Jack Miller’s wife: “Made a bet - if he wins, I’ll let him get a new boat!”

Two years ago Miller rode his factory Ducati bike to victory and, if he can repeat the feat with KTM this weekend, he will earn a new toy for the Miller family collection.

“Made a bet for the weekend,” his wife posted to social media. “If Jack wins, I’ll let him get a new boat.”

Miller was asked about that motivation: “We were watching the replay from 2021 here, she was watching it on the aeroplane.

“I’d been tossing [around the idea of buying] another boat. 

“I want to pull the trigger but I don’t want to pull the trigger because I feel like the economy will fall apart, and the boat prices will be better! So I am waiting.

“I said to her: ‘If I win this year, I’m pulling the trigger on a boat for Christmas’.”

Asked about his win bonus from KTM, he joked: “I’ll put it towards a boat!

“The victory is always the goal, confidence is high.

“I feel good, comfortable with the bike. The bike, when it gets upset in a fast corner, you can muscle it around. I feel like I’m in charge of it. So, coming to 11 and 12 here we can exploit that feeling.

“There is a part of the track, on the old bike, if it started to buck or weave you had to go with the bike. I couldn’t force the bike to go to the apex.

“About the same. I feel fast, competitive, in good shape, the bike is in good shape, I am quietly confident with the experience that I’ve gained on the KTM.

“Our bike is strong, especially in the first three gears, really strong if not on par with the Ducatis.

“The way it handles in the faster corners? For me, the last sector here has always been difficult. The KTM has always been strong in the last sector here. 

“In the past they have suffered more when you brake hard, like in Corners 1 and 6. Because the bike was shorter, it sat on its nose, it wheelied, they couldn’t get power to the ground. The improvements we have made will fix the issues they had in the slower parts of the track.

“The characteristics of the bike will help us take advantage of the last sector.”

Miller finished seventh and sixth at the first two grands prix of 2023, before failing to finish the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas.

But teammate Brad Binder won the second sprint race of the year, and KTM are targeting major strides to send their rider duo nearer the front of the grid on a more consistent basis.

“We’ve got more races under our belt,” Miller said. “We know what we’re coming into in terms of a strategy - the set-up, the electronics, everything like that.

“I’m especially looking forward to the test on Monday - I never thought I’d say that!”

“Six crashes in a f***** weekend”

Miller fell six times in Texas last time out, his worst weekend so far since joining KTM from Ducati.

Asked how he could have done better, he joked: “Staying on the bike would have been a good start! That would be a bonus. I studied the data to see what I did wrong.

“We always hear riders say ‘I didn’t do anything differently’. But clearly I did something because I crashed.

“I will learn the memory, but erase it. I had six crashes in a f***** weekend. Not one of them was more than 60km/h. Two were on out-laps. It was a strange weekend, without feeling or understanding of why you crashed.

“Here, with normal asphalt, it will be a different ball game.”

His explanation for his crashes in Texas: “I prepared early, the corner. I was fast through Sector 2 all weekend. The right before I crashed, I came back to the kerb more than the laps before. The unload, the pitching, to the front was maybe at a little different point. This was enough to put more load on the front tyre. The suspension was slightly down. 

“That’s what caused it - it was my fault, simple as that.

“It felt like a race we could have won.”