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
P110
INTERVIEW
to the UK the previous month,
headed by number-one plate
holder Jared Mees and fast lady
Shayna Texter, to spread the word
among the 240,000 fans from all
over Europe attending the Duke
of Richmond's four-day motoring
garden party, aka the Goodwood
Festival of Speed. There, be-
sides unleashing their knobbly-
tired flat-trackers loose on the
Goodwood hill-climb's manicured
grass verges, Mees, Texter and
company each signed thousands
of autographs and posed for
hundreds of selfies as the large
number of clued-up British fans
for AFT pounced on their racing
ly a good one, because it seems
they're in short supply! We went
to what I'd call a tournament-style
evening, where you start with all
the competitors in heat races,
and you eliminate the slowest
ones, and you get down to the
semi-finals, and you eliminate the
slowest ones, and then you get
down to a final of 18 riders.
Last year was the debut
season for the new AFT format
with separate series for Sin-
gles and Twins. How has Year
Two gone with that?
Remarkably well, and the two
classes have developed very
distinct characters. The best thing
I can liken the Singles class to is,
Moto3 on dirt—and anyone who
watches Moto3 will know exactly
what I mean. You often don't know
who's going to win until the fin-
ish line, sometimes not even until
you've seen the photo finish, and it
In two years, AFT
has seen just
one Twins-class
champion—
Jared Mees.
heroes who, until now, they'd
only seen on screens. Speaking
to Lock at Peoria the following
month provided a chance to put
that in perspective, as well as to
evaluate the ongoing spectacle
that is American Flat Track...
Michael, how has the AFT
series evolved since you and
NASCAR reinvented it last year?
In 2017 we implemented a lot of
changes to the series, so it was
all very new and very fresh. This
year has been about how do we
refine that, how do we keep ev-
erybody at the table? I've learned
that running a race series makes
you into a politician—and hopeful-
