Mess on his No.1 Indian battles J.D. Beach on the G&G Yamaha. Flat Track Champ vs Flat Tracker turned successful road-racer and returned part time Flat Tracker. Mess and Beach have finished 1st and 2nd in the last two races. Lets hope Beach can race a good number AFT races and keep this competition and excitement going. The Wig Wam Team did not dominate totally with their two other riders being mid pack finishers. Its Indian, Yamaha and Kawi with the strongest performances. Harley are still sucking hind titties and if they can turn it around this year, I think it will be a miracle. Supposedly traction and the lack of it is the problem and maybe too many horses.
Henry Wiles was fast as expected but got mired in time consuming contests in mid pack which lost him contact with the front runners. He did make a hard charge to get on the podium in third. He made a silk purse out of a sow's ear and came away happy to be on the box. The track was not really up to the standard deserved by these high caliber competitors but, it is Daytona and these home made tracks are so to fit into the venue. This years track provided some great racing but it should be better. What to do ? I thought they were building a state of the art 3/8ths short track a few years ago but they used the same mystery dirt-sand combo that always turns into a dusty dry rough as guts disaster. If they would spend some money and effort and get some decent clay-DG layed down for the Short Track, I think that would solve all the problems and produce the first class racing the riders and fans deserve. The Daytona group has oodles of money yet, they don't have the leadership to get the job done. Someone has to get the message across so the opener of the AFT season is spectacular and not some hokey backyard cluster.
Talking about clusters, H.D. are still looking like amateurs, floundering around at the back of the pack, barely making it into the Main. Halbert can ride and is good at muscling his way to the front on bikes that are not the creme of the crop. He did lead the Motor Co. squad but could not get the new DOHC racing motor to even look the slightest bit competitive. With any luck, they will find the one thing that is holding them back and they get right back in the fray. The sport deserves to have Harley fighting for the Championship and taking on the three other competitive brands. AFT got out of Daytona with no real egg on their face and with a Short Track next, lets hope we have a barn burner that will demonstrate the highly exciting racing that is "The Greatest Show on Earth".
Thanks to Cycle World for the great photos!
