QUICK LINKS IN THE WIND 28 LEADERBOARD 114

Ride Review

YAMAHA YZF-R1 & R1M

2020

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS

CONTENTS P4

56Lucas Mahias fires the

Kawasaki to the line for his first WorldSSP win since Qatar 2018, and his first for Kawasaki at home in

France.

RACED64 MX OF NATIONS A first (first) for Team Netherlands

76 MEADOWLANDS MILE Mees signs off in style

TESTED88 2020 YAMAHA YZF-R1 Shelina sends it at Jerez on the 2020 R1

FEATURED98 ALPINESTARS 2020 SUIT LINE-UP Show and tell

DEPARTMENTALIZED

8 CAPTURED

28 IN THE WIND

108 STUFF

112 CALENDAR

114 LEADERBOAD

116 RACING ON THE TUBE

118 JOB LISTINGS

120 ARCHIVES

122 BIKES OF THE STARS

124 LOOKING BACK

126 EMPIRE OF DIRT

QUICK LINKS IN THE WIND 28 LEADERBOARD 114 VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019

Ride Review

YAMAHA YZF-R1 & R1M

2020

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS

73rd Motocross of Nations

FIT FOR A KINGTEAM NETHERLANDS CROWNED

Meadowlands Mile

MEES FINISHES THEM OFF

Also…France WorldSBK

Mount Morris GNCCLucerne Hare & Hound

St. Louis NHRAFrance World Enduro

Archive: MotoAmerica In Review

On The Cover: That’s Shelina Moreda on the cover of this week’s

Cycle News magazine. She’s pictured at Circuito de Jerez on the new 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1. Moreda

attended the R1 world launch in Spain for CN, and you can read

her thoughts about both the R1 and R1M in this week’s issue.

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P5

Duvall Survives Mason-Dixon GNCCRound 11 of the 2019 Am-

soil Grand National Cross Country Series, the Mason-Dixon GNCC, in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, September 28-29, was a battle of attrition after bright sun and unseasonably hot weather turned the Pennsylvania soil into a choking, silty powder that worked its way into engines and carburetors causing one failure after another.

The smothering silt didn’t discriminate, either. Not even the top factory bikes were immune to its strangling suffocation, as many in the top 10 were affected,

including series point leader Kai-lub Russell and Jordan Ashburn, who both combined to lead the majority of the three-hour race.

Ashburn led three full laps of the race after taking over from early leader Kailub Russell, and held a comfortable lead going into the white-flag lap, but that’s when his Monster Energy Bab-bitts Online Racing Kawasaki stopped in its tracks.

“The bike just started losing a little bit of power right there towards the end of the fourth lap, and just like that it stopped,” said Ashburn. “I just tried to get

back into the pits, because I knew the filter was clogged, but I didn’t make it. It’s a bummer because we were the fastest guy out there, I felt like, today. We were on the hunt for a first win, but we’ll be back.”

Kailub was lucky and only lost power, allowing him to limp his FMF-backed KTM back home for valuable points, although he dropped from first place, hav-ing taken back the lead when Ashburn dropped out on the final lap, to eventually finish sixth in the final results.

The main beneficiary of the

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Thad Duvall won a hot and dusty Mason-Dixon GNCC, keeping his championship hopes alive. PHOTOS: KEN HILL

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P45

dust was Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Thad Duvall, who inherited the lead and managed to make it to the finish without in-cident after Ashburn and Kailub lost power.

Duvall’s chances at taking the title from Kailub went from unlikely to slim, as he heads into the final two races of the season 37 points behind Russell.

The win was Duvall’s second in a row at the facility, and it was a bit of restitution after a disap-pointing finish at the previous round in New York, where he ended up third.

“After the last race, I think I just put so much pressure on myself, and I didn’t perform how I wanted to,” said Duvall. “So,

comfortable lead before tak-ing the time for a filter change heading into the final lap. “I didn’t even really want to stop, because I didn’t feel like my bike was really sputtering that bad, but I knew I had a comfortable lead

[about a minute over Ricky Rus-sell] and had it popped off and ready to go, and the boys put it on,” said Duvall. “I got a splash of gas and then decided to cruise the last lap. It was easy to make a big mistake out there. Just cruis-ing the last lap. Played it safe and brought it home in front of my hometown fans here. It’s good to get a win here.”

Second place went to Ricky Russell who hung out in the top five all day. The Am Pro Yamaha rider grabbed the holeshot at the start of the race, only to get bumped out of the way by Kailub in the second turn.

“I knew I needed to get a good

start with all the dust, and I got the holeshot but then Kailub gave me a good nudge,” said Ricky. “On the second lap, the dust actually was down a little bit, and I was able to kind of just ride my own race. I think people were

dropping out, like Kailub and Jordan, because of the dust. So, I kind of got a little bit of a gift at the finish, but I think I would have been on the podium no matter what.”

After struggling for a few months with an illness, Trevor Bollinger was happy to be back on the podium, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider finishing third.

“I’m finally feeling back close to myself after being sick for a while,” said Bollinger. “I basically started from zero again this sum-mer and just keep building my fitness and come out swinging next year. I got a little break today

Ricky Russell had a shot at the win but would have to

settle for second overall.

the last two weeks I just had some fun with it, did some deer stuff and hung out with my kid, and my wife. It seemed to pay off. After the last race, I felt like I just wasn’t in the right place. So, I got back on the right place to win here and get that motivation back. We’re ready for the last two, for sure.”

Midway into the race, when it was obvious that the dust would be a factor, some of the teams started changing out air filters during the gas stops. Some took a risk either skipping a filter change or waiting later in the race to change filters.

Duvall waited until he had a

with some of those guys breaking down, but you had to be smart and stay out of the dust. The start was definitely key, and I didn’t help myself there too much, but we just kept fighting all day and luckily it landed us on the po-dium.”

Phoenix Honda Racing’s Andrew DeLong played it smart en route to fourth overall. “I’ve seen enough of these dust races that I knew a lot of guys would drop out, so I played it safe,” said DeLong. “I tried to stay out of the deep dust berms and just basi-cally chugged along and stayed out of trouble.”

FXR/Husqvarna/SRT/Hoo-sier’s Layne Michael was fifth, just over a minute ahead of Kai-

lub Russell. Josh Toth returned to racing

with a seventh-place finish after missing the last three rounds due to a leg injury.

Tely Energy Racing’s Liam Draper topped the XC2 250 Pro class with an eighth overall finish. Draper followed Beta USA’s Mike Witkowski into the woods after the start of the race and then took the lead when Witkowski stopped for a filter. The win was the first in the class for Draper.

Coastal Racing/Husqvarna’s Craig DeLong managed to restart his bike to finish ninth overall (second place in the XC2 250 Pro class), while Husqvarna/Max Motorsports/FXR’s Evan Smith finished 10th overall and third in

the XC2 250 Pro class. After wrapping up the XC2

250 Pro Championship with 10-straight wins at the previous round, Trail Jesters KTM Racing’s Ben Kelley made the jump into the XC1 Open Pro class. Kelley ran as high as fourth place before yielding to the dust.

Tely Energy Racing KTM team-mates Steward and Grant Baylor retired early, as well, due to the heat and dust.

XC Gear/ Enduro Engineer-ing/ Husqvarna’s Jake Froman claimed his first-ever win in the FMF XC3 125 Pro-Am class, beating out class points leader Trail Jesters KTM’s Jesse Ansley and Yamaha-mounted Chase Colville.

Husqvarna’s Tayla Jones took the win in Saturday’s WXC Women’s race, topping podium finishers Fly/Maxxis/Pro Cir-cuit/KTM’s Becca Sheets and GasGas North America’s Kori Steede. Beta USA’s Rachel Gut-ish finished fourth ahead of Am Pro Yamaha’s Rachel Archer of New Zealand.

Shan MooreOVERALL1. Thad Duvall (Hus)2. Ricky Russell (Yam)3. Trevor Bollinger (Hus)4. Andrew DeLong (Hon)5. Layne Michael (Hus)6. Kailub Russell (KTM)7. Josh Toth (KTM)8. Liam Draper (KTM)9. Craig DeLong (Hus)10. Evan Smith (Hus)

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Trevor Bolinger is back to healthy and finished out the day on the podium.

Argubright Wins Endless Summer H&HAnd just like that, the momen-

tum in the Kenda/SRT AMA Hare & Hound National Cham-pionship Series, Presented by FMF, flipped.

As the summer break ended two weeks ago, Beta’s Joe Was-son was riding a wave of confi-dence borne of wins in both the H&Hs and its companion series, the Kenda/SRT AMA West Hare Scrambles Regional Champion-ship Series. In the desert, which is his primary focus, Wasson enjoyed a nine-point lead over Off-Road Support/TBT Racing Kawasaki privateer Jacob Argu-bright heading into round seven two weeks ago.

But a suspected clogged air fil-ter stopped Wasson’s bike while leading almost within sight of the finish, handing Argubright the win, though Wasson managed to restart his bike quickly and finish second to minimize points lost.

However, Wasson’s fortunes failed him at round eight, the 52nd Annual Endless Summer National Hare & Hound, hosted by the 100s Motorcycle Club at the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area, September 29.

While in the dust of the lead group, he missed a check and didn’t realize it until rival Dalton Shirey shouted at him a few miles later. Knowing that a missed

check could result in getting DQed, Wasson turned his Ken-da/FMF/Klim-sponsored 430 RR around and rode back on the side of the course until he found the missed check. By the time he did that, of course, the leaders were long gone, and he salvaged fifth place for the day, lamenting, “It ultimately cost me.” Now, he has only the final round in two weeks to overcome a 10-point deficit to race-winner Argubright, 212-202, saying, “We’re safe and we’ll go on to the next one—one round to go and you never know [what might happen].”

Third past the bomb behind Purvines Racing Yamaha’s Nick

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VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P53

Burson and Wasson was Argu-bright, wo had an almost surreal day aboard his Kawasaki of Simi Valley/Motion Pro/Fly Racing-backed KX450. When Wasson stopped for a quick splash of fuel at the end of the short (14-mile) loop-1A, Argubright sped past, confident he’d make it to the end of loop-1B (50 total com-bined miles).

Before long, he managed to catch and pass leader Burson as well, eventually finishing the 80-mile race in two hours, 20 minutes and 31 seconds.

“I thought I was riding bad, but I was just cruising along—it

(Left) A happy Jacob Argubright acknowledges sponsors and friends who helped him take a crucial win, which allowed him to retake the series points lead with one round remaining. (Right) A few miles past the bomb, Joe Wasson ran second behind Nick Burson. PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA

A technicality dropped Shane

Logan from first to third in class for the day, giving Daemon Woolslayer the 250

Pro-class win.

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P54

just felt like a fast trail ride the whole time!” Argubright said. “I was like, ‘All right, it’s just one of those days.’ I felt like I could’ve gone faster, but I was like, ‘What’s the point?’ [Burson] is better at turning, like at the Utah and Panaca rounds where you can’t catch him, but here [in Southern California high desert], this is where I’m good. I could still mess it up, but I’ve got to be smart like I did [today], and I could get it done, I think.”

SRT/3 Bros. Husqvarna rider Dalton Shirey had to claw his way through the dust and stubbornly speedy riders to reach second aboard his Zip-Ty Racing/FMF/Troy Lee Designs FX 450 in 2:24:03. “It’s so hard to pass here, because it’s rocky single-track and you know when you get off the trail, they don’t mark that [for dangers] so it’s kind of sketchy out there, but I just de-cided to ride smart and not push it because this course could easily bite you so I just wanted to come and finish,” he said. Though not the win he hoped for, it was better than leading at the previous round only to DNF with a broken chain.

Burson sailed in for third in 2:24:36, making it two podi-ums in a row for the veteran and his Precision Concepts/GPR Stabilizers/O’Neal Racing YZ450FX. “We’ve done that start [in that same area] quite a few times,” he observed. “I think I’ve holeshot every time.

“My bike owed me one. I haven’t had a good start basi-cally all year. It felt good to lead. The speed’s been there all year—it’s just been one thing after another [hampering my results]. Jake had a little more pace in the rocks; they’ve got a little more to go for right now so I think it’s a little bigger carrot to chase.”

