Rennie Scaysbrook | February 21, 2019
Red Bull KTM Flat Track Team: Ready To Race In AFT 2019. — The American Flat Track scene is about to get a whole lot bigger with Red Bull KTM joining the ranks as the only factory-supported team in the Singles category.
The young Red Bull KTM Flat Track team of Shayna Texter (left), Chris Fillmore (center), and Dan Bromley (right) will add some new colors to the Singles division this year.
The Austrian powerhouse has been eyeing America’s premier flat track championship for several years. Therefore, the 2019 season will be a toe-in-the-water effort ahead of an eventual move to the Twins championship with the 790 Duke.
Flat track racing is enjoying an enormous resurgence under the guidance of CEO Michael Lock. Outside sponsorship money is trickling into the series, television numbers are growing internationally and the sport is now at a level where everyone from the Director of Motorsports, Pit Beirer at the very top of the KTM food chain down, believes now is the right time to attack the AFT Championship.
We briefly chatted with Dan Bromley, Shayna Texter, and new team manager Chris Fillmore to hear about the new venture.
Red Bull KTM Flat Track Team
Dan Bromley — Defending Singles Champion
Racing out of a van to racing out of the Red Bull truck. Bromley knows he’s worked for his promotion this year.
Bromley’s ascendancy to the lead ride in the factory Red Bull KTM Flat Track team proves hard work pays off. The lanky Warrington, PA, native spent the 2018 season living and racing out of the back of his van and eventually won the Singles Championship for his first AMA #1 plate on his privateer KTM 450 SX-F.
He’s now got the backing of Red Bull and the KTM factory behind him and is purely focused on retaining his title.
The defending champion and you’re on a factory bike for the first time. That must feel great.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool to have the full Red Bull KTM Flat Track factory team backing. Last year it was more of a privateer effort with some support from them. They gave me some bikes and some parts. In the end, they helped me out with another bike to finish the year on.
“For this year, to be able to have the full team, full backing, anything I need they can help me with, it’s definitely special. And it’s going to make it hopefully a little bit less hard on me to be able to defend my number one plate.
“Before I’d have come in the pit, make every change, check the tire pressure, or change the tires between the races myself. Now to be able to come in, talk to my mechanic, have him do the changes and I can just focus on racing, it’s going to make it a lot easier.”
Bromley knows to ascend to the Twins class, he’s got to retain this number one plate.
How has the off-season been?
“It’s been going pretty good. I’ve been working a lot. I’m a full-time carpenter back home, so I’ve been busy! I’ve also been trying to get in shape as best I can. I went to Florida twice and rode a lot in the North Carolina area. I’ve been trying to be on a bike as much as I can because back home there’s snow on the ground.”
Where’s home for you?
“Home for me is just north of Baltimore now. I’m living on the PA/Maryland line in New Freedom. My real home is just north of Philly. Both are covered in snow right now, so it makes it a little hard to ride but we try to make the best of it.”
How’s the bike changed between this year and last year?
“The bikes are pretty much identical. The only difference right now is just the graphics and the exhaust pipes. Last year, WP helped me out with some special suspension with the track shock and some cone valve inserts that I could test and get comfortable for myself last year. This year it’s a really smooth transition. They just put me right on what I had last year. Now we’re using the Akrapovic exhaust, which if you get near them you can definitely hear! They’re screaming a lot louder than the FMF we used last year. It definitely sounds faster (laughs) and they say the horsepower is a lot better, too.”
The lanky Bromley has a unique style compared to pint-sized teammate Texter.
What are the goals for this year?
Hopefully, I’m going to try and defend my championship. I know Shayna, my new teammate, is going to be trying to knock me off a pedestal and there’s a lot of other riders that are coming for me. I’m just going to try and keep my consistency.
“Last year I had 13 out of 18 podiums, so if I’m able to do that this year I’m going to be ecstatic. My main goal is just to be up front at every race and hopefully, that puts me in a position where I can have the number one plate.”
What are your biggest strengths?
“I think my biggest strength is being able to adapt. I know a lot of riders they go really well at the beginning of the race because they have the bike set up, and then as the track changes they start to fade a little bit. Maybe not fade, but kind of slow down a little bit. Where I feel that I can adapt with my background in both motocross and off-road, and I even some in trials where I can adapt to all the different situations and make the bike work, rather than just relying on the bike to work itself.”
Red Bull KTM Flat Track Team
Shayna Texter — Ready For The Number One
Texter admits she needs to improve her TT results if she’s going to be clinch that number one plate she desperately wants.
Shayna Texter is the rider with the most wins in the history of the American Flat Track Singles category. But the fan favorite has yet to clinch that coveted number one plate. For 2019, Texter switches from Husqvarna to KTM machinery, with aim of improving her TT race finishes and taking a championship win the absolute goal. And she’s got a very famous trainer in her corner.
How has the off-season been for you?
“I’ve been working with Aldon Baker, trying to get a little bit better on the TT courses. Briar’s (Bauman, Texter’s partner) been going with me to kind of be my carrot, in a sense—he’s pretty good at TT’s. We live in Pennsylvania now. I’ve always lived there, but Briar’s just moved. I bought a log cabin there December of last year. Last year we bought it and then we came down and stayed with Jared and Nicole Mees. We lived in it for, like, two weeks and then left for three months. So this year we wanted to do the same thing, just come down and train because you can’t ride up north. It’s so cold and it’s between that period of where it’s too cold to ride moto, but not cold enough for ice.”
You must be pumped for the formation of the Red Bull KTM Flat Track team.
“It’s such a big deal for me. It’s a dream come true. And then for the sport, this is exactly what American Flat Track needed—factory involvement. These guys are coming in and their motto is Ready to Race, obviously, so they’re coming in ready to race. We’re so much further ahead than I’ve ever been coming into the season opener. It’s a good feeling as a rider.”
Texter’s been testing parts leading into the 2019 season, but knew from the first test the KTM team had given her a good base machine.
How’s the difference between the Husqvarna you rode last year and you 2019 KTM?
“They’re pretty similar. Obviously, the biggest thing is I was on an ’18 chassis, and the ’18 chassis was quite a bit different than this 2019 KTM. Dan (Bromley) and I were sending notes all last year to Chris Fillmore and the team and they took our thoughts serious, what we were feeling.
“We were kind of testing throughout last year behind the scenes. Some of the complaints we had, they’ve already fixed at the first initial test we had back in December. I told those guys, after ten laps, I’m like, “We got something. Let’s go. We’re ready.”
“And I mean it. Having their support and being able to bring my team from last year on board and combine the two efforts is huge. I still have the same mechanic in Justin Pittman. We’ve won races together. That chemistry is there. And now I have Aldon (Baker) in my corner.
“Obviously, we’re not trying to win TT races, but we know we’ve got to score points to win a championship. That’s what I want. That’s the ultimate goal. I’ve been riding a lot of moto and TT’s and just trying to get comfortable jumping. For me, that was always a mental struggle. Not even so much the track itself, but just the mental aspect of it (of jumping).”
Texter’s popularity with AFT fans is a bonus for Red Bull KTM, but she wants to make good on that promise with a title win.
How has the training with Baker changed your mindset?
“It’s very motivational to see, especially with what’s going on with Cooper (Webb, leader of the 450 SX points). I know the guy that’s behind a lot of that is Aldon. So, for me, it’s great having him in my corner. He seems to understand exactly what I need and the right approach to get me there. We know we’re not going to knock down doors in the first week, but we have goals and hopefully, we can achieve them one step at a time.
“Like I said, we know I need to be in a TT main but I don’t need to win it. I need to get some points. We already know I am proven to win on the rest of the tracks. So that’s our goal. We’re just going to keep plugging along. His (Baker’s) goal is just to get me physically and mentally stronger as a rider.”
For you, the goal has got to be championship this year, hasn’t it?
“Yeah. The goal is the championship. I left it on the table in 2017. In 2018, I had a great season, but again, giving up that many points for the TT’s, you sit back and think what would a hundred points would do that you gave up? I would have won the championship with a hundred points, well in the clear. It’s tough to swallow.
“When you know you’re strong everywhere else and show up at the TT’s, go out there and in 10 laps your day’s over and you’re watching your points fade away, it’s definitely frustrating. But that’s why I’m down in Florida right now. I’ll be down there until after the second round, just putting in the work.”
Red Bull KTM Flat Track Team
Chris Fillmore — New shoes to fill
Normally seen behind the visor, Fillmore’s on a learning curve with managing his first team but is up for the challenge. Chris Fillmore is KTM to the core, having spent most his pro career on the orange Austrian machines. The Michigan-born, Southern Californian resident has been working behind the scenes non-stop with KTM and their partners to get this project off the ground and sees this opportunity as a chance to get back to what makes him really happy—being at the racetrack.
It must be a great feeling to see this project come to fruition?
“It’s the next chapter, I believe, in what my career has been with KTM. I started with supermoto and then go to factory level road racing, then media relations, and now what I believe feels like the next chapter, team manager. It’s back to racing. It’s something that I’m comfortable with and passionate about. It definitely has its challenges. It’s not short of that. But it’s a learning experience for me.”
You’ve got good riders on board with Bromley and Texter.
“For sure. It helps to have a couple of riders that have the experience. Flat track is fairly new to our KTM group, and new for me as well. I’ve ridden a little bit with my buddies, just to kind of wrap my head around it, but I haven’t spent the last fifteen years honing my skills in it like these guys.”
The boss gets out for a skid. He’s pretty handy on a flat track bike, but that shouldn’t come as any surprise.
What’s been the challenges as far as getting this team created from scratch?
“I think for me it’s just the first time I’ve ever been the point person. As a rider, your responsibilities are literally to show up on time, ride the motorcycle and give feedback. Now it really puts it in perspective how massive an effort running a team is, organizing a team, ensuring everything works.
“There’s a lot of moving pieces. If you look at a motorcycle and you just think about the bolts and nuts that make a motorcycle a motorcycle, there’s a lot of them, and those all have to come together as well as staffing, riders, environment, and atmosphere. There’s a lot that plays into it.
“As I said, it’s a learning year. They’re important for everybody. I think we need to grow together as a team. We’ve got some learning to do.
What the aim for the season? Is it a championship win straight up?
“That would be nice! It’s a new team, so you can’t come in with the highest expectations but it would be definitely nice to seal it at the end of the year with one and two.”
Photography by Cole Kirkpatrick, Simon Cudby
For all the latest Flat Track racing news and results, click here
