| December 29, 2023
Nine-time Grand National Champion Jared Mees talks about what it’s like to be a nine-time champion, his goals, and the future. Will he be flat track’s next GOAT?
By Chris Martin | Photography by Kristen Lassen and Tim Lester
As its guardian, Progressive American Flat Track has few peers in terms of long-standing historical significance across two-wheeled American sport. Indeed, you can make a justifiable argument that the bold assertion remains true even if you expand the scope globally and allow both two and four wheels.
The series has been active for 70 years running with direct ties that stretch back far further than that, reaching nearly to the dawn of motorized transportation.
Those unique ties to the past are more than an abstraction. That connection is on display each time another national gets added to its annals. The combination of its simplistic, primarily oval-based, layouts with the deceptively complex variables that make up its varying and ever-evolving dirt surfaces has kept the basics of the high-speed artform impressively intact over the decades. A century of dirt track racing has seen its appeal unblemished, centered around blistering speeds, inch-close racing, and a confined, fully viewable battleground.
That’s still true because the discipline’s underlying physics has yet to be solved, hacked, and reformulated by engineers and computers to the degree so many other forms of racing have, remaining as much black magic as a science.
Mees’ ninth title came down to the last race. When the pressure is on, it’s tough to knock off a veteran champion like Mees.
While the endless toil of crafty tuners in search of incremental gains continues to yield quantifiable results, Progressive American Flat Track has a firm grip on its claim as “America’s Original Extreme Sport.”
That fact makes the sport’s reverence of its history a key pillar of its relevance, right alongside the unpredictable, ultra-tight action that originally made it popular so many decades ago. As such, there’s an added layer of significance whenever that history gets rewritten, and particularly so with its most cherished records.
The sport and its fans are currently fortunate to play witness to such a revision as it unfolds in real time.
Of course, its author is living legend Jared Mees, who spent 2023 equaling the once thought untouchable record of nine Grand National Championships posted by the sport’s acknowledged GOAT, Scott Parker.
Reigning Mission SuperTwins king Mees is a throwback racer if there ever was one. Gritty, relentless, and adaptable, the Indian ace has earned titles via outright domination, built upon wins and podium streaks. And he’s pieced together others with a steady collection of thirds, fourths, and sevenths, whatever was necessary for each individual circumstance and season to render the same ultimate result.
With time left on the clock, Mees’ career has spanned multiple generations of heroes and machines, serving as a tie between the Harley-Davidson XR750 heyday of Scott Parker and Chris Carr, through the subsequent era of Kenny Coolbeth, Sammy Halbert, Jake Johnson, and Bryan Smith, right up to the modern day, one that sees multiple manufacturers pit up against one another as a new generation of superstars takes shape.
With 72 career wins, only two riders have more wins than Mees—Scott Parker (94) and Chris Carr (78).
While he has shown no signs of backing down now, Mees’ career-defining achievement of a ninth GNC serves as an appropriate time to take stock of what he’s accomplished to date. And it turns out #9 was in his sights even before he scored #8 in 2022. Far, far earlier as it turns out.
“Deep down inside, I always wanted to be that guy,” Mees says. “Thinking about nine championships when you’re sitting at home with none, well, you don’t go around bragging or talking too loudly about it, telling people that you’re coming for Scottie Parker. But deep down inside, I always had that goal to someday match or beat that record.”
What Mees envisioned from the start eventually became evident to all and a concrete goal to shoot for.
“But I guess, back in 2021, when I blew my knee out and still got seven, right then, I was like, ‘All right, I think I can make a run at this deal.’ 2022 came around, and they put some restrictions on the bike that I was racing, and I was kind of skeptical at how that might turn out. But we still got the job done.
“Anyway, after that, I knew we had a good shot at getting it done this year.”
2023 proved itself a worthy backdrop for the history-altering milestone.
Mees piled on nine wins during the 2023 season.
Before the season, Mees’ modern-day nemesis—Briar Bauman, himself already a two-time Grand National Champion with a long career still in front of him—switched allegiances. No longer backed by the powerhouse factory Indian Wrecking Crew outfit, Bauman joined forces with the multi-motorsport team Rick Ware Racing to develop an all-new race bike built around KTM’s Duke platform.
Bauman’s 2023 was a rollercoaster ride, but during its peaks, he reminded the world exactly why he had proven to be such a persistent thorn in Mees’ side.
Meanwhile, the young phenom, Dallas Daniels, continued his meteoric rise. A career trajectory pointed directly at eventual all-timer status only steepened its upward climb as the Estenson Racing Yamaha pilot graduated from rookie title threat to series’ bar-raiser in his sophomore campaign.
Grand National Championship #9 had to be earned.
Mees is a throwback racer if there ever was one; he’s gritty, relentless and adaptable.