Burson sits third in points at 134 followed by Wasson’s team-mate, Chance Fullerton, who earned fourth for the second race in a row and has 126 points.

Wasson, SRT/3 Bros. Husqvarna’s Ryan Smith, Pro 250 winner and new class points leader Daemon Woolslayer on his Steadman’s/Fasst Co./Reflex Racing YZ250FX were fifth through seventh. (Beta’s Zane Roberts tried to ride, but

the shoulder blade he broke at round seven was too painful and he pulled off after a few miles, relinquishing the points lead.)

Pro 250 riders Preston Camp-bell on his Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda, 3 Bros. Husqvarna’s Shane Logan and 3 Bros. KTM’s Nick Stover round-ed out the top 10 overall.

Mark KariyaOVERALL1. Jacob Argubright (Kaw)2. Dalton Shirey (Hus)3. Nich Burson (Yam)4. Chance fullerton (Bet)5. Joseph Wasson (Bet)6. Ryan Smith (Hus)7. Daemon Woolslayer (Yam)8. Preston Campbell (Hon)9. Shane Logan (Hus)10. Nick Stover (KTM)

Levi Shade (pictured) took the Pee Wee class win by 10 seconds over Ayden Berry.

Johnny Five Times in WorldSBKAs sporting comebacks go,

recovering from your main championship rival winning 11 straight races, when he is a rookie in the class, who was new to the tires and brakes, and who kept moving ahead in the points—even at the tracks you used to rule on—winning the 2019 series with two whole rounds and six races left is right up there with any sporting comeback.

Jonathan Rea’s recovery to become a unique five-time champion in WorldSBK basically started from Imola onward, but it was not seamless to start off with. A mistake at Jerez was one

example, but as Alvaro Bautista imploded, Rea started winning where he could and proved that if your pace and package is consis-tent enough you can win champi-onships.

In Magny Cours, France, Sep-tember 28-29, Rea’s triple podi-ums, including one win, won him the surprise early title in France, not Argentina or Qatar.

“It has been the biggest chal-lenge to date, and we have just chipped away,” Rea said. “To get the championship done—not be-fore the last round but before the last two rounds—is something that I thought was never possible. It is

a real lesson in never giving up.”The entire Magny Cours week-

end provided surprises, in fact, from a wet Friday to an unfore-seen wet Superpole, to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) making his race-winning breakthrough in WorldSBK—twice.

From the sixth row in qualifying, Razgatlioglu rampaged up to the winner’s top step in race one and then the Superpole race.

The first race was a (literal) knockabout of classic propor-tions.

With so little time to set their machines up on a dry track, even

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Jonathan Rea confirmed his place as the WorldSBK G.O.A.T. with his fifth world title. PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P57

some top names eventually came to grief in the opener, and some of them did nothing but give each other grief.

The braking zones were rife with hard passes and contact, but a special prize goes to the contract between Chaz Davies (having electronics issues as he braked into the fast downhill entry to turn 15) that clattered Razgatlioglu’s elbow so hard you could almost hear it on TV. Da-vies ran off and crashed. As for Razgatlioglu, he got going twice as hard and won his first race.

He eventually ran down the seemingly safe Rea, and completed the job of passing after Rea said he made a small mistake that allowed Razgatlioglu to draw closer, and then close in enough to win by 0.2 seconds.

“I think I had the right condi-tions in the race because in the wet I am not fast!” said Razgatlio-glu. “Superpole qualifying was very bad in 16th position, but I am happy because in the dry, and I thought I had a chance at the podium. In the last two laps I felt it was possible to win, so I pushed. On the last lap, I pushed hard and took my first win.”

Rea was second, and another dry-weather third place came for Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad) after he re-passed the potential hometown podium hero Loris Baz (Ten Kate Yamaha).

In the Superpole race, Razgatlioglu got his second win and 10th podium. This race was held over the usual 10 laps, and

featured a new lap record set by the race-one winner Razgatlioglu with a 1:37.018 on lap two.

He carried on his pace well and took the lead on lap seven. He held off Rea, only just, for a margin of victory of 0.319 seconds. Michael van der Mark made up for his disappointing late crash while leading race one to score third place, with Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) fourth and a closing Bautista fifth.

In the big final 21-lap race of the day, there was another fight between Rea and one of his potential usurpers—but not Razgatlioglu this time.

On lap two, Bautista was com-ing up behind Razgatlioglu when the Turkish rider’s rear tire spun

up. He did not highside but his bike carried on spinning, all of which saw the closely following Bautista unable to avoid him. They hit, fell, and it was game over for both. And championship over for Bautista.

No race victory for Bautista, but it was Rea who overcame the blue streak that was Van der Mark out front. They each led, and then Rea led and took a final advantage of 0.862 seconds. It was still the greatest margin of victory of the day, which showed how close things were at Magny Cours. The top five in race two finished within five seconds of each other.

Sunday delivered the best Magny weather, Saturday the

Toprak Razgatlioglu took his first two

WorldSBK wins in France, the

first Turkish rider to triumph in the

category.

best action, but what everyone will remember most is that this is where Jonathan Rea made his-tory as unquestionably the most successful WorldSBK racer ever.

WorldSSPThe two riders who have al-

most completely dominated the WorldSSP Championship will go into the final two rounds of the year with the same margin of points gap—10—as they entered this one, as their unerring consistency de-serted them at runaway pace.

First, while sitting behind the top group, championship leader Randy Krummenacher (Bardahl Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) suffered a huge highside leav-ing the way clear for Federico Caricasulo (Bardahl Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) to get clear and into his own virtual champion-ship lead.

But then Caricasulo ended up on his butt, not one once but twice—crashing out of the lead, remounting and then falling again shortly afterwards.

This left a special opportunity for two French riders, plus some others.

Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) led but his pace dropped and dropped to the point where he finished sixth. Only 3.205 sec-onds down but that was a lifetime in this race, as it is in most other WorldSSP contests in 2019.

The other French rider proved to be the actual winner, Lucas Ma-hias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). He was the first Kawasaki race

winner in this division since 2017.First-time podium man Isaac

Vinales (Kallio Racing Yamaha) was second and another Kawasaki man, Ayrton Badovini (Team Peder-cini Racing Kawasaki) was third.

“There were a lot of questions for us at the beginning of the year but I worked a lot to understand the bike and finally I have come back to the first position,” said Mahias. “It is very nice to win in front of the people from my own country and it was especially good because this is my first time to win a race in France.”

Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was fourth and Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) fifth, but the latter only just over a second from a podium finish.

In the overall championship points Krummenacher has 193, Caricasulo 183, Cluzel 155 and Mahias 123. Only Cluzel can hold back the Bardahl boys, but that

chance looks slim. CN

WorldSBKRace One1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kaw)2. Jonathan Rea (Kaw)3. Tom Sykes (BMW)4. Loris Baz (Yam)5. Alvaro Bautista (Duc)

WorldSBKRace Two1. Jonathan Rea (Kaw)2. Michael van der Mark (Yam)3. Alex Lowes (Yam)4. Chaz Davies (Duc)5. Loris Baz (Yam)

WorldSBK Superpole Race1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kaw)2. Jonathan Rea (Kaw)3. Michael van der Mark (Yam)4. Chaz Davies (Duc)5. Alvaro Bautista (Duc)

WorldSSP Race1. Lucas Mahias (Kaw)2. Isaac Vinales (Yam)3. Ayrton Badovini (Kaw)4. Raffaele De Rosa (MV)5. Hikari Okubo (Kaw)

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Lucas Mahias finally returned to the winner’s podium in France.

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 19/SEPTEMBER 28, 2019MEADOWLANDS/EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY P76

Jared Mees closes out the 2019 AFT season with Meadowlands win. Gauthier, Texter wrap up titles

Track conditions left a little to be desired. The AFT Twins class leaves the start line in the abbreviated Meadowlands Mile.

