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VOLUME 56 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 8, 2019 P111 since Nicky Hayden in 2002. Now, if Beach can add wins in Short Track, Half-Mile and Mile, he'll be a member of the super- exclusive Grand Slam Club. These are riders who have won all four disciplines of premier- class flat track and road racing. Only four riders—Doug Chandler, Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts and Bubba Shobert—have ever com- pleted the feat. With its 16 wins this season, Indian now owns 47 all-time AFT Twins wins. That puts them ranked seventh among all manu- facturers. At its current rate, Indian should pass Kawasaki and BSA to move into fifth next season. Harley-Davidson will remain the all-time wins leader (with 680) for the foreseeable future, even though for the sec- ond season in a row, The Motor Company did not earn a single national victory. Even though he lost the title, Jared Mees can hold his head high as the rider with the most national wins in 2019. Mees scored eight victories, leading the way over five wins by newly crowned champ Briar Bauman. In addition, Brandon Robinson and JD Beach each scored a pair of national wins, and Bronson Bauman took a single victory. If you're keeping count, that's five winners in 2019. Two of those, Bronson Bauman and Beach, were first-time winners. That means there are now 162 riders in the history of the series which have won nationals. Mees also swept all six Miles this year. The last time that hap- pened was in 1989 when Scotty Parker managed the Mile sweep. Henry Wiles' astonishing 14- race win streak at the Peoria TT came to an end this year. He was injured and unable to race. Briar Bauman took the Peoria win. Mees moved past Jay Spring- steen to third on the all-time AFT Twins wins list this year. Mees now has 48-career wins. That puts him behind only Scott Park- er, who has 94 wins, and Chris Carr with 78. Mees is the all-time wins leader among active riders. Bryan Smith with 33 is second, and Henry Wiles with 30 is third. Briar Bauman moved into a tie with Everett Brashear, Alex Jor- gensen and Ronnie Jones with 10 career national wins. On the subject of the Bau- mans, Briar and his younger brother Bronson winning nation- als in the same season is very rare. Flat track stats keeper Bert Sumner pointed out that the last time brothers won nationals in the same season was in 1981 with Gary and Hank Scott. At Sacramento, a rider named Gary Ketchum made the record books by becoming the oldest rider in series history to qualify for an AFT Twins race. He was 59, and amazingly it was the first time he ever qualified for a national! While there is much buzz currently with the recent growth of American Flat Track, Sumner also pointed out a few disturbing trends. In 2019, only 41 riders competed in AFT Twins nation- als. That's down from 73 riders in 2018. The maximum rider turnout at any AFT Twins national this year was 25. In 2018 the maxi- mum rider turnout for a single event was 42. That stands in stark contrast to the heyday of the sport in the mid-1970s when it was not uncommon to have over 100 AFT Twins riders show- ing up to try to make a national. American Flat Track also an- nounced the potential restruc- turing of who can participate in nationals starting in 2020, with AFT Twins being called Super- Twins. The new vision was met with almost universal disdain in the flat track community. The new structure would significantly restrict the potential participants in the series and also appeared to require quite high investment on the part of teams even to par- ticipate. Traditionalists decried the direction of the series as one that would exclude the man in a van with a plan, the low-dollar rider who would try to participate in the occasional national that came close to his or her home. It remains to be seen how much of this new vision will be implemented. However, one thing is sure, American Flat Track is moving towards an en- tirely new business model, the likes of which have never been seen in the 66-year history of the series. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives