BY CHRIS MARTIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
W
ith the announcement
of new rules for the
2022 Progressive AFT
designed to level the playing
field in the premier class, one
early season event was circled
on everyone's calendar. The
Red Mile doubleheader would
be the regulations' biggest test
yet as it pitted the long-domi-
nant Indians, complete with in-
take restrictors, up against their
production-based adversaries
on a wide-open mile racetrack
where acceleration and power
would be at a premium.
And as advertised, it now
seems destined to go down
as one of the more important
weekends in the sport's modern
history, both for how it played
out and the future it teased.
There was certainly an added
element of chippiness in the air,
particularly on Saturday, due to
fears among some in the Indian
contingent that they were being
set up for a steamrolling. That
tension was most evident in a
heated post-Semifinal confron-
tation between Indian Motor-
cycle's reigning champion Jared
Mees and Estenson Yamaha
ace JD Beach.
Beach subsequently estab-
lished himself as the man to beat
by dominating the four-lap Mis-
sion Challenge and threatening
to run away with the main event
aboard a very fast MT-07 DT.
ROUNDS 4-5 / MAY 28-29, 2022
THE RED MILE I & II / LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
P96
FLAT TRACK I PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN FLAT TRACK
Dallas Daniels, Jared Mees share Red
but it was a big one for Daniels, Yamaha
NIGHT OF F
