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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE T he 2016 AMA Pro Flat Track Champion- ship will go down as one of the most noteworthy in the 63-year history of the series—some for good reasons and others for the bad. First the bad, and it's really a tough to write about this, the loss of two young up- and-coming riders in the GNC2 class at the season finale in Santa Rosa, California. Twenty-year-old Charlotte Kainz, of West Allis, Wisconsin, died Sunday, shortly after another racer's machine flipped up in the air and hit her. And 17-year-old Kyle McGrane, of Gap, Pennsylvania, died Monday from injuries suffered in a separate incident. The passing of these two young riders instantly made Santa Rosa 2016 one of the darkest days in the his- tory of professional motorcycle racing. Kainz is the first female rider to die in AMA Pro competition and McGrane one of the youngest ever. Those deaths snapped us back into the realization that flat track racing, by its very nature of big groups of riders running bar to bar at triple-digit speeds with walls all too near, is still the most dangerous form of professional motorcycle racing practiced today. The causes of the deadly crashes are still being investigated, but one only needed to watch Santa Rosa on TV to realize the track was extremely bumpy and dusty, especially for a Pro Flat Track Mile. It was not unprecedented however. Other tracks in years past have produced similarly difficult conditions—the Lima (Ohio) Half-Mile when it ran during the day, the Virginia Mega Mile in New Kent, Virginia, and the Beulah Park Mile in Grove City, Ohio, come to mind. Dealing with dirt surfaces at a flat track is always one of the most challenging things track builders have to deal with. Too much water and the track becomes rutted and unrideable, too little, and it can become a dust bowl. It's a fine line when prepping a track, and as often as not, builders get it wrong, often times by forces, such as weather, out of their control. One thing I do know is one of the most experi- enced flat track crews in the country was prepping Santa Rosa. This group headed by Dennis Pearson has for years consistently been praised for produc- ing great racing surfaces at national events, so it's very likely that this crew did all that was in their power to give the riders a good track. It's also been brought up that perhaps riders with GNC2 licenses should not be allowed to race big Twins on the mile tracks. Ironically it was a concern of GNC2 single-cylinder 450s never being able to separate on Miles in the last few years that caused AMA Pro to consider Twins for the class instead on the big tracks. Perhaps one of the most reasonable proposals put forth is that GNC2 riders needed to meet some certain criteria, say a pre-determined number of pro races on Half-Miles, and then approval from veteran observers before they are allowed to race Twins on a Mile. As it stands the new rules next season will have the support class back just on 450 Singles, so the point now may be moot. At Santa Rosa the GNC1 was not red flagged, so it's reasonable to assume the more veteran riders A MOMENTOUS AMA PRO FLAT TRACK SEASON P102 It was a roller- coaster year for AMA Pro Flat Track racing as a new era in the sport approaches. PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE