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AFT TWINS CHAMPION JARED MEES P104 Interview "We were still basically the guy to beat at most races at the end of the year, but we didn't come up with the amount of wins that I thought we should have." to stay as dominant. The Scout FTR750 was looked at as the magic bullet and the reason why the factory guys were mopping the field in 2017. Ultimately, though, more FTRs weren't enough to curtail Mees. "Yeah, I would say that one there is probably one of the big- gest things that kind of puffs the chest out a little bit," Mees says. "Everybody was saying last year, the Indians; well, put everybody on Indians and it's basically the same result. So that was awe- some. I'm not trying to be cocky about it, but that was definitely cool to see. It's like, 'Okay, see, you still got to ride the thing.' "On the same note though, I think everybody that got on the Indian definitely took their results to the next level. The beginning of the year there were guys that you didn't normally see run up front that were running up front. Then more guys that got on Indians, those same guys kind of started falling back where they usually finished when everybody was on Kawasakis and Yamahas. So definitely the Indian was, I think, a big step in the right direction for a lot of people's program, but it was definitely warming to see that we were able to still work hard and still keep the same results." So, does being the top rider in the sport ever wear on him? Perhaps kill the fun? For a fierce jeopardize that for what we had going with Indian and everything? So really, that one there bothers me more in that we don't know how or why it happened other than they found something in [the tire]." Mees was also unhappy that only one sample of the tire was taken at the time instead of the usual four. But at the end of the day, Mees and his crew felt that the tire in question didn't influ- ence his results. They still carried on winning. "I won the race and I know there wasn't anything that we put in that tire on our side of things," he said. "So it sucks not to be able to claim 11 wins this year, but it is what it is. It definitely fired me up to go out there and show everybody that it didn't matter." And if you're Mees' competi- tor, that's the one thing you don't want to have happen—get Mees fired up. "Sometimes I eat that, I'll admit," he says. "Sometimes it's like, 'Man, I'm glad somebody talked that crap on me the other day. Sometimes I'm glad—I'm not glad that the tire thing happened, obviously, I would never want that to have to fire me up—I do get a little fired every once in a while. It keeps me young. Keeps me ag- gressive. Keeps me motivated." With more Indians in the field in 2018, the other question mark was whether Mees would be able