2019 AMERICAN FLAT TRACK TWINS CHAMPION BRIAR BAUMAN
P114
Interview
"Financially, I didn't even know
what making money in flat track
was until a couple years ago,"
he said. "My parents were willing
to basically empty accounts to
make sure Bronson and I were
at the track. I had some great
sponsors, Rod Lake was one of
them, [and] a few guys that kept
me going. The goal was to break
even and make the main event
every weekend to try to get that
thousand bucks. Then I had
some years where I started win-
ning the Nationals and started
making a little more money, but
the bills started to stack up, and
you think, 'I kind of need to make
money now.'"
THE TURNING POINT
After a tough 2016, it was
looking like it was the end of
the road for Bauman. Then he
got the call from Dave Zanotti
from Zanotti Racing, one of the
sport's top tuners and owner of
a team with a rich legacy in flat
track racing. It was there where
the stars aligned, and things
really started clicking for the
young Californian. Together with
mechanic Michelle Disalvo, the
privateer team showed strength
against the factories and took
home a pair of wins, starting with
Bauman's first Twins win at the
Lima Half-Mile and then at the
Buffalo Chip TT.
"I got to the end of the year,
and I literally was thinking, 'Man,
I don't know if this is going to
pan out,'" he said. "I didn't have
the greatest year. Financially,
it didn't look good at all. Fortu-
nately, Dave gave me a call that
off-season, which I didn't expect
at all because of how bad my
year was that year. We were
able to kind of start popping off
pretty good results [in 2017], and
things turned around. We did
things that I don't think a lot of
people expected us to do, and it
turned around."
Most racers will tell you that
one of the keys to success is a
great relationship with your crew.
It was actually the Bauman
brothers' mother, Lisa, who had
the idea to get the boys involved
with racing. Briar takes her for a
victory lap after a big win at the
season opener in Daytona Beach.
Photo: American Flat Track/Scott Hunter
