.

We'll all miss his cheery smile and happy demeanor.

He'll spend the rest of his life wondering what he could have done on the world stage, but he'll never know cos he did'nt have the guts to try.

"At least our BSB boys have got the balls to show their hand at WSBK level"

I guess getting paid a ham sandwich and a bag of chips in BSB compared to AMA and WSBK has nothing to do with moving on - it's all about "balls"...........

Bike racing is not only something these guys love to do but it's also there job - they have mortgages and bills too. No one could pay Mladin anywhere near what he was making in AMA so he did what was best for him and his family. Really, do you really think he cares what posters on Crash have to say? In case you didn't notice there is no pension plan for racers or motorcylce racers retirement fund.

And I've said it before - who would take a job half way around the world and be away from their family for less than half of what they make now ? - I wouldn't. If MotoGP wasn't his goal than why should he do something he didn't want to do? Unlike Europe, WSBK isn't the be all and end all over here in the States. Really, how many riders from AMA has actually went to WSBK this decade? Things will change now because of this DMG/AMA debacle though but it's not like it was a big goal to go to WSBK for AMA riders.

He has his own business,gets paid to ride,win races/championships etc.....Could have gone to WSBK... still own his own business(income) thou less pay for maybe winning some races?...But he diff wouldn't be getting by on the bones of his a$$ money wise?

I think Cherry Picker is a more apt term than Sandbagger. Both terms meanings overlap somewhat, but Cherry Picker would be more suitable to collecting titles in AMA.

Regardless of that, I don't blame him for making AMA boring. It's not his fault, people just look for a fall guy. Like the others said, he likes the US, likes the pay, and couldn't get similar offers from WSBK teams so he stayed here. Nothing wrong with that.

The real reason the AMA sucks is because after the top 5 or 6 bikes the rest are MILES off the pace, and there's 20plus bikes! Seems in AMA racing there's a bike being lapped almost as soon as the factory ducks got lapped at Donnington in MotoGP. Is no bueno!