VOL. 55 ISSUE 9 MARCH 6, 2018 P81
presented by Vance & Hines
competitors—all of which led to
their #2 and #3 placings behind
Mees in 2017.
The big question, then, is this:
How are Mees, Smith and Baker
approaching the 2018 season,
knowing full well the rest of the
AFT Twins presented by Vance
& Hines pack has painted three
neat little targets on their backs,
and may have the horsepower
and handling to be close enough
to actually hit the bullseye?
For AFT champ Jared Mees,
there's no such thing as compla-
cency regardless of how domi-
nant he was in 2017. "The bar
has certainly been raised," Mees
said. "It was an amazing year. So
many great things happened, on
and off the track…a dream sea-
son. Still, I'm not expecting it to
come easily. It's a new year, and
the competition, from my team-
mates and the Harley guys to all
the rest, will be tough. I know
they're gunning for me, for us,
and I don't blame 'em. I'd be the
same way. The goal, as always,
is to win the championship. By a
point, or by 89, it doesn't matter.
I'm pretty self-motivated, so when
I put a goal out there, I aim right
at it. We found a few little things
with the bike in the off-season,
which gives us confidence."
For 2017 runner-up Bryan
Smith, the motivation to regain
the title is there. "I've still got a lot
of fight," he said. "We started out
so strong last year, and even then
we didn't quite have our A-game,
so we figured we'd get better. But
we sort of plateaued after the first
six or eight rounds, and when
Jared started rolling, we sort of
lost our groove, and I had a few
crashes, maybe pushing a bit
"JUST NEED TO MAKE MY BAD DAYS LESS BAD.
– Bryan Smith
