Larry Lawrence | January 11, 2017
The renewal of the Harley-Davidson vs Indian battles and a new TT track at Daytona make for a compelling story to kick off the 2017 American Flat Track season. (Brian J. Nelson photo)
If you, like many racing fans in recent years, had taken the annual March trip to Daytona off the docket, this March might be a good year to return. This year there’s a really good reason to head back down for Bike Week 2017. Daytona International Speedway is set to host a historic race in the form of the Daytona TT National. On Thursday, March 16, fans and riders will get to see for the first time the one-of-a-kind TT track to be built in the tri-oval, on essentially the same patch of ground where the Monster Energy AMA Supercross will be held five days earlier.
The series has been rebranded American Flat Track series (formerly AMA Pro Flat Track and prior to that AMA Grand National). The 2017 calendar includes improvements to geographic diversity, the mix of track configurations (six Miles, seven Half-Miles, two Short Tracks and three TTs) and boasts the most rounds on a schedule since 2011.
It’s a bold move by American Flat Track to stage the race in front of the massive grandstands. Whereas the old Municipal Stadium and the more recent Daytona Short Track facility could look packed with a couple of thousand fans, it’s likely that the vast seating capacity of the main straight grandstands of DIS will fairly rattle with that same number of fans.
Hopefully flat track fans recognize the significance of this race and will show up in unprecedented numbers.
Why is this race so historic? For a couple of reasons.
To begin with, this will be the first time in 30 years that the big AFT Twins (formerly called Grand National Twins or GNC Twins) will race in a national TT event. It’s been since 1983 when Jay Springsteen won the Peoria TT on an XR750, that a twin-cylinder motorcycle won a national TT, so the fact that fans will have the opportunity to see something that hasn’t happened in over 30 years is reason enough to put the race on your calendar.
How fun will it be watching the current generation of riders dealing with jumping a big twin for the first time?
The other story – and this one is huge – is the renewal of the Harley-Davidson vs. Indian battles. With Indian hiring away Bryan Smith, Jared Mees and Brad Baker, undeniably the three most talented riders in the championship, the question is how will Milwaukee respond?
We’ll know part of the story before the Daytona TT. Harley-Davidson is set to announce its 2017 racing squad any day now, so we’ll know who the riders and what bikes they are going to run.
It’s not known for sure, but some insiders claim that the factory Harley squad is going to fully commit to the new liquid-cooled XG750R as the platform for its full racing team. That would also mark an historic first, the first time the Harley-Davidson factory team hasn’t fielded the venerable XR750 since it was introduced in 1970.
So, it’s likely to be new generation Harley XGR versus new generation Indian FTR. That’s about as exciting as it gets, because no one really knows how these bikes will perform over the course of an entire racing season on the widely varying venues of the American Flat Track Championship, much less on a TT track in Daytona that is new from the ground up.
With these new machines raced by the factory squads, the question that comes to mind is, will a rider/team on the already established Harley XR750 or perhaps the Kawasaki Ninja 650-based flat tracker be able to come away with a championship while the new Harley and Indian go through the inevitable teething period? That’s another big story to watch for this season.
Most pundits feel that Brad Baker is the most naturally gifted rider in flat track racing today and the fact that Indian somehow managed to hire away a talent like Baker from Harley-Davidson, shows that it’s ‘game on’ between the two makers.
Baker sounds excited by his new prospects and from this quote you can tell he definitely isn’t lacking in the confidence department.
“2016 wasn’t one for the record books for myself but it was definitely a season that I can take a lot out of to better and further my career,” he said. “I feel like I have been being tested these past three seasons getting me ready for something great. In 2017, I am starting fresh with a new team, new bike, new rules and hopefully new beginnings. I am stronger and more talented than I have ever been before, I cannot wait to get the season underway in Daytona come March.”
Just a quick primer on the renewal of the Harley vs Indian battle.
The original Indian Motorcycles, based in Springfield, Massachusetts, that won so many championships in the first half of the 20th century has been gone for over 60 years. The last racer to ride an Indian to a national championship was the legendary Motorcycle Hall of Famer Bill Tuman. Tuman, part of the famous Indian Wrecking Crew of the 1940’s and 50’s that included Tuman, Ernie Beckman and Bobby Hill, was the last single-day winner of the AMA Grand National Championship, the result of his victory at the Springfield Mile in 1953. Starting in 1954 the Grand National Championship Series was born, awarding the championship to the rider who earned the most points over the course of the racing season, versus the winner of a single event.
Tuman’s ’53 Springfield Mile victory was the last AMA National victory for Indian, which means Indian never won a Grand National Series race, even though some riders continued to race Indian Scouts fairly regularly until the late 1950s. The last known Indian race to qualify for an AMA National was Bob Markey, who almost unbelievably put a 1940 Sport Scout into the field in the Laconia National in 1962. He finished 36th.
After Indian went belly-up in 1953, there were at least a half-dozen attempts to revive the brand by various parties over the years. But for the first time, with Minnesota-based Polaris acquiring the rights in 2011 and beginning production in 2013, it feels for the first time that the return of the iconic American brand might actually stick this time around. The factory’s commitment to return to racing with the all new FTR750 further cemented that sense.
If Indian has success in racing, it will be interesting to see if that success carries over to the showroom and how much of a share the motorcycle market the ambitious company might be able to gain.
One thing is for certain, many eyes will be back on Bike Week 2017 and that’s mainly due this time around to flat track racing. And for the loyal fans of the genre, it’s music to their ears.