American Flat Track Hits The Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Forty years ago, after struggling for years to field a bike as good as Harley's XR750 in AMA Grand National competition, Yamaha sent Kenny Roberts off to Europe full-time. He'd been winning at Britain's Transatlantic Match Races since 1974, notably cleaning the clock of one Barry Sheene. Upon devoting his attention to the 500cc Grand Prix title, the pugnacious Californian showed Europeans exactly what American dirt racers could do, winning three World Championships and paving the way for over a decade's worth of flat-track-bred GP champs. But to European audiences, Roberts' hometown of Modesto may as well have been Mars.

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It is the kind of thing the Duke of Richmond loves. His Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual bacchanal of mechanized delight, showcasing everything from prewar racers to hypermodern prototypes. If it rolls, fires, or flies, if it flips the grinning idiot switch in all of us, then it is welcome at Goodwood. This year, the Duke invited a group of ­star-spangled Martians to the party on his lawn, including 2017 American Flat Track Twins champion Jared Mees. Even for him, this place is a marvel.

“I’ve seen stuff that I had no idea existed,” he says. “Like the Isle of Man sidecars.”

Resembling experimental bobsleds, the two-man rigs represent the barrel-chested roadracing scene’s apex of hairiness. To watch them sail up the hill is to marvel at the skill and daring of the “monkey,” hanging on and off every which way.

That current GP stars have rediscovered flat track’s applicability to pavement has only been good for the sport’s profile, Mees says.

"It definitely helps having guys like Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, and Nicky Hayden showcase flat track in their training."

Surrounded by machines from every era of Grand Prix racing, AFT Singles star Shayna Texter was most taken by the shrieking darts of the modern F1 cars sprinting up the hill.

“I’ve never heard one before,” she explains, wonder apparent in her usually matter-of-fact voice. Until recently, the pinnacle of tracker tech involved wringing more from decades-old Harley engines. From that perspective, terminally advanced Formula 1 is the polar opposite.

Still, for this year, the earthy flat-trackers are the newfangled exotica at the Festival of Speed, heralds of a sport that, once in decline, is again reaching out toward European audiences—and this time, they've brought their native bikes.