You've got to respect a guy who tells it like it is in his own press releases. No 'Thanks to the crew, they worked hard' or 'Mine's the best motorcycle out there' fluff from Suzuki's Mat Mladin.

Here's his pre-Brainerd press release.

"Brainerd is one of my favorite tracks in the championship, but it is also a place that I have never won at," said Mladin. "I'll be going into the round feeling much better on how things are progressing with the bike. We tested at Virginia recently and I was very happy with what we were able to accomplish there. I've had a lot of problems with the rear shock in the bike, as it feels like it wants to throw me off every time I get hard on the gas, but we've done a lot of work with the Showa technicians and I feel that we are getting on top of that now."

In 2001, Mladin set a new Superbike lap record around the 4.828km circuit on his way to securing pole position, but his race ended with an uncharacteristic crash on the opening lap. Nicky Hayden won the race, ahead of his American Honda teammates Kurtis Roberts and Miguel DuHamel.

"It doesn't matter which way you look at it, it will be a hard race," said Mladin. "Brainerd is the fastest track that we will go to this year and will be suited more to the big V-twins rather than my four cylinder Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750.

"At the moment we are behind in speed compared to the Honda's and even the Kawasaki of Eric Bostrom, but we'll still be in there trying our best."