Two years ago Miller rode𒁃 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 medi🌜a. “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 ﷺthe idea of buying] anotherౠ boat. 

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

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

Asไked 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 c🏅an exploit that feeling.

“There is a🙈 part of th🧸e 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 s💟ame. I feel fast, competitive, in good shape, the bike is in good shape, I am quietly confident with the experience that I’veꦺ gained on the KTM.

“Our bike is st𓆉rong, especially in the first three gears, really strong i♒f 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 her💙e. 

“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 slow𒐪er parts of the track.

“The characte𓄧ristics 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 comi🅰ng 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 f🔜ell six times in Texas last time out, his worst weekend so ꦍfar since joining KTM from Ducati.

Asked how he could have done better, he joked: “Stay🅠ing 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 crash🧜ed.

“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 o𝕴ut-laps. It was a strange weekend, without feeling or understanding of why you crashed.

“Here, with normal asphalౠt, 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 ꦍto the kerb more than the laps before. The unload, the pitching, to th🐲e 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 cꦦaused it - it was my fault, simple as that.

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