Interview: Jared Mees Talks Flat Track Racing And Indian Motorcycle

There's a lot of buzz surrounding the AMA Pro Flat Series lately. Flat track is back in fashion, its popularity growing both here and overseas. At home the series – which has long been outside the peripheral vision of most of the manufacturers – has started to get some serious suitors. One of which is Indian Motorcycles. The iconic brand made it official on June 14, announcing that they will throw their hat back in the game in 2017 for the first time as a factory effort since the 1950's. To get ready for their big return Indian has hired a heavy hitter as the official test rider – multi-time Grand National Champion Jared Mees.

“There’s not really a whole lot I can say yet, but Indian’s coming in really big,” Mees said. “They’re very excited to get into the sport. I’m very excited to bring, hopefully, this [the number one plate] with them. They want to come in and win right away, that’s why they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to hire you to get us on the right track and speed this up. We don’t want to come in next year testing, we want to come out and win.’”

So far that effort hasn’t been much more than sitting on it and having a listen to it fired up, but Mees has great expectations for it.

“We haven’t really actually tested it yet at all,” he explained. “It’s just been a sit on thing, just to get a feel, just kind of heard it run and stuff. I think they’re going to do some promo stuff at first, and then I’m going to be testing it. Looking at the bike from what I’ve seen, it looks phenomenal. They’re doing a great job on it.”

At the moment Mees has just signed for a testing deal in 2016. He is still campaigning the Harley-Davidson XR750 in the interim, but Mees has separated from Harley-Davidson to make the leap for a new opportunity with Indian and he’s quite excited about it.

"The enthusiasm of the will to win is exciting to me," he said. "That's why I wanted to take a step off the Harley contract this year, because it could be a great opportunity. Thanks to Harley-Davidson Motor Company for everything they did, but I don't believe there was much there for me to gain. They have two great riders – Brad [Baker] and Davis [Fisher] – and they're younger. So I kind of was at my peak there with them, with support. No hard feelings, we all left on great terms, it's just that I wanted to pursue this opportunity."

Even so, Mees will be going from a bike with 44-plus years of development to one with a clean slate. He has spent his career on the Harley and has won many titles on the XR750. Did that make the decision to move away from his comfort zone a bit tough? No. He was ready for the move. But that doesn’t mean that departure won’t be a bit emotional.

“It’s definitely going to be sentimental to get off the Harley and onto something different in the future, if that happens,” he said. “It’s something I’ve just done since day one and we’ve had lots of success on it. But I’m ready to start a new chapter and win on the thing.”

If Mees was able to win on the Indian, and more importantly win a Grand National Championship for the brand, he would make history. It would add to his legacy in the sport. In end, Mees is more focused on winning and less on record books.

“Motivation to be a champion all the time is motivation enough,” he said. “Whatever I’m going to do in life I want to be the best at it, whether I was wrestling in high school, or racing or promoting. If I put my sites on whatever I’m doing., it’s going to be the best it can be no matter what.”

Although Mees’ main focus is winning championships, he did admit that the thought of being attached to the Indian name was pretty cool.

“Right now it’s just the testing phase, but I definitely get really excited and kind of dream a bit about how cool it will be,” he said. “It’s an American made motorcycle, Indian. That’s cool, I’m all about that. The enthusiasm and the will to win over there with those guys is very exciting for me to put in the effort.”

Mees isn’t the only one excited for Indian’s return. The iconic brand’s arrival to AMA Pro Flat Track brings back one of America’s greatest rivalries – Harley-Davidson v. Indian. That has a lot of people excited and that excitement could translate into a lot of great things for the sport itself.

“It’s going to be a good thing for the sport,” Mees said. “Because, yeah Kawasaki and Yamaha they might ruffle a little feathers over there at Harley, but they’re not like… they’re competitors but kind of in a different way. Indian and Harley are like the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles – they’re competitors! They don’t hate each other, I wouldn't say hate, but they’re going after the same pocketbook. So it will be good.”