FEATURE I STATE OF AMERICAN FLAT TRACK: PART 3
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Hayden said, "Personally, I
would've liked to see a few more
things implemented as an ex-
periment toward the end of the '21
season just to get a more accu-
rate results of the pros and cons
in a race environment. That is
the measuring stick. But they did
do a fair amount of testing, they
gathered a lot of data, talked to
a lot of people, and made some
educated decisions. We can sit
around and debate all day, but
now we have to get to the season
and see if it's made a difference
or not."
Gray said, "To me the ultimate
question is do we think we can
get beat by a Honda, a Yamaha,
a Harley-Davidson, and the an-
swer is absolutely. There's noth-
ing honestly that magical about
what we're doing. I firmly believe
that other brands can win."
>CRYSTAL BALL
If Progressive AFT successfully
performs its rulebook high-wire
act, it's primed for significant
growth. The strong television
presence it established with
NBCSN alongside the sport's
2017 rebrand looks even more
impressive moving forward follow-
ing the announcement of a new
partnership with FOX Sports that
will see every race this season air
on FS1 in enviable timeslots.
Its streaming presence should
be similarly enhanced as it goes
global on Facebook, and the
series has done well to attract
significant investment from
outside sponsors, most notably
Mission Foods.
But in order to take full advan-
tage of those positives, the actual
product on track has to be worthy
of increased attention and serve
as the primary driver of success.
Looking beyond the 2022 sea-
son, there are a great many fac-
tors that will influence the future
shape of Progressive AFT.
Originally teased to the
public before the pandemic but
never officially launched, there's
continued hope for the eventual
production of the Harley-David-
son Streetfighter 975 that could
