2025 American Flat Track Season Preview

The board has been cleared and reset. Progressive American Flat Track has long been envied for the reliability and consistency with which it delivers its triple-digit mph, inch-close race action, year-after-year, decade-after-decade. But in 2025, novelty is every bit the draw as continuity, if not more so.

By Chris Martin | Photos by Tim Lester & Scott Hunter

Gone is Jared Mees, winner of more Grand National Championships than any other rider in the series’ long history, including the last four in succession.

Gone is the Indian FTR750, the championship-winning machine in all eight seasons in which it vied for the title, as Progressive AFT moves to an all-production-based ruleset.

Gone too with it is the Harley-Davidson XR750, arguably the most successful vehicle in motorsports history, which remained competitive enough to fight for wins and score podiums this past season.

Also gone is Kody Kopp, the winner of the last three AFT Singles presented by Kicker titles—at least as a full-season contender—as he makes the transition from dirt to pavement this year.

But rather than absence, this altered landscape has granted the series a sense of possibility and opportunity.

A New Era

Over the past few seasons, AMA Pro Racing has worked overtime in an attempt to achieve parity across race-only and production-based race bikes in the premier Mission AFT SuperTwins—and with admirable success. However, this year’s shift puts competitors on fully leveled ground without the need for further rulebook gymnastics, with the additional hope of attaining greater relevance for manufacturers and fans alike.

It’s a strong bet for the long term. From a single-season perspective, however, the wide expectation is that there will be a clear first among rulebook equals in 2025.

Mission AFT SuperTwins

As the series embarks upon this season’s Grand National Championship fight, the spotlight is aimed directly at Dallas Daniels and his Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07.

The team is (belatedly) poised to reap the benefits of the enormous resources, time, and effort it committed to the goal of assembling a team/bike/rider package capable of taking down Mees and his factory Indian.

When viewed in hindsight, the progress it made toward those ends is quite remarkable. In 2020, Estenson Racing’s two-rider squad earned just a single finish better than 10th with final championship rankings of 14th and 18th.

Last season, its more focused single-rider effort put the MT-07 on the podium in all 16 races, including five main-event wins. And if points were assigned to a bike rather than a rider, the Estenson Racing machine would have walked away with the championship with some 36 points to spare.

But as stellar as JD Beach proved to be in his three-race substitute stint last season, the addition of Daniels has proven a critical one in the program’s larger success. Still just 21 years old, the Illinois native looked to finally have the measure of Mees in 2024, building up a 19-point advantage over the season’s opening 10 rounds thanks to his relentless barrage of consistent excellence.

However, a training accident that put him on the shelf for the aforementioned three rounds provided the outgoing champ with the opening he needed to complete his run to an unprecedented 10th Grand National Championship.

That history-altering practice crash has robbed Daniels and Estenson Racing of the single-minded purpose of beating Mees and Indian that has defined their existence for years.

However disappointing, there is a need to immediately pivot and refocus on even bigger goals. For Daniels, that means claiming the first of what he hopes will be many premier-class titles. And for Estenson Racing, it’s all about claiming Yamaha’s first Grand National Championship since Kenny Roberts last did it more than a half decade ago.

The remainder of the field will be gunning for them as if they already brandish the number-one plate they’ve yet to earn. Armed with prodigious skill and a well-honed weapon, Daniels is likely the strongest preseason favorite the series has seen since Mees entered the 2019 season on the heels of back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 won by a combined 182 points.

It’s worth recalling that Mees did not win the championship in 2019.

The rider that did was Briar Bauman, who earned the first of his two Grand National Championships that season. And Bauman, along with 2024 championship runner-up Brandon Robinson, almost certainly stands as the greatest threat standing in opposition to Daniels’ ascent to the throne.

Bauman and Robinson entered the ’25 offseason facing very different but equally vexing conundrums. Bauman was coming off a pair of rocky—sometimes brilliant but just as often incredibly frustrating—seasons spent developing a race bike built around a KTM 790 Duke mill. And Robinson, meanwhile, was left as the series’ most high-profile rider forced to find an alternative to the rulebook-retired FTR750 once Mees elected to race off into the sunset.

Interestingly, their respective dilemmas led them to the same, somewhat surprising answer: the Harley-Davidson XG750R.