Mile Master

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P77

and Cory Texter (G&G Racing/Holeshot Powersports, Yamaha MT-07) were leading their points races entering the last race of the year. Despite poor finishes by both, they both would hold on to narrow championship victories. Gauthier edged Mikey Rush (RMR Honda/Red Rider Rewards, Honda CRF450R) by

BY DAVE HOENIGPHOTOGRAPHY BY FLAT TRAK FOTOS

The 2019 American Flat Track season ground to an end on the Meadowlands

Mile oval. Defending AFT Twins Champion Jared Mees (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insur-ance, Indian FTR750) held off

last year’s winner Bryan Smith (Crosley Brands/Howerton Mo-torsports, Kawasaki Ninja 650) in the AFT Twins main event to close out the year with a win.

The AFT Singles and AFT Pro-duction Twins Championships were still undecided. Dalton Gauthier (D&D Cycles/Gobert Smash, Husqvarna FC 450)

Mile Master

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 19/SEPTEMBER 28, 2019MEADOWLANDS/EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY P78

quickly proved that to be no fluke as he got the holeshot and led every lap. Just as he had done last year, Smith was glued to Mees’ rear tire, but this year there just wasn’t enough time.

“I think I could have caught him if I had a couple more laps. I would have been better when it got rougher,” said Smith. “It was getting pretty rough in one and two, and I was already starting to make up some time. I understand why they shortened it and did what they did. It sucks for me and the fans and some of the racers. You never know what’s going to happen, so it was probably the smart thing for them to do.”

Newly crowned AFT Twins Champion Briar Bauman (Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insur-ance, Indian FTR750) jumped the start and was forced to vacate his front-row start; his race was as

IIIMY OWN RACE:

1 JARED MEES 1ST AFT TWINS“The year-end is bittersweet. I need some time off,” said Mees. “The last couple of weeks, I got fired up, like a second wind. If Daytona was next week, I’d be ready. This track was chal-lenging. Thankfully nobody got hurt in our final, and everybody stuck to-gether. It just was what it was. I agree that eight laps was the way to go.”

4 BRYAN SMITH 2ND AFT TWINS“Today should have been done a little different. I think I would have had something for Jared if it had been a full main event,” said Bryan Smith. “There was just too much of that black dirt on it to start with. When we got here at eight this morning, I was wondering where that came from. I don’t know why some of that wasn’t removed. Three and four ended up being okay. They did that in about an hour. It wouldn’t have taken a lot of time even during the day to make one and two better. There was just too much dirt on it. We are at these thoroughbred tracks, and the facility is great, but when you put on a circus out there, it’s not good. It sucks. We have to come to places like this. Look at all the people here. I don’t know what the right thing

six points in the Singles class. Texter maintained the points lead all year in the Production Twins class and held off Ryan Varnes (Varnes Racing/Roy Built/Don’s Kawasaki, Kawasaki Ninja 650) by eight points.

After struggling with track conditions all day, American Flat Track and the riders had a long discussion over track conditions. The result was to cut some quali-fying races and main event laps to complete the program. The AFT Twins race was shortened to an eight-lap shootout with all 19 of the entries that were still running in the race. There were no heats, just semis and a 12-lap main in the AFT Singles while the Pro-duction Twins (which only had 12 riders entered) would only have a 12-lap main.

Mees had been fast qualifier in the single round of qualifying and

Bronson Bauman (37) outdueled Brandon Robinson (44) for the last spot on the podium.

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 19/SEPTEMBER 28, 2019MEADOWLANDS/EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY P80

The top four were set for the rest of the race. Henry Wiles (Bandit Industries/DPC Racing/Wilco Racing, Indian FTR750) made a last-lap pass for fifth over Carver and Rob Pearson (RJ Performance/Hite Trucking/Country Saloon, Indian FTR750). Jake Johnson (Estenson Racing/Monster Energy, Yamaha MT-07) held off Jarod Vanderkooi (Harley-Da-vidson Motor Company/Vance & Hines, Harley-Davidson XG750R) for eighth.

PJ Jacobsen (Coolbeth-Nila Racing/Weiss Racing, Indian FTR750) filled out the top 10.

much as over after that. He was able to come from the penalty line to finish 15th.

