It's safe to say Yoshimura Suzuki mechanic Reg O'Rourke knows Mat Mladin well. The Australian mechanic has worked with Mat through his record four AMA Superbike championships as his chassis mechanic.

At Pikes Peak, SuperbikePlanet.com sat down with Reggie under the Yoshimura tent to talk about racing, his past, and the man Reg calls "Matthew".

SuperbikePlanet.com -- What's it like to work with Mladin? Mat has an aura of being a tough guy that few in the paddock know well as a person.

Reg O'Rourke -- He's great. The thing I like about Matthew is that he's always 100%. No bullshit with him. He expects things to be right. And we do our best to keep the bikes running the way they should and minimize and mechanical DNFs. Consequently, we haven't had too many. A lot of people take him the wrong way but when you get to know him, he's a gem. When it comes time to go racing, he gives it everything he's got.

SuperbikePlanet.com -- Mat's wing of the Yoshimura Suzuki team is almost exclusively from Australia (or New Zealand) and from the outside seems like a really close group.

Reg O'Rourke -- Absolutely. That's why we are pretty choosy in who we get to work with us. We tried to get (crewchief) Pete (Doyle) over here for a long time. As you know, he's a very smart cookie. Now we've got Johnny (Asher) now. We all worked together with Team Kawasaki in Australia in the '80s. We know what everyone does best and if something isn't right, we'll all do our bit to correct it.

We are a tight-knit team. It boils down to we look after each other. If we have a problem, we'll all look in and sort it out. We had a tough time with Peter of late (note -- Doyle's daughter died last off-season). That was tough on everybody.

SuperbikePlanet.com -- It is pretty impressive to watch Mladin and the crew in practices and in testing. Everything seems like it moves in a fast pace but is very controlled.

Reg O'Rourke -- The thing you have to take account of in this business, it's very, very repetitive. Everyone obviously has days when it's not going right and you have to change a heap of bits and pieces. What we try to do is work fast. Back at the workshop, what we try to do is when we have two weeks to put the bikes together, we'll try to get it done in a couple of days. We get used to working fast so when the shit does hit the fan, you're used to getting it done and getting it done right.