Throwback Thursday: Kevin Schwantz Racing AMA Grand National Flat Track
Larry Lawrence | August 3, 2017
Photo by Mitch Friedman
In one of the coolest Throwback photos we’ve come across in a while, photographer Mitch Friedman captured Kevin Schwantz (34N) as he gets precariously close to hitting the rear number plate of Hank Scott’s Harley-Davidson in AMA Grand National racing action at Phoenix in April of 1986.
Not many people remember that Schwantz, who would go on to become 500cc Grand Prix (MotoGP) World Champion in 1993, took a stab at racing professional flat track.
“In 1986, I rode Bill Bartel’s Harley,” Schwantz recalled. “It was a great bike, competitive and plenty fast. I rode it at Ascot, Phoenix and San Jose. At Ascot, I put my foot down pretty hard and it slung my leg back behind me. It was pretty painful, but I kept riding. I didn’t make the main at any of those three races and those were the only Grand Nationals Dirt Tracks that I did.”
While Schwantz is not considered a former flat tracker in the same way guys like his contemporaries Wayne Rainey and Eddie Lawson were, he did indeed have professional flat track experience and this very rare photo of him in action proves it.
You can read about this race and many more by subscribing to the Cycle News Archives at: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/