Jeffrey Carver (Roof-Systems of Dallas, TX/Indian of Metro Milwaukee, Indian FTR750) held third early, but Brandon Robinson (Harley-Davidson Mo-tor Company/Vance & Hines, Harley-Davidson XG750R) was able to take over on lap three. In such a short race, there is no time for strategy; they had to take advantage of any opportunity that presented itself. It was Bronson Bauman making the most signifi-cant charge of the race fighting his way into third on lap five.

IIIMY OWN RACE:to do would have been. They should have put the grader out there before the main event. I think they should have tried to fix it and had us run half the laps. Last year it was pretty heavy in practice, but it got brushed off and ended up being great. [Hopefully they will] let us come back, we need to come back.”

37 BRONSON BAUMAN 3RD AFT TWINS“I’m happy to end the season on a high note and am ready for a break. It’s been a long season,” said Bronson Bauman. “I was behind Carver and Robinson, and I was content there. I wasn’t forcing the issue on that track. I was just happy to stay upright and come away with a podium. One and two were the rougher end of the track. I just kind of felt like I had a better line going into one and two. I went straight through the rough stuff then turned late. That’s just kind of what worked out for me.”

1 DAN BROMLEY 3RD AFT SINGLES“I ended the season on a high note for myself—I gave it everything I had—but being that I am 6’3” and weigh 30 pounds more than all the riders, it put me at a big disadvantage this year. In the main event, I was able to

Mikey Rush won the Singles main event.

VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P81

DOWN AND OUTSome significant accidents sent riders to the hospital. Nick McFad-den fell on his AFT Twins mount and was knocked out. Fortunately, it was a quick visit to the hospital, and he was released later that night. The worst crash of the night came in the first Singles semi. Dallas Daniels fell in turn two and collected Shayna Texter and Oliver Brindley. Texter and Daniels were both able to make the restart, but Brindley was immediately trans-ported to the hospital.

CHANGES AHEADAmerican Flat Track says it is plan-ning significant changes for next year’s AFT Championship. AFT says it is working on a new class structure, race program and rider licensing criteria. The 2020 season is expected to bring a whole new era to dirt track in America.

TOUGH FINISH“There’s not much to say, really,” said Estenson Racing’s Kolby Car-lile who dropped out with a techni-cal issue while challenging for the win and title in the Production Twins main. “I’m pretty disappointed, but I’m proud of the way I rode my rook-ie season in the Twins class. We had some bad luck but never quit fighting. Even with my knee injury earlier this season and missing a race, I was able to come back and close the points gap towards the end of the season and get a couple of wins. Wish it could’ve been one more.” Carlile finished out season third in class with two wins and finishing in the top five in all but two races that he competed in.

ALL SAID AND DONEChampion Briar Bauman finished out the 2019 AFT Twins Champion-ship just six points ahead of Jared Mees, 326-320. Bauman claimed five wins to Mees’ eight. Bronson Bauman took third in the champion-ship 69 points behind Mees and 18 points ahead of Jeffrey Carver Jr. Bronson captured one win in the 2019 season at the Laconia Short Track. Rounding out the top five in the championship was the top Harley-Davidson rider Bran-don Robinson, who edged out his teammate Jarod Vanderkooi by six points. The third factory H-D team rider, Sammy Halbert, finished out the year in 10th.

Briefly...

Dalton Gauthier wrapped up the AFT Singles Championship.

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 19/SEPTEMBER 28, 2019MEADOWLANDS/EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY P82

Luker was just barely able to stave off Morgen Mischler (Waters Autobody Racing/D&D Powers-ports, KTM 450 SX-F) and Kevin Stollings (Roof-Systems of Dallas, TX/Motion Pro).

Max Whale (Kawasaki Mo-tors/Shoei Australia, Kawasaki KX450F) finished in eighth well ahead of a tight battle over ninth between Brandon Kitchen (Donley Excavation/D&D Cycles, Honda CRF450R) and Cole Zabala (RMR Al Lamb of Dallas, TX/Tucker Powersports).

While this was going on up-front, Gauthier was soldiering along in 14th position. At the end that would just be good enough. “I don’t think a lot of people saw me as a champion in this class coming into the season opener,” Gauthier said. “Robby McLendon and I worked together all year. There was a lot of stress and a lot of ups and downs, but we worked through it. I can’t thank him enough as well as my parents and everyone else who supported us.

