Photo By: Raceday Pix
Rastrelli, Madl and Martin on the podium
Mark Madl: I am doing pretty good. Right now I am washing bikes and getting ready for practice tonight.
Where does the AMA ATV Motocross National Rider of the year go to practice?
Oh it's a little place about 10 minutes from my house called Dade City Motocross.
Wow! Sounds like you are located right there in the heart of Florida motocross?
Yeah! I'm within an hour of almost every track around here.
No wonder you're so fast! (Laughs)
(Laughing) Yep!
Congratulations on your big award at the banquet, I am sure that made you feel pretty good to be named "Rider of the Year"?
Yeah. It was definitely a shock to me. I wasn't expecting that at all.
Where you not expecting any special kind of awards?
No. I guess I try to keep my expectations low so I can always improve. I wouldn't want to expect too much.
I guess you are the type that would rather exceed expectations than come short?
Yep. And that's exactly what I did this year too. I came in just hoping to finish in the top five and ended up winning the championship.
Photo By: Family Photo
The days of the 300 is where it all began for Madl.
We started nationals to go out and win championships in '08. I was in the Schoolboy Jr. Class and that was the year that Jeffery Rastrelli was still in that class and it was basically me and him battling for the championship.
The first race started out at the first race in Alabama and he won that race. Then we went to Kentucky and I won that race. Then the next race he won and we went to several races where he would win one then I would win one. It was a fun year.
Then the next year in'09 he had turned 16 and was out of the class and I was still 15 at the time so I had to ride the Schoolboy Jr. Class for another whole year. We ended up coming back with a brand new bike where all the other years we started with a bike that we just pieced together pretty much. The year we started with a brand new bike we ended up winning every race except for Loretta's.
You won every race in '09 except Loretta Lynn's?!
I won every MOTO of every race except Loretta Lynn's that year! (Snickers) It was a fun year too.
Then the next year we came out on a Honda when I turned 16 and didn't do too bad. When we started the weekend out at the first race we just jumped to the Pro Am class. We actually ended up doing both Pro Ams, Unlimited and Production. I did alright. Then when we got toward the end of the year it got to where I could not even finish a moto without having some kind of mechanical failure. We didn't start with a brand new bike that year and by the end we were having so many problems with just little things failing on us. I don't even remember if I broke the top 10 that year. I'm not sure.
That leads up to this year and just like the year in the 300 class we came out with a brand new bike and ended up on top. It seems like the years we start with a brand new bike we seem to do tremendously better. I don't know if it is a prestige thing or what but every year we start on a new bike it works.
I guess the big question now that you are going AMA ATV Pro is are you going start with a new bike this next season?
Yeah, oh yeah! We even started on a brand new practice bike and we've never done that before.
Wow! So you have already started on your next year program?
Yes. I have been going with it now for about a week. It took me since Loretta's till last Friday night at midnight to finish my practice bike. We had practice that weekend and it was my first time riding it. We are just getting all the little kinks worked out of it right now. Getting the shocks dialed in and stuff.
Photo By: Family Photo
Mark had a great support team that helped take him to the top of the Pro Am Production Class.
We had a major bike change. We will be riding Hondas this year for Ditch Witch Racing. Ditch Witch will be our main sponsor this year. They are in it with us full force this year like last year.
Looking back at the beginning of the season everyone was talking about Jeffery Rastrelli as being the one to beat for the championship. There were also names like Casey Martin, and Aaron Meyer but not a lot of talk was going around about you with the inconsistencies from the previous season. Did you feel you were going to be a factor coming into the 2011 season?
Really coming into this season I didn't have any expectations. I just wanted to get the first race out of the way and judge from that. Then my confidence picked up after the first weekend, let's just say that. (Note: Mark finished 2nd in Production and 3rd in Unlimited to start the season)
You realized after running head to head with the class front runners that you had done your homework in the off-season and it was paying off?
Yeah I realized that I had found the right speed and aggressiveness to ride with them. Throughout the year I still had problems with riding as aggressive as I could. I still lacked on that but at the end of the year started to pick up a little on that . That really helped a lot.
