Kickstarting the winter debate series: Mladin's Legacy

Look at titties?

 

Yep.

 

Who has one more race and more championships?

 

Yes....because he has won more.

The question is not who is a better rider, but who is the greatest AMA champion...

 

SUZUKI WILL GO DOWN AS THE BEST MOTORCYCLE EVER

 

Mat had 2 unfortunate things happen that took his chances at getting 2 more championships.Faulty Dunlop put him off-track last year @ Daytona and the VIR debacle this year.

Mat and his crew chief possibly saved Miguel's life @ Road Atlanta last year,and definitely his racing career.Mat owns that category.No one has done anything remotely close to that for anyone else.

Mat came in and turned around the Yosh operation.They have been the ones to beat since '99.

That's more work than anyone else has done.My vote goes to Mat.

But Ben is unGodly fast,and deserves all that he has achieved.:up:

 

How can you overlook riders like Lawson, Rainey, Shobert, Spencer, Schwantz, who rode superbikes, and call Mladin the greatest. Winningest and certainly talented, but hard to call the greatest.
Steve

 

Simple.All of that was before my time

 

Lawson won his championships on much less equipment than his competition.

 

Well, since you thoroughly trashed my analogy...

In 2002 I was a relatively casual fan, so I can't comment specifically about Nicky. As far as Ben and Mat are concerned, they have been on equal machinery, and Ben has won three titles in a row, but I have watched every single race and I have to say that in my opinion, they are very close if not equal right now in pure riding ability. Ben has won the titles through consistency and also, because of a bit of bad luck for Mat. Mat has said that at this point he is only worried about wins, not Championships. Im not sure if he is 100 percent truthful when he says that, but of course he is the only one who knows that for sure. I think he probably does have more superbike wins than Ben over the last three years, though.

 

+2

The question is kind of vague. What constitutes "greatest"? If it's the most titles, well then there's an obvious answer. If it means "best rider", then the answer aint to easy.

Kevin wasn't as dominant a superbike racer as Wayne Rainey. With that said, I think the above mentioned riders had to battle more that Mat has. His machinery was/is far superior than the rest of the field's....and when Ben came on with Yosh, he had better results in the Championship.

Did Mat ever race Supersport or Superstock? Not that this is revelant to the main question, I'm just curious.

 

He tried Supersport once, at Daytona, quit before practice was over, declared that Josh Hayes' Suzuki HAD to be illegal because Hayes was going so much faster, and that was the end of that.

 

We'll see in 2009 how good he is. In 'merica, he won on the GSXR750, the Ducati 851 (or was it the 888 at that point) and the GSXR1K superbikes. We'll see how he is on the Superstock/ superbike hybrid.

Who knows, he could totally Chinese Democracy.

 

The guy's been beaten 3 years in a row by the same guy, on the same equipment. Do you really think Ben would not have beat him again next year? And the year after that? Both Ben and Nicky have proved by leaving, that the AMA is a stepping stone to the world level. He's got the numbers for sure. But I say asterisk for sure since the two guys who have left, left him with no competition each times. I am a fan of Mat's simply because he is so fast and dedicated etc. But there is definetly a void there.

 

Mat is definitely hardcore and works really hard, and his win record in AMA Superbike is amazing, but it is hard to be a fan based on his personality. I know personality does not win races but Mat seems really bitter about everything.

I also agree that staying in AMA racing with Suzuki helped develop their superbike program so far beyond the rest, but wouldn't you want to see how you could do in WSB or GPs after 4 or 5 or 6 championships?

 

Fred Merkel is conspicuously absent from that list, has to be in the top 3 IMO.

 

WTF does his personallity or fan base have to do with the fact that he has won more races and more championships that anybody else.

Again, the questions was....is Mladin the greatest AMA champion ever? Yes.

 

But does greatest champion ever mean he was a nice guy, or should the question be is he the winningest AMA Superbike rider ever or the best AMA Superbike rider ever?

To me the greatest champion ever could be a one time champ who was an awesome dude who everyone loved.

Or not...