Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/887961
VOL. 54 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 17, 2017 P125 Looking back in series history, the 1984 season was the last time a manufacturer took the series by storm with a new bike. That year Honda dominated with factory riders Ricky Graham and Bubba Shob- ert to making a full assault on the series aboard the Honda RS750. Honda won 19 of the 33 nationals in '84 and Graham and Shobert finished first and sec- ond in the series. Honda went on a winning streak, taking the championship four-consecutive years before leaving the series. Indian's current dominance brings up the notion of whether or not history will repeat itself. Honda was none too happy about the restrictor plates that the AMA placed on the RS750 to slow them down. It's debatable if Honda left flat tracking because of the re- strictor rule, but it certainly didn't help. If Indian contin- ues to dominate it will be interesting to see how things play out with the rule makers at American Flat Track. Already there is a chorus of "unfair" from the Harley faithful. Harley's line is that they are running a production-based motorcycle in the series, as are the other makers, and Indian is the only manufactur- er with a purpose-built racing machine. Will the fans (most riders of Harley-Davidsons) continue to attend races when one maker has such dominance? It's a fair question. Undoubtedly there are argu- ments that Harley-Davidson is the one company that has supported flat track racing for years, good times and bad. But when I talk to people in the flat track pits, the overwhelming hope is that Harley-Davidson is able to step up its game and improve its race bike so the series can have a true Harley-Indian battle once again. Flat track has perhaps the oldest demographic in all of motorcycle racing. Certainly, older than moto- cross/supercross and even older than road racing. For years flat track went after those faithful baby boomers with all they had. The good news is that American Flat Track's CEO Michael Lock recognizes the issue of an aging fan base and under his leader- ship the series has done a remarkable job reaching out to the mainstream media, bringing new recogni- tion to America's original extreme sport. The work by AFT seems to be paying off. Several tracks saw big jumps in attendance this season and some of the new venues were successful promotions. Also new this year, along with the rebranding of the series, was the premier class being the big Twins only, even on the TTs and short tracks. It largely went off without a hitch, avoiding the chaos many predicted from having the big bikes on the smaller tracks. There were five winners this season. Mees scored 10, Bryan Smith four, Briar Bauman took a pair of wins and Jeffrey Carver and Henry Wiles took a victory each. In one season Mees went from 20 career wins to 30, vaulting him from 16th on the all-time Grand National Wins list to ninth. Mees passed riders like Joe Leonard, Dick Mann and Bart Markel. Ironically, Bryan Smith's four wins pushed him into a tie with Mees for ninth on the all-time list. Wiles is right there too with 29 career wins. Kenny Coolbeth, fifth all-time with 36 career wins, remains the winningest active rider in the championship, but Mees is closing in fast. Mees' place in Grand National history was cer- tainly bolstered by this season. His sheer number of wins ties Mees with Scott Parker for second in the most-wins-in-a-season category. The late-great Ricky Graham still owns the record of 12 wins in 1993. Mees is now third for the most Grand Na- tional Championships behind only Scott Parker and Chris Carr. Looking forward to 2018 things look even bright- er for American Flat Track. Indian shows no signs of slowing down, now offering a lucrative contingency program, which may influence more teams to run Indian FTR750s. Harley-Davidson is almost certain to step up in order to close the gap, and then there are quiet rumblings that Yamaha and Kawasaki could get more heavily involved. It appears the grand old sport of American mo- torcycle racing is doing just fine. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives