2018 AMERICAN FLAT TRACK SEASON PREVIEW
P84
Preview
place. Unlike Indian, which had a
designed-from-scratch racing-only
engine to work with.
Still, Vance & Hines prin-
cipal Terry Vance, a longtime
racer and team owner himself,
maintains the longer view. "We
didn't enjoy losing last year,"
said Vance to moto journalist
Andrea Wilson recently. "But at
the same time, we were learning.
We didn't want a year to go by
where we didn't have data from
each of the tracks, regardless
of our performance. And here's
the thing regarding last year: We
may not get credit for it, but we
were trying to develop and race a
production-based engine. That's
a really, really hard job."
Over the off-season, the
XG750R race bike has been
fettled and improved in several
ways. "We've tried different chas-
sis," Vance says, "and different
engine configurations; whatever
we have to try to get our bikes
where we need them. We started
testing the day after the [AFT fi-
nale] at Perris, and we've been at
it non-stop since. The riders are
very happy with the performance
of the bikes, and the way things
are working."
Vance will have a mostly new
team of riders this year, with only
Brandon Robinson returning to
the Harley fold from 2017. "I was
really impressed with Brandon
last year," says Vance.
Factory Harley pilot Brandon
Robinson said, "We've basically
been testing and developing the
bikes since the end of last sea-
son and I'm really excited about
where we are. Last year was a
tough year, for sure, for me, the
other riders and the whole team.
We busted our butts. But the
crew we have is really excel-
lent; they work hard, and they're
committed, so we've remained
a team through it all, and we've
seen a lot of improvement, which
gives me a lot of confidence for
the coming season."
This year's bigger and faster
Daytona TT features wider, faster
corners and a 150-foot jump section,
and remains a truly unique racing
event and fan experience.
The objective is to win, but also be
consistent. For me, that's the key." – Brad Baker
