Saturday's race at Mid-Ohio went to plan. I mean, you never really have a plan for winning a race, but when it happens you can say it went to plan. It was a tough race from start to finish. When Ben passed me early into the race, I thought that I was in a good situation. If his early pace continued for ten or more laps, we would gap the rest of the guys and have our own race at the end. Ben seemed to get into some difficulty keeping up the pace about halfway through the twenty six lap race. I got lucky in some traffic at that point as Ben got squeezed hard by the first bunch of slow guys. It allowed me to make the pass and I worked hard to get a big enough gap over the next two laps so I didn't have him on my rear wheel entering the back straight. From that point on Ben went slowly back to his teammates.

Obviously he has been told that it is that time of the year and you need to move over. He let Miguel past exiting turn one and Miguel was about 1.4 down on me. The gap held steady for a few laps then with five to go Miguel started edging closer. He closed the gap and we had two or three laps to the finish.

On the penultimate lap we came across a lapper entering the key-hole section of the track. He ran a little wide and I pushed through. Miguel got caught up through the key-hole and that gave me some breathing room. Exiting the key-hole on the last lap I still had the gap back to second when I came upon some guys. I tried to accelerate around the outside only to get squeezed out. I had to get out of the gas and come back to the inside. I knew with that, Miguel would be close at the end of the back straight and that I would have to keep it clean and tight for the last half a lap.

Getting the win kept our points gap heading in the right direction.

A lot of you have probably read the post-race press stuff about a few words between Miguel and myself. I got hot with Miguel for screwing one of my qualifying laps on Saturday morning. The fact that he is one of the worst for complaining about the slower riders getting in his way, you would expect a little more from the man himself. I mean, he lost the race because of traffic remember. Miguel never just gets beat, which leads me to Sunday's race.

I changed a couple of things on the bike for Sunday's race and probably paid for it. We got our butts kicked, well and truly. From the second lap I knew it was going to be a long race. The lap times weren't there and there was not a lot I could do about it. Congrats to Jake and his crew for the hurt you put on us on Sunday. When Miguel crashed (because of his bike, of course) I really put it on the backburner. I couldn't do Ben's pace for second, so third was the best for us on that day. I'm happy with the result on Sunday as it could have been a lot worse.

I told my crew on Friday morning that I would not turn a wheel on that circuit if there was a drop of rain. When the showers hit before start time on Sunday, I think they were stressing a little. There was no announcement on racing in the rain up to that point of the weekend, so I thought I was going to lose a bunch of points.

There was a discussion a few months back about issues that need to be addressed and the riders involved unanimously agreed that track safety was the number one issue. I was actually looking forward to see what the other guys in this conversation were going to do on Sunday. Obviously it was dry and the race was run and won. It won't be the last time this situation arises.

There is something about racing and its personalities in this country that makes me wonder. It has happened here before and will happen again. There seems to be the problem of some guys seeing a gain out of another guy not racing so they can't stick together for the sake of safety. It's sad really. I vaguely recall World Superbike going to Mexico many years ago and there were some major safety issues. Carl Fogarty really needed to race there as the World Championship was on the line. He threw the championship because the conditions were far from right. That takes a man to do and I hope a few over here will learn from the story. I didn't care about the championship on Sunday, as racing on that circuit in the rain is not worth ten championships.

I was told there were a few people up there that were not happy with me because of my thoughts on the circuit. I don't care. The safety of my fellow competitors and myself is much higher on the scale than having a beer with some official or race track owner. Actually I nearly forgot: A high ranking official told one of my crew that the manufacturers should pay the riders less and spend more on promoting the sport. Interesting.

We have just finished a two day test in Atlanta. Everything went pretty well. The lap times were faster than last year so it should be a good race. As much as I love racing in Atlanta, it also has some safety concerns. There were a few questions asked about the last turn before the finish line. Everybody agreed that it is probably the worst one all year. Along with the right hand turn three and the concrete lined back kink, it is certainly becoming less fun. In the dry you can regulate how fast you want to go in certain corners that you are not comfortable with, but in the wet it is a different story, especially because of the ever-increasing concrete we are seeing in the middle of the corners and the increasing amount of black goo they use to fill cracks. This stuff is like ice in the rain and getting on a seam heading around the kink at 170mph in the rain could well get ugly. NASCAR seem to do okay without racing in the rain. I don't propose we stop racing in the rain, but most of the circuits we race at are not safe enough to do so, not by far.

I have to answer one more question that I get asked a lot: Why don't I go to GP? Firstly, there have been no offers. Do I expect an offer? No. I don't have a management group chasing that kind of thing up for me. Why don't I want to go to GP? Because I am a realist who knows I wouldn't be competitive. My reason: I am to big. I am just over six feet tall (181cm) and at present weigh 183lbs (83kg). These statistics tell me that if I was on the right bike with the right team and had to race Rossi, I couldn't do it. These statistics also tell me that if I was on the wrong bike with the wrong team and had to race Rossi, it would be more fun sticking a screw driver in my eye. With these statistics and the right bike and team I may be able to be competitive at a track like Barber, where it is tight and twisty and being physical with the bike can help. Unfortunately, European tracks are a lot different than Barber.

If a standard across the board bike and rider weight limit came into effect, then maybe it would be different, maybe I could be competitive. I say "maybe" because you cannot compare riders who compete in a different series. The arm-chair experts like to do it, but it is impossible. The bottom line is I would prefer to be competitive over here than race for tenth over there.

Enough of the racing. I completed my first solo flight on Tuesday before heading to Ohio. It was a good experience, and with most of August off, I am going to get stuck into my flight training and see how far along I can proceed.

I take delivery of my plane today, so I had better stop writing and head off to the airport.

Stay safe and ride smart.

cheers
Mat Mladin