“I believed in myself, and every weekend I gave it 110%, but I really struggled today,” added Gauthier. “I was stressing out all day, but I pulled it together for the main, I guess you could say. I was way behind, but I just wanted to bring home the championship. This season has been awesome and one I’ll never forget.”

AFT PRODUCTION TWINSThree riders were still in conten-tion for the AFT Production Twins points title entering the last race

AFT SINGLESAfter blowing up his “A” bike last week, Dalton Gautier was trying to maintain his points lead with his back-up, and it was a daunting job. Gauthier qualified 21st then finished seventh in his semi.

Last week’s winner and fast qualifier Mikey Rush led the 17-rid-er field around the first lap and every one after that. Chad Cose (American Suzuki, Suzuki RM-Z450) held second early but lost the spot to defending class cham-pion Dan Bromley (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing/Roof-Systems of Dallas KTM450 SX-F) on lap two. Cose started to drop back through the field and eventually dropped out after the sixth lap.

Bromley, sitting second in points with Gauthier and having a bad day, needed to run Rush down. Unfortunately for Brom-ley, Wells had other plans and dropped Bromley to third on lap 10.

Dallas Daniels (Estenson Rac-ing/Monster Energy, Yamaha YZ450F) had been involved in a major crash during his semi, but made it to the restart and rode his way into the main. He came from the back row and worked his way up to finish in the fourth position.

Andrew Luker (Rackley Racing/Keeran Racing/Baker Racing, Ya-maha YZ40FX) had the holeshot before giving way to Rush. Luker finished the first lap in the sixth position, but he powered his way into fourth, only to have Daniels drop him back one place on lap seven.

IIIMY OWN RACE:finish third and finish third overall in the championship. Overall, I’m happy with how the night went, and I believe the rough track conditions played into my favor.”

5 JAKE JOHNSON 5TH AFT TWINS“I was kind of coming in here hoping for something good, but the track was not ideal,” said Estenson Racing’s Jake Johnson. “It’s just the way it all panned out. I felt okay today in the first practice and then had some is-sues with the bike in the qualifier and only got a lap. It was a tough day as a whole with the track conditions and the schedule changing. They ended up shortening the race to eight laps, and we didn’t really know what was going to happen, starting the race. It was just kind of one of those deals. The track was pretty bad. Everybody was just kind of surviving, really. I went out and rode my pace and finished eighth. It was our best mile finish of the year, though, and while I’m kind of ready for the season to be over, in the same sense, I didn’t quench the thirst this year. At the Buffalo Chip, we were so close, but it was just a rough year. We’re going to regroup and hopefully better things for me next year.”

FLAT TRACK AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 19/SEPTEMBER 28, 2019MEADOWLANDS/EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY P84

Texter was extending his lead over Rispoli and Varnes as the two were locked in a pitched battle for second. Chad Cose (Parkinson Brothers Racing, Ka-wasaki Ninja 650) had overcome a terrible start and passed both Rispoli and Varnes on lap eight but was still down almost two and a half seconds to Texter.

Texter’s race came to an end with just a lap and a half to go. Cose took over with over a two-second lead, but on the last lap, Varnes cut into that lead and finished just 0.699 of a second

was to win and went to the front on lap two. His hopes were dashed a lap later when me-chanical problems sent him to the sidelines. Texter took over and began to extend his lead over James Rispoli (Black Hills Harley-Davidson/Pro Beam by Custom Dynamics, Harley-Davidson XG750R) and Cody Johncox (Sunnyside Cycle/Luc-zak Racin’).

of the year. Cory Texter had won the first three races of the year, but Kolby Carlile (Estenson Rac-ing/Monster Energy, Yamaha MT-07) and Ryan Varnes were eating away at his lead.

When the green light flashed, Texter got the holeshot and led the first lap. Carlile was third behind Jeffery Lowery (Throttle Jockey Entertainment/Grey Hogs, Kawasaki Ninja 650). Varnes, who had struggled all day, went from last to sixth on the first lap.

Carlile knew his best hope

Chad Cose closed out the AFT Production Twins

Championship with the win.