Larry Lawrence | October 18, 2017
There’s no doubt about it, 2017 was a seminal year in American Flat Track. Indian Motorcycle was dominant with its new Scout FTR750 racing machine. In the 64-year history of the championship, it’s safe to say there’s never been a new motorcycle come in and dominate quite like Indian’s FTR750. And then there was the transformation of Jared Mees. Mees winning the title was not all that surprising, this year marked his fifth AFT Twins National Championship, it was the way Mees did it. He used to be a grinder, a guy who won titles, not by winning a ton of races, but by being on the podium nearly every weekend. He blew that m.o. out of the water this season with the second most wins ever in a single season.
The other notable that came out of 2017 was the struggle of Harley-Davidson. The factory Harley team of Jake Johnson, Kenny Coolbeth, Jr. and Brandon Robinson, riding the XG750R, didn’t earn a victory in 2017. Only Johnson managed a single podium result – a third at the Buffalo Chip TT. The Motor Company should offer up any model bike Jeffrey Carver would like as a reward for keeping Harley from being shut out for the first time in the history of American Flat Track. Carver’s victory at the Lone Star Half-Mile in Ft. Worth, Texas, on a XR750 was the sole victory for Harley-Davidson in 2017.
What Indian did this year in flat track racing was unprecedented. Hiring Jared Mees, Bryan Smith and Brad Baker on a single team was a stroke of genius. Indian must have thought that if they happened to not have everything dialed in with their new race bike, they would at least have the three most talented riders in their camp. Then they sealed the deal by hiring the best tuners in the business as well. Turns out Indian did have the FTR dialed in and the results were jaw-droppingly good. Indian won 14 of the 18 AFT Twins Nationals, took 37 podiums and six podium sweeps and finished one-two-three in the championship! The 2017 manufacturers tally reads: Indian with 14 wins, Kawasaki with three and Harley-Davidson with one.
That kind of dominance is not unheard of – Harley won every national in 1956 for instance – but it is very rare.
Looking back in series history, the 1984 season was the last time a manufacturer took the series by storm with a new bike. That year Honda dominated with factory riders Ricky Graham and Bubba Shobert to making a full assault on the series aboard the Honda RS750. Honda won 19 of the 33 nationals in ’84 and Graham and Shobert finished first and second in the series. Honda went on a winning streak, taking the championship four-consecutive years and before leaving the series.
Indian’s current dominance brings up the notion of if history will repeat itself. Honda was none too happy about the restrictor plates that the AMA placed on the RS750 to slow them down. It’s debatable if Honda left flat tracking because of the restrictor rule, but it certainly didn’t help. If Indian continues to dominate it will be interesting to see how things play out with the rules makers at American Flat Track.
Already there is a chorus of “unfair” from the Harley faithful. Harley’s line is that they are running a production-based motorcycle in the series, as are the other makers, and Indian is the only manufacturer with a purpose-built racing machine. Will the fans (most riders of Harley-Davidsons) continue to attend races when one maker has such dominance?
It’s a fair question. Undoubtedly there are arguments that Harley-Davidson is the one company that has supported flat track racing for years, good times and bad. But when I talk to people in the flat track pits, the overwhelming hope is that Harley-Davidson is able to step up its game and improve its race bike so the series can have a true Harley-Indian battle once again.
Flat track has perhaps the oldest demographic in all of motorcycle racing. Certainly, older than motocross/Supercross and even older than road racing. For years flat track went after those faithful baby boomers with all they had. The good news is that American Flat Track’s CEO Michael Lock recognizes the issue of an aging fanbase and under his leadership the series has done a remarkable job reaching out to the mainstream media, bringing new recognition to America’s original extreme sport. The work by AFT seems to be paying off. Several tracks saw big jumps in attendance this season and some of the new venues were successful promotions.
Also new this year, along with the rebranding of the series, was the premier class being the big Twins only, even on the TTs and Short Tracks. It largely went off without a hitch, avoiding the chaos many predicted from having the big bikes on the smaller tracks.
There were five winners this season. Mees scored 10, Bryan Smith four, Briar Bauman took a pair of wins and Jeffrey Carver and Henry Wiles took a victory each. In one season Mees went from 20-career wins to 30, vaulting him from 16th on the all-time Grand National Wins list to ninth. Mees passed riders like Joe Leonard, Dick Mann and Bart Markel. Ironically, Bryan Smith’s four wins pushed him into a tie with Mees for ninth on the all-time list. Wiles is right there too with 29-career wins. Kenny Coolbeth, fifth all-time with 36-career wins, remains the winningest active rider in the championship, but Mees is closing in fast.
Mees’ place in Grand National history was certainly bolstered by this season. His sheer number of wins ties Mees with Scott Parker for second in the Most Wins in a Season category. The late-great Ricky Graham still owns the record of 12 wins in 1993. Mees is now third for the most Grand National Championships behind only Scott Parker and Chris Carr.
Looking forward to 2018 things look even brighter for American Flat Track. Indian shows no signs of slowing down, now offering a lucrative contingency program, which may influence more teams to run Indian FTR750s. Harley-Davidson is almost certain to step up in order to close the gap and then there’s quiet rumblings that Yamaha and Kawasaki could get more heavily involved.
It appears the grand old sport of American motorcycle racing is doing just fine.
