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/917325
P106 INTERVIEW CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR JARED MEES got it done. I just was bitter." Adding fuel to the fire was the opportunity to be the guy to bring Indian Motorcycle its first win on the Scout FTR750 with the iconic American brand's big re- turn to American Flat Track after a 64-year absence. "I wanted to go out and be the first guy to win the Daytona TT," Mees said. "I wanted to be the first guy to win the first race on an Indian, to win the first Indian championship. Be the first guy to win the all-twins Grand National Championship, like it once was back in the day. A lot of first things happened this year, and I wanted to accomplish as much as I could." Safe to say mission accom- plished for Mees. As the first- time stats with Indian Motorcycle kept racking up, so did the personal stats. In 18 races, Mees won 10 of them, scored six sec- ond-place finishes and one third. He only finished off the podium once—when he jumped the start twice in the semi and missed the main at the Lima Half-Mile, a race that he and his wife pro- mote. So, what was the secret to his success? What separated him from the rest, including his rival Smith? "Yeah, I think I raised my game, but I just don't know where I raised it at," he says. "But I can tell you this. I got off the [Harley- Davidson] XR750 and got on a better bike [the all-new Indian Scout FTR750]. I was always missing over the years that little extra edge in the miles. I was looking for that little bit. I always got beat by that little bit." The miles were always Mees' and the XR750's Achilles heel, but then Mees will readily admit that while Smith, being a mile guy on a good platform with the Ricky M J "You can't have 'quit' in your vocabulary to be a champion, in my opinion." Howerton-prepped Kawasaki, he was the half-mile guy on a good platform with the Kenny Tolbert- prepped XR750. "Bryan's a great mile rider, and miles are his forte no matter what he's on, but I don't think it's wrong to say that he had a really good motorcycle compared to what I had," Mees says. "He had an advantage on the mile with his ability, and he had an advantage on the mile with his platform he was riding. He would probably say the opposite for the half- miles—that the XR sometimes was better. I'm going to agree PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREA WILSON