Bauman’s Harley will be tuned by Dave Zanotti and Michelle Disalvo, the title-winning team reuniting under the Rick Ware Racing/Parts Plus/Latus Motors banner following a year apart. Meanwhile, Robinson will continue with the Mission Roof Systems outfit he has shined at in recent seasons.

Just like the Indian, Harley’s XR750 successor was introduced in a limited, developmental fashion in 2016 before being made the centerpiece of a three-rider superstar factory team in 2017. Unlike the Indian, the XG750R is yet to claim its first premier-class race victory, let alone a championship.

However, similar in this respect to the Yamaha, massive resources and amounts of effort have been poured into the Harley over the years in an attempt to get it on par with its rival. While it never quite made it, the bike improved radically as a result and has factored at the front on occasion—and in the hands of less decorated riders than Bauman or Robinson.

Adding another wrinkle is the fact that Robinson was one of the three superstars originally enlisted by Harley to spearhead that initial XG750R effort. While his results and confidence took a battering during his two-year run on the bike, he’s since not just recovered but elevated his game to new heights.

Rather than risk being thrown back into an unpredictable development process, the thinking seems to be to arm the likes of Bauman and Robinson with what’s now among the most well-sorted machines left on the grid and simply allow their talent to shine through on a bike that’s overall record would likely be quite glorious had it not been faced with a field stacked with Indians.

Behind the three leading title contenders, a variety of strategies are being employed in hopes of best navigating the series’ new reality.

Davis Fisher (Rackley Racing) and Jarod Vanderkooi (Fastrack Racing)—who have finished each of the last four seasons ranked above every remaining rider on the grid save Daniels, Bauman and Robinson—have both been tempted in by the obvious potential of the KTM that initially attracted Bauman. Should that potential be extracted more consistently, it might just provide Fisher, Vanderkooi, or both with that extra edge required to get the measure of those elite few riders who have most frequently finished in front of them.

With Johnny Lewis shifting to full-time team management duties, Moto Anatomy X snapped up Australian Max Whale to pilot the factory Royal Enfield. Gifted another bike that has been earnestly developed in the shadow of the Indians dominance, Whale is a major league talent and a lanky frame likely to be well-suited to the package Lewis has molded.

Meanwhile, a pair of skilled riders will follow the path blazed by Estenson with the MT-07. Brandon Price is back on the OTB Racing Yamaha after guiding it to four top fives—including a pair of podiums—a year ago. And Californian James Ott will step up to premier-class duty this season with G&G Racing Yamaha as Kolby Carlile moves into the broadcast booth.

Trent Lowe will join Ott in making the transition as he takes the controls of the Big Red SuperTwins/Turner Honda Transalp that made its red, white and blue debut in ’24.

Adding a dash of spice is former Singles champ Dan Bromley (Memphis Shades/Vinson Construction), who will bring Suzuki back to the fray on a GSX-8S-powered race bike.

And the field will almost certainly be rounded out on a weekly basis by a handful of private Kawasaki Ninja 650s—the bike, if you’ll recall, outside of the Indian, most recently won the Grand National Championship, and one that fell just 0.002 of a second short of claiming a podium at the Orange County Half-Mile a year ago.

AFT Singles Presented by Kicker

The overall situation in AFT Singles is something of a mirror image of that found in Mission AFT SuperTwins (minus a few hundred ccs) and to an almost eerie degree.

Here, too, Estenson Racing will field a rising star in Tom Drane now lacking his previous years’ purpose of dethroning the long-reigning champion Kody Kopp, with Kopp off to try his luck in MotoAmerica’s new Talent Cup.

Frequently showing himself to be every bit Kopp’s equal and even out-winning him a year ago, Drane shouldn’t find it too difficult to shift his sights. Last year’s runner-up has already developed a healthy (and occasionally heated) rivalry with third-ranked Chase Saathoff, as the two have regularly clashed on track in their respective efforts to take down Kopp.

Saathoff, still on a Bryan Bigelow-tuned Honda but now backed by RWR, should provide more than a sufficient challenge in order to grab Drane’s full attention. In fact, the two finished first and second (and ahead of Kopp) in four of the season’s final five races a year ago, proving themselves more than ready to take the baton.

The big question now is who might crash their party.

Trevor Brunner returns to the class and the factory Honda-backed Turner Racing squad following a Rookie of the Year-winning debut in the premier class. Brunner won at least one race in each of his five prior AFT Singles campaigns and finished ranked inside the championship top five in his last four.

However, while the transition up from 450s to SuperTwins can be treacherous, so too can be the move back to single-cylinder competition, as the class seemingly ramps up its level and ferocity year-on-year.

Two riders who have managed that reverse move successfully could factor in this year’s fight. Former class champion Dalton Gauthier is a podium threat any time he throws a leg over the D&D Certified Racing KTM 450 SX-F. So too is multi-time race winner Chad Cose, who returns to 1st Impression Racing Husqvarna full-time in 2025.

Cose will be joined there by the heralded Evan Renshaw, who followed up his 2023 Nicky Hayden AMA Flat Track Horizon Award-winning amateur career with AFT Singles Rookie of the Year honors in 2024.

While Renshaw moves over to 1st Impressions in ’25, last year’s Horizon Award winner, Walker Porter, is set to take over the second seat at Turner Racing as soon as he turns 16 a little later this season.

Meanwhile, a big second group emerged in the class last season, one that included the likes of Tarren Santero (Mission Roof Systems), Tyler Raggio (Raggio Racing) and Jared Lowe (BigR Racing). It remains to be seen if any of them—or anyone else—can make the jump up to the lead pack and fight for top honors with any regularity.

New Triple Challenge & Return of AdventureTrackers

Even as Progressive American Flat Track moves forward, Jared Mees continues to have an impact beyond just the long shadow he’s cast and the vacated throne he’s left behind.

As one of the more influential promoters on the circuit, Mees still has an ability to help guide the future of the sport. Already this offseason, he played a key role in introducing the new Triple Challenge race format that will be utilized on the first half of three doubleheaders this season: Lima Half-Mile I, Jackpine Gypsies Short Track I and the Springfield Mile I). The format will see the riders compete in a series of races of escalating length and stakes, shifting strategies all the while.

Combined with last year’s introduction of the AFT AdventureTrackers—and this year’s expansion of the class—the initiative is another indication that the series is serious about shaping its future, wielding this time of transition as an opportunity to strive for things bigger and better rather than simply following a path seemingly dedicated by its history, however proud.That future begins during Daytona Bike Week with the Royal Enfield Short Track at Daytona I & II on Thursday, March 6, and Friday, March 7.CN

The 2025 AFT Schedule

AFT has 16 rounds scheduled for 2025 starting with five consecutive Short Tracks, with the first at the series’ traditional Daytona Beach doubleheader opener during the 84th annual Daytona Bike Week.

Senoia Short Track in Senoia, Georgia, is next on March 29, and then AFT heads west for two rounds in California, the Ventura Short Track (April 26) and the Silver Dollar Short Track (May 3). On March 4, AFT announced that the previously unannounced location of round six will take place at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, on Saturday, June 7.

The schedule then transitions to a run through the Midwest, including a doubleheader June 27-28 in Lima, Ohio, followed by the “Magic Mile” in Du Quoin, Illinois, on July 5.

On August 10, the Sturgis TT returns, and it will be preceded on August 4-5 by the all-new doubleheader, the Jackpine Gypsies Short Track I & II, which will also take place in Sturgis during the 85th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

The season’s stretch run features its two most iconic events: the 78th edition of the Peoria TT (August 16) and a doubleheader at the legendary Springfield Mile (August 30-31). Lake Ozark Speedway wraps it all up on September 13 during the annual Lake of the Ozarks Bikefest.

The AFT AdventureTrackers will return with an expanded schedule in ’25. Building on the class’ highly successful 2024 debut, it will be featured at all three Sturgis events and at the Peoria TT.

The upcoming season will feature further innovation via the introduction of the Triple Challenge format that will be utilized at the Lima Half-Mile I, Jackpine Gypsies Short Track I and Springfield Mile I, in which the overall winner and final points payout will be determined by three races of increasing distance and importance.

Adding to the excitement along the way will be the inclusion of Royal Enfield’s Build. Train. Race. program at select events.

Tickets for the Daytona Short Track I & II are already on sale, while the remainder of the season’s slate will be made available for purchase in the weeks ahead.

2025 American Flat Track Schedule

How To Watch AFT

Live-streaming coverage of Progressive American Flat Track is now exclusively on the subscription-based FloSports platform. Fox Sports will broadcast the races a few weeks after the event. We will have all the broadcast times on the Cycle News’ TV and Live-Stream Racing page.

 

For more information, visit www.americanflattrack.com

 

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