Flat Track In Photos

The Santa Rosa Mile was impossible to forget. The high point was certainly the battle royale between Jared Mees and Bryan Smith for the champion, with Smith nearly losing it all in the final feet, but holding off Mees to secure his first GNC1 title.  The low point was obviously the shocking death of both Charlotte Kainz and Kyle McGrane in separate incidents. Both riders were quite young and dark clouds surround the incidents due to anger over track conditions.

Aside from these two extremes there was also excitement on many levels, such as legend Joe Kopp coming out of retirement to bring the name of Indian Motorcycle® out of retirement with him. Although Joe will step back out of frontline duty to operate his racing school, he gave Indian the the jump out of the gate they needed to herald their return from a long absence.

After more than 50 years away from the sport, the marque has been resurrected by Polaris Industries® in a big way. Press releases from the Minnesota company originally said Indian would be positioned as the heritage brand, leaving Victory® to re-position as a more performance oriented brand. Well, “heritage” means something different in Minnesota apparently.

The story of this event is best told through pictures though, and that is what I’m here to do. I put together a few galleries of my favorites. Most aren’t framed right or in sharp enough focus. They are the ones you can’t use in an article, but they are the ones I like the most… the ones that say “flat track racing” to me.

Check ’em out…

Bryan Smith…

This series has too many photos to be used in a single article, but as a slide show they show Smith after the race in exhaustion, attempting to get the sand out of his eyes. Then they show him at the base of the stage, still catching his breath. I further selected a shot of him when he is smiling at friends from on stage, but not while he is having to interact with a microphone. They show the more fun and human side of racing; of being with your loved ones and sharing the experience.

Smith spend most of the race alone in second yet, despite a dirt-free set of leathers, his face and hands were covered with grit.

Smith finally begins to find some focus.

Smith starts to clean his other eye.

It took Smith several minutes to clear his eyes of sweat and sand after dismounting.

A quiet moment alone among all the congratulations, Bryan Smith sits on the side of the stage trying to clear sand from his eyes as he awaits his trophy presentation

Doing interview duty.

Short Track…

Not all the action was on the mile. Friday and Saturday night had racing on the short track with amateur and Pro/Am racing, along with the Hooligan Derby.  As the name implies, it is a run-what-ya-brung event often dominated by custom bike builder Roland Sands and his buddies on some Indian Scouts. However, there are plenty of local lunatics that show up to foil those plans on a wide array of street machines.

This time the field included two of my friends. Eric L. was on his KTM, complete with a top box full of beer and looking to have fun, but Wade Boyd had brought his demonic Yamaha R1 with its full 170hp. In the end it was too much power for the small track, but it made a helluva racket anyway.

Short track means needing a good start or really needing to pass. Bumping people out of the way is an art form that never looks very artistic, and I saw very little of it amongst the lower divisions. Needing to work on Monday most likely.

Wade Boyd could be heard anywhere on the track ith the sound of his R1 engine screaming, but getting the power down in such tight confines was too much to ask of his rear tire. Sure looked cool though.

The squirrely exit line shows what Wade had to work with. Apply power, careen toward fence.

Eric L’s bike was massive, but he did have a few sadwiches packed just in case he got hungry during the race.

Joe Kopp surprised the crowd with the first “public” laps of the FTR750 racer. It was wicked and angry and squirrely and obscene. The crowd loved it.

The beast was hard to capture on camera. Kopp took it in deep an sideways but was on the gas early. The damn thing went like stink

I don’t remember a word he said. I was busy looking at the bike and scanning the crowd. They were into it.

I really like how this came out. I had a long exposure set while the bike was stationary and did not change the settings by accident.

The FTR750 got a lot of attention just sitting still as well. Ah, to dream…

Out And About…

The pit lane and vendor area were more accessible than usual at Santa Rosa. They kept the races on the outside of the track, though you still needed a pit pass. Put with a pit pass you at least did not have to wait for a track crossing if you wanted in to see the action. The vendor area was spread out in a strange way, giving it a desolate feel despite there being quite a few things to check out.

As usual, Triumph had a lot of bikes there. They are a big sponsor of flat track, though it would be nice to see them on the grid with a race bike.  To be fair, Triumph isn’t nearly the size of Polaris Industries (which owns Indian), which stirs a lot of pots. In short, Harley is a juggernaut and Indian has other market segments to rely on… but I’d still like to see a Harley/Indian/Triumph war just for the poetry of it.

Harley’s new XG750R hides in plain sight. The water-cooled bikes lookes decptively similar to the XR750 as you walk by unless you look right at the engine.

The vendor area looked sparse and low rent, but it actually had a lot of cool stuff. The layout just spread things too thin and gave thing an odd atmosphere.

Triumph should not park its vintage display models near its retro offerings. This svelte classic makes their new machines look huge.

Triumpg does not have a factory effort on the track per say, but they do support a number of ventures.

“And I thought I’d put on a lot of weight in the last few decades. Look at you…”

On The Track…

I shot the heat races and the GNC1 main event. Instead of giving a who’s who, I’d rather just share some of my favorite images.

The sound of approaching thunder.

Bryan Smith during his heat race

I doubt Joe was trying to roost a Harley sign… I didn’t even notice when I took the picture. Still, the effect was note worthy.

Obviously this image is useless commercially speaking, butthis is the part of 100mph corner entry that no one ever pays attention to. That is pure chaos.

My trusty assistant Kate had actually never been to a flat track race before and had no real interest in motorsport. She just needed to get paddock shots so I didn’t have to switch lenses. Flat track turned out to genuinely impress her.

A major complaint aside from the racing surface was the abrupt end of the hay bales during corner exit, which left exposed steel poles to mark track’s edge. This photo is from lap 1 of the GNC2 restart, after Kyle McGrane was killed at this location. Oil dry can still be seen from the clean up.

This image lacks the focus and framing needed for commercial use but it was the only good snap I got from this angle, showing Kenny Coolbeth and Jared Mees during their heat race.

The classic “hand on the fork tube” pose to improve aerodynamics, along with the long look over the shoulder while exiting a corner at 90+ miles per hour. Good times.

This is my favorite on-track shot of the weekend, with slipshod color editing. Brad Baker was the only rider to make the high line look easy, and he won by over ten seconds to boot. Style. He will ride on the Indian Wrecking Crew next year with Jared Mees and Bryan Smith. Yes, Indian bought the entire podium from this race to ride for them next year.

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