A M E R I CA N F L AT T R AC K C E O M I C H A E L LO C K
P114
INTERVIEW
Big crowds have
been making a
comeback since the
beginning of 2017.
Lock has high hopes for the future
of flat track racing in not in just
America but around the world.
Well, the successful Kawa-
saki racing effort was a double
act, with Ricky Howerton being
the team owner and crew chief
as well as the tuner; and Bryan
Smith the rider. Over several
years, Ricky had built a green
and black bike based on a 650
engine that was really his cre-
ation, so when he went to Indian
with Bryan, that technology went,
too. And the remaining Kawasa-
kis in the paddock, competent as
they are, have struggled to keep
up with the power and sophistica-
tion of the Indian—well, all except
for Henry Wiles' TT bike! [Wiles
went on to register Kawasaki's
first win of the 2018 season
later that weekend at Peoria.] I
think sophistication is really the
key word with the FTR750. If
you look at the raw data—power
output, torque output, weight,
technology—there's nothing
actually that remarkable about
the Indian. It's just that the entire
package across all four formats
of our series has been so beauti-
fully put together. And that's been
demonstrated by the fact that
now that they've started selling
privateer bikes, their customers
have been riding up front, too.
Jeffrey Carver's one of them. He
beat Jared Mees at the Spring-
field Mile, the most famous race
in our series, and it wasn't that
Jared was sitting back enjoying
the view, or anything!
race." It has a very nice compact
parallel-twin engine, and I think
that within 12 months, when that
bike comes out of the R&D loop,
it will shock the AFT world in a
very positive way.
When is KTM actually join-
ing in?
Next year. KTM will have Stage
1 of their factory team compet-
ing in the 450 Singles class, and
they'll be on the grid at Day-
tona next March. That's Stage 1.
They're already developing their
Twins racer based on the 790
Duke, with the plan of being on
track 12 months later for the 2020
season, or maybe earlier—they
may possibly run in the last round
or two of next year's schedule.
Fans expected Kawasaki to
be more competitive than they
have been, if only because they
won the title two years ago with
a rider who then transferred to
Indian. But where has Kawa-
saki gone since?
