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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE T he 2019 American Flat Track Cham- pionship is now complete and we can assess, at least partially, how this season stacked up in the history of the series and who made moves in the AFT record books. Just a quick review. Many expected the 2019 battle to come down to defending champ Jared Mees and Bryan Smith, who was going back to the Howerton Kawa- saki, which he'd experienced so much previous success. Instead, it was another Indian factory rider, Briar Bauman, who came through to win his first AFT Twins number-one plate over Mees. The 2019 AFT Twins season produced some significant milestones. Indian fac- tory rider Briar Bauman became the fifth first-time AFT Twins (formerly AMA Grand National Champion) in the past decade. Bauman is the first California native to win the championship since Chris Carr in 2005, and at 24, Bauman is the youngest champ since Brad Baker won in 2013 at the age of 20. Bauman has been racing the pre- mier class of American Flat Track since 2012. He earned his first championship in his eighth year as a pro expert, showing that in spite of being one of the younger champs in recent years, Bauman was by no means an overnight sensation. It was another dominant year for Indian Motor- cycles. In addition to winning the AFT Twins Cham- pionship for the third consecutive time, Indian riders won 16 of the 18 nationals in 2019. All of this in spite of new regulations for 2019—including lower octane fuel and the allowance of street-legal produc- tion engines up to 900cc—that were meant to help teams compete with the incredibly dominant Indian P110 A REVIEW OF AMERICAN FLAT TRACK 2019 FTR750. Indian went as far as to put out a statement after the new rules were announced protesting the decision. When it was all said and done, however, Indian only lost two races in 2019; both TTs won by the superb TT rider JD Beach on a Yamaha. So if anything, it seems the AFT rules meant to level the playing field perhaps didn't go far enough. Speaking of Beach's victories on the Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 at the Arizona Super TT and the Buffalo Chip TT, that marked the first premier- class AFT win for a Yamaha twin since Scott Pear- son won the Peoria TT in 1981! Beach also became the first rider to win a premier-class national flat track race and a premier-class national road race Briar Bauman got his first career national win and AFT Championship in the same year. PHOTO: DAVE HOENIG