AMA Pro Flat Track headed to Knoxville, Iowa, this past weekend to do battle at famed Knoxville Raceway. This was the first time in recent memory that the series shared the same track with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series as part of a double-header show, and the pairing seemed like a perfect fit. If you were to compare flat-track motorcycle racing with other forms of motorsports, sprint-car racing would be pretty high on that list, if not at the top. Dirt ovals, high speeds, and sideways action are some of the similarities shared by these two blue-collar forms of racing.
Here are a few highlights from the race weekend:
• Between the World of Outlaws heat races on Saturday night, 12 riders, myself included, ran a five-lap exhibition race. According to people with whom I spoke in the grandstands, the crowd loved it and made more noise than it did for the cars. At the riders’ meeting on Sunday, AMA Pro Flat Track Manager Steve Morehead told us, “The president for the World of Outlaws loved the show you guys put on last night and said it would be neat to work something out in the future to run again with the series.”
• The 2011 and ’12 Knoxville AMA Pro Flat Track races were night events. This year, the races were run during the day, and the track was left untouched after the 25-lap sprint-car race. That raised some eyebrows among the riders, but conditions were above average, and the track was fast.
• The top-three finishers in Sunday’s 25-lap Expert Twins main event were Kenny Coolbeth Jr., Jake Johnson, and Sammy Halbert—the same finishing order as 2012. Coolbeth scored his 31st career victory. Thirty-one was also his first Grand National number.
• Absent from the podium all last season, the 37-year-old Coolbeth has already won half of the races run thus far this year and is the current points leader. Jake Johnson, another rider who went “podium-less” last season, is second in points with a couple of podium finishes already to his credit.
• With a third-place finish in her semi, my sister, Shayna, made her first career expert main event on the Latus Motors Triumph in just her second race on the bike. She went on to finish 16th in the main.
• Nichole Mees was one lap away from joining the history books with Shayna as the first two females ever to race in a main event together. Mees was running third in the semi when she went down in turn 1. She banged up her ankle but expects to be ready for the next race in a couple weeks.
• Many in attendance on both sides of the crash fence were unsure how the non-restricted Harley-Davidsons would fare in a day-race clay half-mile. Well, we have our answer: The top-six finishers in the Expert class were on XR-750s. The next four riders were Kawasaki-mounted.
• Kyle Johnson won his second career Pro Singles main event. Starting from the back row, Kolby Carlile scored a second-place finish—his first career podium. Rookie Davis Fisher was third. After placing fifth in the 16-lap main event, Ryan Wells leads the point standings.
• Mother Nature was kind to us all weekend. Weather forecasts called for 80 percent chance of rain on Saturday and Sunday. Although conditions were very windy, the ground remained dry, and the racing went on without any delays. The series now heads to the Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima, Ohio, on June 28 for Round 5.
Cory Texter is a third-generation motorcycle racer from Willow Street, Pennsylvania. He is currently national number 65 in the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship and has also held an AMA Pro Road Racing license. His father, Randy, was the 1990 AMA TwinSports champion, and his sister, Shayna, is the only female to win an AMA Pro Grand National Expert Singles race. Cory also co-hosts Flat Track Weekly Radio.