VOLUME 59 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 23, 2022 P105
around the grid was loaded up
with a greater percentage of
FTRs than ever before.
Estenson said, "I wanted to play
a role in helping to bring the series
back to prominence and help it
grow. Part of the plan to do that
was bringing Indian Motorcycle
back and that sounded really
good to me. I said, 'Okay, I'm in.
I'll bring a semi and have a bigger
footprint and put on a good show.'
"Indian built a purpose-built
racer with the understanding that
it was going to be available for a
specific period of time. That mo-
tor was going to be allowed for
three years and that gave Indian
three years to build a production-
based engine.
"Through my commitment to
the series, things just didn't hap-
pen. The date came and went. It
wasn't publicized—I never saw a
document—it was all based on ver-
bal conversations. And they just let
the Indian engine continue.
"From my standpoint, I was
pretty upset about that. I've
invested millions and millions of
dollars with the hope of a bal-
anced field."
Latus relays a similar memory.
"My understanding is that when In-
dian came to them with a proposal
to get it homologated, they only
had a certain number of years until
they had to produce a street bike,
that has not happened.
"They signed on with that
understanding, and they've had
a turkey shoot, while AFT let
them run quite a bit of time out
on that. But at the same time,
there's some smaller teams
out there that have invested a
substantial amount of money in
that product. If they ban it, what
are they going to do? AFT is in a
tough spot."
When asked about the exis-
tence of such an agreement,
Gray said that the persistent ru-
mors are not entirely on the mark.
"I'd say it's partially true. Race
engines have been allowed in flat
track since the beginning–over
75 years. There's never not been
race engines in the series.
"It was pretty stable, yet,
simultaneously to us talking to
AFT, we were hearing discus-
sions about the sport wanting to
go to production engines. They
wanted us to come in, and we're
like, 'Well, look, we don't have
an engine, and if we were to
design one and tool one up, you
would have to let us use it for a
minimum length of time before
you would write it out of the
rulebook just so we could get a
return on our investment.'
"And at that time it was three
years, so '17, '18, and '19, at mini-