Daniels came out hot, ripping off a pair of dominant victories on the opening weekend of the season. He would proceed to finish no lower than second until the season’s ninth race, nor off the podium until its 14th.
If he was going to match Parker’s achievement, Mees was also going to have to match Daniels’ torrid pace and ceaseless consistency—and surpass it.
And that he did. Mees ended the season with nine victories, 15 podiums, including the final 14 in succession, and a ninth Grand National Championship.
“Deep down inside, I always wanted to be that guy.”
“We got it done. But it wasn’t a dream for me, it was a goal. The modest approach of a normal racer would probably be to say, ‘Oh man, I never dreamed that I would achieve this.’ My response to that is you didn’t have a big enough goal!
“For me, I’m not trying to be cocky, but it really wasn’t a dream. Of course, dream, goal, it can kind of go hand-in-hand, but I worked hard to get that. Not only did I dream about it, but I made it a point that that was what I was going to do.”
“I love this sport. I love racing. I love winning.”
While the spotlight is obviously on the rider, particularly a record-setting one, success at the highest level of motorcycle dirt track racing is a team effort. And to his credit, Mees goes to great lengths to explain that on each of his many visits to the podium.
It’s certainly more than lip service, and it would be his secret weapon if it were in any way a secret. Mees has done well to assemble an all-star crew—each one of whom had already proven themselves with future Hall of Fame potential—mold it into a well-oiled machine, and then hold it together for over a decade.
“I’ve got a great team and put a lot of effort into making it happen. We’ve been together for a long time, and we know each other well. I think that’s a big factor in why we’re so successful.
“I’ve been with [team owner] Craig Rogers since 2009, I’ve been with [crew chief] Kenny Tolbert since 2013, and [Öhlins suspension technician] Jimmy Wood has been doing my stuff for just as long. I’ve been with everybody 10-plus years.
“These guys read me good. These guys know my demeanor. The language is all there. Whenever we turn up at a racetrack, we want to win. We all work hard to win races and championships. I have the best team, that’s for sure.”
He’s no longer just a racer with big goals, but a husband, father and businessman with similarly lofty aspirations across those competing pursuits.
So, what’s next for Mees and his dynasty?
Displacing Parker to second all-time with a 10th Grand National Championship is the obvious goal that looms before him. But there’s another of Parker’s most high-profile marks that was long considered out of reach that Mees has been quietly sneaking up on.
Over his career, Parker accumulated a remarkable 94 main event victories. The closest anyone ever came to that number was Carr, with his 78 wins.
Mees now ranks third and 29 victories ahead of fourth place with 72. Granted, that remains a mighty big gulf to first. In fact, fewer than 20 riders in the long history of the sport have ever racked up as many wins as the number that currently separates Mees from Parker.
“I’ve got a great team and put a lot of effort into making it happen. We’ve been together for a long time, and we know each other well. I think that’s a big factor in why we’re so successful.”
That said, consider the pace Mees has been adding to that tally in recent seasons. Ten each in 2017 and 2018. Nine this past season. Eight in 2019. Seven in 2021.
Framed that way, it starts to feel like a foregone conclusion. However, the math gets more complicated when you start to factor in some key outside variables.
The Jared Mees that earned a ninth Grand National Championship in 2023 is in a much different place than the one who earned that first one in 2009. He’s no longer just a racer with big goals, but a husband, father, and businessman with similarly lofty aspirations across those competing pursuits.
And while blistering speeds, inch-close racing, and a confined, fully viewable battleground have granted the sport its undiminished appeal, there are limits to just how much the risks associated with those features can be minimized. And in his current state, the risks Mees takes on to rewrite the record books are no longer his alone.
“The championship record is the biggest goal. The number of wins would also be very cool, but man, I’ve got 22 to go. I think that might be a little hard to get that. That probably has me racing at this level for four more years. I don’t know if I’ll quite go that long, but it’s hard to say.
“Honestly, I don’t have an exact time frame on when I might be done. I think the biggest thing that’ll be a player for me, is where things are at with the economy and the sport and the support for my program.
“I love this sport. I love racing. I love winning. But at the end of the day, where I’m at, I’ve got to make it financially make sense for me as well. With that said, I also have goals I want to hit on the financial level, and if it doesn’t make much sense to put your neck on the line compared to what’s coming in, then it might be time for me to say, ‘That’s enough.’”
At any rate, he hasn’t had quite enough just yet. Mees will be back in 2024 and gunning for #10 even as he expects the competition presented by the likes of Daniels and Bauman to be that much more fierce with another year of mechanical and personal development under their respective belts.
“I think they’ll be the toughest guys again. But I feel pretty confident going in. My team is going to stay basically the same, and we’ll be ready.” CN
