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 col𒆙lec🤪tion.

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

Mill🐠er was asked about that motivation: “We were watching the replay from 2021 here, she was w🌱atching it on the aeroplane.

“I’d been tossing [aro🤡und 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 Christmaꦅs’.”

Asked about his win bonus from KTM, he joked: “I’ll pu🌃t it🦋 towards a boat!

“The victory is always the goal, confidence is h꧋igh.

“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 feelin🐟g.

“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 th♉e bike to go to the apex.

“About the same. I feel fast, competitive, in good sh༺ape, 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 🧔꧒the Ducatis.

“The way it handles in the faster corners? For me, the las𝄹t sector here has always been dif⛦ficult. The KTM has always been strong in the last sector here. 

“In the past they have suffe🔥red 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 Prixꦡ 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 our൲ belt,” Miller said. “We know what we’re coming into in terms of a strategy - the set-up, the electronics, everything like 𝔉that.

“I’m especially looking forward to the test on Monda💖y - I never thought I’d say꧂ that!”

“Six crashes in a f***** weekend”

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

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

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

“I will learn the memory, but erase it. I had six crashe🍰s 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 under♊standing of why you crashed.

“Here, with⭕ normal a༒sphalt, it will be a different ball game.”

His explanation for his crashes in Texas: “I prepared early, the corne💎r. 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 th𝐆e 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 ཧcaused it - it was my fault, simple as that.

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