American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 230 September 2018 | Page 18

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Photos courtesy of American Flat Track
Indian Secures Second Consecutive
AFT Championship
When the American Flat Track Twins
presented by Vance & Hines series took
its now annual swing through the
Black Hills of South Dakota for two
races during the Sturgis Rally, it
produced two entirely different kinds
of race and two entirely different
results.
Indian Motorcycle Racing continued
its dominating season and emerged
from the Rally having already secured
the
2018
manufacturer
Championship, taking nine out of the
available ten top ten spots across the
two races, and five of the six available
podium places with eight different
riders (seven of them privateers) filling
those nine top five finishes.
At the Buffalo Chip TT presented by
Indian Motorcycle (August 5) Jake
Johnson (Estenson Racing) secured his
first win on his privateer Indian Scout
FTR750, with Wrecking Crew rider and
reigning champion Jared Mees
second.
Harley-Davidson got what is a rare
podium this season with Sammy
Halbert racing the XG750R to third
place, with first time Indian Scout
FTR750 riders Hayden Gillim (Indian,
Cycle World, S&S Cycle, Bell Helmets)
and Bronson Bauman (Howerton
Motorsports/Allstate Insurance/WPS)
fourth and fifth.
As Cycle World’s “Man in a Van with a
Plan,” the Buffalo Chip TT marked
Gillim’s first career Twins race - a race
he won in 2017 riding the Singles
class. Bronson Bauman finished the
night in fifth aboard Bryan Smith’s
factory Scout FTR750. Ryan Sipes took
the singles win on the Husqvarna
FC450.
At the Harley-Davidson of Black Hill
Half Mile presented by Law Tigers at
the Black Hills Speedway at nearby
Rapid City, Jared Mees (No. 1 Indian
Motorcycle Rogers Racing SDI Scout
FTR750) reasserted dominance atop
the podium, seeing off Indian privateer
Jeffrey Carver Jr. (No. 23 Roof-Systems
of Dallas/Indian of Metro Milwaukee
Scout FTR750) to take an epic win.
Former champion Bryan Smith (No. 4
Indian Motorcycle Racing backed by
Allstate Scout FTR750) was third;
fellow Indian privateers Briar Bauman
and Kenny Coolbeth Jr were fourth and
fifith to give the FTR750 all top five
places.
In the Singles Shayna Texter (No. 52
Husqvarna Motorcycles/JCS Racing FC
450), who's scored the most wins in
AFT Singles history, took the win to
back up her Lima Mile (Ohio)
achievement at the end of June. That
Lima win gave Husqvarna their first
ever AFT Singles win but thanks to
Texter and Sipes the FC 450 had three
of the last four races in the bag.
At the 72nd annual AFT Twins
presented by Vance & Hines Peoria TT,
Indian privateer racer Jake Johnson won the
Buffalo Chip TT with Jared Mees second.
18
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - SEPTEMBER 2018
Jared Mees took the win at the
Harley-Davidson of Black Hills Half
Mile at Rapid City during the Sturgis
Rally to give Indian Motorcycle its
second consecutive manufacturer’s
championship. Indian Privateer
Jeffrey Carver Jr. took second.
“King Henry” Wiles (No. 17 Bandit
Industries/Wilco Racing/Willy Built
Kawasaki Ninja 650) extended his
reign by claiming a 14th consecutive
victory in the prestigious Peoria race
held on August 18.
Wiles was certainly forced to earn it on
Saturday. In the race’s early stages he
found himself trapped behind three
superstars with prior TT race wins -
Briar Bauman (No. 14 Zanotti Racing
Indian Scout FT R750), who went on to
take second; Jake Johnson (No. 5
Estenson Racing/McCandless Truck
Center Indian Scout FTR750) who
went on to take third, and Jared Mees
(No. 1 Indian Motorcycle Rogers
Racing SDI Scout FTR750), who, in a
rare podium miss this season, finished
fourth.
Privateer Indian FTR759 rider Hayden
Gillim (No. 169 Indian/Cycle
World/S&S Cycle Scout FTR750) was
fifth, Wrecking Crew rider Bronson
Bauman was sixth with privateer Jarod
Venderkooi bringing the top place
Harley XG750R home in seventh.
In the AFT Singles another TT master,
Jessie Janisch (No. 132 Roof
Systems/West Bend Harley-Davidson-
backed Yamaha YZ450F), took the win
becoming the 10th different winner of
the AFT Singles in a wide open season
so far - it may have been Janisch’s first
victory of the season but it was his
second consecutive and third in total
Peoria TT victory (’15, ’17, and ’18).
The series stays in Illinois for the
second Springfield Mile of the season
(September 2) followed by the H-D
Williams Grove Half Mile at
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
(September 8), the Minnesota Mile
(September 29). The series then wraps
up at the Meadowlands Mile at East
Rutherford, New Jersey (October 6).
Henry Wiles took his 14th
consecutive victory at the
Peoria TT on the Kawasaki
Ninja 650. Briar Bauman
took second on the FTR750
www.AMDchampionship.com