Indian Motorcycle's 2017 Indian Wrecking Crew Team

When Indian Motorcycle threw its hat into the American flat-track game, it went big. No hedging of bets on its purpose-built bike or the riders: 2016 Grand National Champion Bryan Smith, 2013 Grand National Champion Brad Baker, and three-time Grand National champion Jared Mees.

After successfully developing a Kawasaki into a championship winner, Smith and tuner Ricky Howerton signed up to race with Indian in 2017. Why? A mixture of economics and legacy. Howerton Motorsports and Smith were not a full factory effort. "We've won on Miles, we've won on Half-Miles when they said you couldn't, and now we've won the championship," Smith said. "So it's been really cool to do it, but with Indian they're going to back us as a team, so much so that it's hard to say no." And legacy? Smith grew up around one of the all-time greats, Scott Parker, and also being from flat-track racing's epicenter—Flint, Michigan—making a mark on the sport means a lot to him.

Another change is having a teammate. And not just any teammate: Brad Baker, who has long been seen as one of the sport's top up-and-coming talents. The 23-year-old has been plagued with injuries and mechanical breakdowns on his XR-750 during his tenure at the factory Harley-Davidson squad, but he capped off the season at the Santa Rosa Mile with a dominant win. So while he hasn't had the results since his GNC title in 2013, it's a big coup for Indian to take Baker from its rival in Milwaukee.

The reality is, no racer really likes having a teammate, but Smith understands Indian’s vision. “Every racer’s out for themselves, and any racer who would say any different is lying,” Smith said. “So it’s hard to have a teammate, but on the other hand I’m open-minded enough to know Indian wants to have the opportunity to win any weekend.”

There are three championship winners on the Indian team, but only one has won three GNC1 titles.

Jared Mees raced a Harley-Davidson XR-750 this year, but he gave up his Screamin’ Eagle money for a contract as a test rider for the Indian Scout FTR750. Mees made that jump with Indian in the beginning because he saw the company’s dedication and eager­ness to win. “After testing the bike and knowing the capabilities of how good it was and how good of a [development] team they had behind them, I wanted to go forth with being one of the riders for 2017.”

After all the testing and watching Joe Kopp ride the FTR750 so successfully in its first race, Mees is more on board than ever. “I couldn’t imagine being with anybody else,” Mees said. “We’re excited for the program. I’m really excited for [my tuner] Kenny Tolbert more than anything honestly, that he’s able to get going with something like this because he did the best job out of anybody on the XRs the last three or four years, no doubt.” Tolbert’s numerous GNC titles are proof of his genius.

Earlier in the year, Mees was looking forward to putting the FTR750 up against Smith and Howerton’s Kawasaki, but he now looks forward to facing his main rivals on the same machinery. “The more I think about it, it’s better for me to be on the same exact stuff because there’s no excuses,” Mees said. “I’d rather get beat by a straight-up rider than a machine, that’s for sure. I feel like if I could put more of the result in my hands, that’s going to be better for me.”

The 47-year-old semi-retired Grand National Champion tells us what it’s like to race the new Indian FTR750

Piloting the Indian Scout FTR750 for its historic racing debut was 2000 Grand National Champion Joe Kopp. The flat-track faithful were as interested in how the bike would do as they were to see how the veteran would fare in his first Mile race in five years. As it turned out, pretty well. Straight out of the gate, Kopp was running with the likes of Brad Baker and Bryan Smith, he finished second in his heat, and took the Dash for Cash win. In the main, he was up there with the frontrunners but ultimately dropped back in the rough conditions to finish seventh.

“The bike’s awesome,” Kopp said. “It’s better than me right now! In the main event, the bike was perfect. I had a hard time pushing it at that level, really. The intensity picked up a little bit in the main with Brad [Baker] and Bryan [Smith] when they went by me. They were just taking chances that I wasn’t comfortable doing. It was a good day before that. I could have sat down after the first practice and been happy with everything that went on. The bike’s awesome. It’s going to be a major contender next year.”

What does Kopp think of the FTR750’s power and feel? “It’s definitely an in-between of appeal,” Kopp explained. “It puts the power to the ground, kind of like a Harley XR-750, but it keeps revving like a Kawasaki and makes good top-end power. It’s a new benchmark, really. We’ve always had the XR-750 as a benchmark, but people are changing that, I promise you. The Indian is going to be the bike.”