There’s no hiding that flat track is hurting. The sport has been in the racing ICU since somebody decided that Big Tobacco didn’t need to be promoting itself too much in sports. However, you can’t kill flat track. Perhaps we are the cock roaches of racing. Maybe not the racers you want hiding out in your kitchen, but tough and hard to get rid of nevertheless. We beg, we borrow, we steal and we keep giving fans the most incredible racing action that you can find anywhere in the world. Our top guys work part-time jobs when they aren’t racing and the Ford Econoline is the automobile of choice. We’re a scrappy bunch, but we still need all the help that we can get.

If you read internet forums about our sport the kooks and arm chair quarterbacks there will lead you to believe that our sport is on death’s door and that nothing can be done to save it. If you read deep enough into it, you’ll also start to imagine that the greatest sport on dirt can be saved by bringing back antiquated technology or that we could put more fans in the stands if we rode the V-Twin monsters even on short tracks or TT’s. That isn’t what it’s about. Our sport IS progressing. AMA Pro Racing IS putting the weight they have behind it. We ARE moving forward.

With the fog of the off season looming over our sport, everybody is keeping their cards close to their chests. If you thought moto or road racing was secretive, you haven’t seen anything yet. With racers who will straight up call a company after hearing that they are helping a competitor just to lure them into their corner, our sport is eat or be eaten. Sure, flat track has two classes. We have the Pro Singles class where young talent hone their skills and the Expert class, but the big talk is always the “big boys (and girls)” class. Besides, there aren’t real “rides” in the Pro Singles class. It’s pretty easy to say with certainty that 95% of Pro Singles racers are primarily sponsored by “Mom and Dad”.  In the Expert class we have the heavy hitters; Jared Mees, Bryan Smith, Jake Johnson, Kenny Coolbeth, Brad Baker, Henry Wiles and Sammy Halbert. These are guys who win multiple races a year, these are guys who win championships.

The New Yamaha FZ-07 Motor Will Breathe Life Into Flat Track. Image from Yamaha.

Jared Mees is pretty locked down with his Rogers Racing team. The team is owned by Craig Rogers but Jared has a lot of control over it. Jared is the darling of sponsorship. If there’s a company in the industry who makes a good product, Jared is hooked up with them some how. He has multiple time championship mechanic Kenny Tolbert slinging the wrenches on his twins equipment while Jared himself builds most of his singles (450cc) program. With Jared taking the title this season, I would say we won’t see any major changes with him. He has been seen testing with Factory Harley Davidson’s Brad Baker, but Jared has been hooked up with the Bar and Shield team in one way or another several times. Could Milwaukee get even more involved in his program now?

Will Bryan Smith Lead The Pack In 2015? Image: Brent Pierce BTP Photography

Bryan Smith came within a leaky oil sight glass of winning the championship this year. At the penultimate round in Calistoga California, Bryan had a mechanical failure that sent him off the track and just 3 points from winning the title. Bryan is the guru of Kawasaki’s. He took the honors of re-writing the record books when he took Bill Werner’s experimental Kawasaki EX650 twin to the win on the historic Springfield Mile, giving Kawasaki its first ever Twins win. Since then he has changed teams, but has always been planted firmly on top of a Kawasaki power plant. This season was the first for his new C&J frame after riding the revolutionary Howerton Motorsports perimeter frame bike for a few seasons. I felt like the new frame was even more lethal. What does Bryan do next year? Rumors are that Bryan may be walking away from the sport but it sure would be a shame. He’s a huge asset to the level of competition we have. If Bryan returns to the track, I have a feeling he will do it with his current team. He is with Villa Esparza Racing with support from Howerton Motorsports and Crosley Radio. They have a great formula for winning races and I think they’ll be back.

Where Will Jake Johnson Land Next Season? Image: Brent Pierce BTP Photography

Jake Johnson is the most interesting of the bunch. Though he had a stable of different bikes to ride out of the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports/Ramspur Winery stable and finished the season 3rd in points, he is left without a ride right now for the 2015 season. I talked to Jake this week and he said he has a few deals in the works, but nothing is set in stone or even near completion. Jake is a machinist when he isn’t busy being one of the most naturally talented racers on the planet, so at least he has a good back up plan. Early talks had him possibly going to the Triumph team, though Jake has told me that the trumpets haven’t been playing in his ear.

Kenny Coolbeth may be looking for his own ride as I’m not quite sure if the “two team” experiment for Zanotti Racing was a success or a failure. Kenny had several wins, but also bad luck. Team owner Dave Zanotti didn’t have complete control of what Kenny’s tuner, Dave Atherton was doing in his Michigan shop and I’m not sure if that went over well or not. Kenny though is in a unique spot. Kenny has the knowledge and skill to build his own equipment, making him one of the most versatile racers in the paddock. Will he do that though? Is it worth it to him? Kenny is the oldest racer capable of a win right now and I would say if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze for him any longer that he will walk away and enjoy life down in his new home deep in the Sunshine State.

Brad Baker. Does he stay with “The Factory”? He had negative comments about the bike early on in the year, but grabbing a win this season certainly had him singing a different tune. Brad also spent the first half of his season recovering from a shoulder injury which affected him tremendously. Harley Davidson famously only does one year contracts, so they could put their money elsewhere or they could keep Brad around. It’s tough to say. I would say they keep Brad and push a little harder with a few other racers too. Put a little more into the “wrecking crew”.

Henry Wiles put his own deal together with Don’s Kawasaki this year and though he’s always going to win the Peoria TT, his twins program showed more promise than it ever has. He suffered some mechanicals but he was solid all year. I thought his deal was going great until he was my teammate under the Zanotti Racing tent for the last round in Pomona California. I asked him why he would switch teams for the last race and he said, “Because the opportunity came up.” Could Zanotti Racing have been doing a test run? He’ll be one to watch.

Last is Sammy Halbert. He isn’t last in the results though! Sammy could have the biggest news of all. Sammy has long been tied to Yamaha, which a lot of people don’t know. They have helped him with his singles program for several years and with the new Yamaha FZ-07 power plant coming to flattrack in 2015 I would bet a lot of my personal money that Sammy will be on one. His Kawasaki experiment was a failure this season, but I can tell you that the Yamaha motor is good. REALLY good. Riding a stock FZ-07 and a stock Kawasaki EX650 back to back really opened my eyes and I feel sorry for the teams who sunk all of their money into the green machine. The Yamaha is that good. Sammy isn’t picky. Sammy can ride the wheels off of anything. Sammy on a strong motor is more effective that Sammy on a perfect chassis. It could be “The Slammer’s” year if he can keep the bad luck and crashing to a minimum.

No word yet on what Triumph will do. They are putting a big effort into our sport but they certainly aren’t seeing the pay off that they want. I believe they will do what they can to keep Shayna Texter on their equipment because she is making main events, putting it on the podium in qualifying races and is a marketing gold mine. However, I am hearing that Mikey Martin may be replaced. Mikey is a solid racer being a past Pro Singles champion, but he certainly hasn’t had the seasons that he or Triumph perhaps imagined. Triumph is interesting. They have a history in recent seasons of mechanical issues and they are heavy, but racers say they are lightning fast and to me, from the pits, they seem to handle pretty neutrally. Does a racer take the pay check knowing that it needs some work or do they pay their own money to be on proven equipment?

There’s a lot going on in the off season and it’s going to be a great year for our sport in 2015. I think you’re going to see a lot of chairs move around but that just means fresh leathers for everybody next year. With average attendance up, live internet coverage of each race and the prospect of Yamaha coming in and doing major damage with a factory supported effort, there’s never been a better time to be a flat track fan.