As far as starts you were not the worst but surely not the best. You spent a lot of time pushing from mid pack and having to come from behind a lot of the time.
Starts are one of my weakest points that's for sure. It wasn't really the nervousness or anything like that it was more just my reaction time I guess. My reaction time just wasn't there. This year I have to work on that because I can't be starting in the bottom ten and expecting to get on the podium.
Photo By: Family Photo
Mark will enter the AMA ATV Pro Championship in 2012 as the top rookie.
I hope to make it up there at least once. I am not expecting to be there every time but we will see when that time comes. I know that 80% of this is mental in my book and once I figure out and once I know in my head what I am capable of running with everyone. Running with John (Natalie) and Chad Weinen and all those guys it will really help just for the fact of being able to ride a little more comfortable. Right now I don't feel that I am at that same skill level but I just need to see.
Do you ever get a chance to ride with any of the top AMA ATV Pros at any of your local races or anything?
I've ridden with Jeremy Lawson in the Dade City Sponsor Cup which was going on in the middle of last years training season in the winter time and I did really good. I ended up beating him one night and actually beat him both motos. It's a small track and it is definitely a different kind of riding style to make it work right. And I think that (Josh) Upperman has been there plus I got to race against Chad Weinen a couple of years ago. This year I have ridden with both Jeremy and Josh.
How old are you?
I will be 18 in two weeks.
Then that means you are still in high school?
Well actually since taking on the national schedule you cannot really attend public school so we have gone the home school route. I actually graduated about two years ago. The last time I went to school was in '07.
So this is something you are truly dedicated to?
I eat, breathe and bleed ATV racing. To have money for myself I work with my dad and he has his own construction company. That is mostly after the season ends I am a full time worker and everyday till time starts rolling around to go practice.
Photo By: ATVRiders.com
Madl dreams have been fueled by top finishes since he began his amateur career.
It definitely is. I was probably 7 or 8 and I had a track at my house and that was all I had ever known really about motocross because I hadn't started racing yet. I remember one day sitting out there after riding while my dad was checking my bike and I asked him if I could ever race. At that time I didn't even know that there was amateur stuff even out there. I thought it just big time professionals that did it. And he just said "I don't know. Maybe."
So a "maybe" turned into "yes"?
(Laughs) Yeah! Back then though I never really imagined myself in this position. Sometimes I will stop and think about it and my stomach feels like it is in knots with nervousness. Like being on the gate with all those guys. Sometimes I am really excited and thankful to be there other times it is just a scary point in my life.
What would you say are your realistic goals heading into your rookies season?
I would like to be somewhere in the top 8.
Why that number? Why the top 8?
I don't want to come in with too much confidence. I just basically get it out of the way and see how I am going to compete with theses guys before I really say anything.
What do you ultimately hope to achieve in your riding career?
I want to be the person that everybody looks up to as far as a rider and person. I want to be the whole package. I want to be the guy that walks around the pits and actually walks in someones trailer and still talks to everyone they grew up with. I just want to be a people person.
I understand that! Thanks for taking the time out to talk today and good luck with your continuing success.
No problem. I do want to thank my parents though. They have really taken it to the next level for me. They have given up a lot of things for me. My dad works his butt off just so he can make these bikes run and get me to the next place to ride and hopefully make it that much better. My mom is the same way. Right now she is gone working in Las Vegas. She has pushed herself so hard to finish her projects and most have her fellow workers are still working on theirs. She pushes so hard that sometimes she runs out of her own work so she helps them out on theirs. She is a big financial part of things also. She handled everything for the Blue Roc team this year and managed every one's funds so we wouldn't spend it all at once and it would last the whole season.
I also really need to thank the Medlin family. They are really what made it happen for us this year as far as making the races and having the perfect bike I rode this year. Without them it would have been extremely hard. Also Don Blue who really helped us with my riding. He was always there to give his two-cents worth telling what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. He helped out tremendously as a coach.
