Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1091680
FLAT TRACK RACERS JARED MEES & BRYAN SMITH P100 Interview THE CHAMP >> BRYAN SMITH How are your preparations coming? Have you tested the new bike yet? Yeah. Everything's going real good. We tested actu- ally the earliest we've ever tested a new bike. We tested just after Thanksgiving for the first time, which was pretty exciting for all of us on the team. Me and Ricky [How- erton] were pretty excited to get some feedback and seat time. It's a new creation that Ricky's built. Real similar to what I won the championship on in 2016. A couple small cosmetic changes, a couple small technical changes, I guess, would be the best way of putting it. But it was good to get some feedback. I felt at home right away on the bike. We actually took an Indian, rode that, then I went out on a Kawi and I was instantly faster on the Kawi. So, it felt real good to not only feel good, but actually be faster by the stopwatch, that's always what matters. Wow, that's interesting to come right out of the gate and go that fast. Yeah, it was good. Whether it's the bike or me or what, I just feel better. I think just from riding them for so Harley team, yeah. But at that point in time, I was pretty set that I wanted to ride the Indian. I really like the atmosphere there with Indian. I like the people a lot. I feel like I'm treated very well and they do everything they can to accommodate what our needs are, on and off the racetrack. So, at this point in time, I'm pretty happy. Do you think you'll close out your career riding with Indian? Well, you never know what tomor- row can bring with anything and anyone. At this point in time, I can just say that I'm happy where I'm at. I guess if I become unhappy, then I'll go looking. But right now, I'm happy. If I continue to stay happy, I don't see why we couldn't. Looking at the 2019 schedule, what do you think about the mix of tracks this year as compared to previous years? I think it's a pretty balanced sched- ule. I remember last year we had eight miles. This year we only have six. So that only counts for one-third of the races. I think everybody keeps saying, what do you think about Bryan on the Kawi? He'll definitely be fast on the miles. He'll definitely be a frontrunner on the miles, as he would be on any- thing, but at the end of the day, if he's only competitive at the six mile races, that's only going to count for one-third of the series. That's not enough. I think it's a pretty balanced schedule. We have one more TT than we had last year. We have five half-miles. We got another short track added. It's a pretty balanced schedule, so I think a very versatile rider is going to do well. The goal is to go and win as many races as I can, but more importantly, it's to win the championship. – Jared Mees Mees will have to work a little harder when it comes to the miles.