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KTM AFT 2021

Feb 23

KTM AFT 2021

Plenty of announcements are coming out of AFT HQ at the moment as the 2021 season nears. The most recent is the launch of the 2021 KTM AFT Singles team. Young Australian, Max Whale, joins Shayna Texter-Bauman (as the recently married racer has chosen to be known as). That means the team is back to a two-rider squad after a season of having just Shayna, who fell below her normal high standards in 2020, finishing 12th in the standings. Conversely, privateer Whale was second in

AFT Atlanta Rnd 1

Oct 3, 2020

AFT Atlanta Rnd 1

Not too many shock results last night, but that doesn't mean they weren't noteworthy. AFT SINGLES Dallas Daniels #32 is the most hyped young rider in more than a decade and he's proven his supporters were right. Four race wins on the trot, six wins in total this season, more than the rest of the field combined and stretching his title lead over Henry Wiles in second m the title race. Wiles came in 5th on the night. Mischler, #13, was second, Brandon Kitchen third. It's just n

Unpredictable

Aug 24, 2020

Unpredictable

Two race weekends, and four races into the 2020 AFT season and, as predicted, the Singles class is unpredictable. Four races, four different winners. Henry Wiles (above) leads the championship thanks to his Indy Mile II win on Saturday. Just three points behind in the standings is Brandon Kitchen, number 105, who won Friday's main at the Indy Mile. Dallas Daniels, 32, won round 2, at Volusia, after failing to qualify for the main the day before, meaning he is back in 7th in t

Nathalie in the Sunshine State

Mar 28, 2020

Nathalie in the Sunshine State

Earlier this year, UK racer and friend of the mag, Nathalie Legrand spent a week at Johnny Lewis' Moto Anatomy school in Florida. She supplied a diary of the intense week. After a couple of months going to practice with my KTM 250, that George Pickering set up for me, I realised that if I wanted to be safer on the track and take on good habits, I needed some help. It can be overwhelming to hear different tips from different people when you start a new sport and you end up bei

This Racetrack Eats Motorcycles

Feb 16, 2020

This Racetrack Eats Motorcycles

I was interviewing AFT privateer Shawn Baer a couple of days ago and he mentioned the Mega Mile race. We ran some photos from it in the magazine years ago and I couldn't remember why the race hadn't gone back there. I did remember it was a 1.25-mile oval out east, but had forgotten it was called Colonial Downs and was in Virginia. A search threw up this pretty incredible race footage from 2014. There are lots of familiar names in the race, being only five years ago, but lots

Golden Couple

SB38 Red Torpedo Edition

Oct 9, 2019

SB38 Red Torpedo Edition

We worked with Glasgow-based clothing company Red Torpedo to make a special edition cover of Sideburn 38. Red Torpedo sponsor a bunch of real road racers and now the two of the most successful flat track racers in the sport - Shayna Texter and Jared Mees. It's Mees that's on the cover, a shot from Lima 2019 by Ed Subias. Sideburn flew out to Lima, a race that Jared and Nichole Mees promote and run, to follow the two Red Torpedo riders. You can read the story in Sideburn 38. R

SB38 Digital Dirt

Sep 29, 2019

SB38 Digital Dirt

The digital edition of Sideburn 38 is now online to purchase for £2.50. You get to keep it until our future robot overlords turn off the human internet in favour of their own machine-only web system. We always show a few free pages to try snag the window shoppers, but for issue 39 we have uncovered the whole Lima Half-Mile story, that we made in conjunction with clothing brand, Red Torpedo, We flew to Ohio to follow their sponsored riders Jared Mees and Shanya Texter at the i

SB38 PRE-ORDER

Sep 4, 2019

SB38 PRE-ORDER

The magazine won't land until next week, but we're putting it up on pre-order now if you want to get in now and be sent out with the first wave. ORDER SIDEBURN 38 Some issues of Sideburn include dashes of film, art, adventure or leftfield moto culture with a core of flat track. Others are pure flat tracker and street tracker. Sideburn 38 is the latter. Page after page after page of dirt track racing with a dash of jawdropping street tracker in the middle. COVER: Koolt Yamaha

Black Hills HM Thoughts

Aug 7, 2019

Black Hills HM Thoughts

Less than 40 hours since the Buffalo Chip podium the AFT riders were back in action at the Black Hills Half-Mile, another race that is part of Sturgis Bike Week. After the one-line TT of the Buffalo Chip, which I'm indifferent to, the Black Hills track is fast, allows various lines and offered up some great racing. Unfortunately, being an AFT addict in Europe is a ballache. I watched till about 12.15am, then set the alarm for 1.15, watched another 40 mins, set the alarm for 3

Buffalo Chip TT Thoughts

Aug 6, 2019

Buffalo Chip TT Thoughts

This is getting daft. Sunday's race was delayed nearly two hours because of rain, so the first singles practice started at 11pm UK time. I saw the new schedule, watched singles Qualifying 1 (Q1), then set my alarm for 1am and slept for a bit. I woke, watched the singles heats, then set the alarm for 3am and watched the semis and mains. It all finished, for me, after 4.30. I set the alarm for 7 for work on Monday and tried to get some sleep. And I'm not even that fussed about

Lima Half-Mile Thoughts

Jul 5, 2019

Lima Half-Mile Thoughts

This is a little bit later than usual for a couple of reasons, but I saw this race live in the flesh, having flown out to the Midwest and driven for hours on end to follow the fortunes of Red Torpedo-sponsored riders, Jared Mees and Shayna Texter. And it was a great experience. My full story will be in the next issue of Sideburn with photos by Ed Subias, but here are some thoughts. The race is promoted by Jared and Nichole Mees. That means they put up the money to bring the A

Red Mile Thoughts

Jun 4, 2019

Red Mile Thoughts

Here's the latest instalment of my morning after brain dump after watching (and listening to) the AFT 2019 races on Fanschoice. First thought was thank goodness the rain held off to actually get a Twins race finished. The Singles managed to have their Saturday Springfield TT, but the last two Twins mile races have been rained out, and this one was postponed from Saturday to Sunday. There must have been a lot of twitchy executives. The rescheduled race was at a very handy time

Arizona Super TT (& Texas HM) Thoughts

Apr 30, 2019

Arizona Super TT (& Texas HM) Thoughts

I'm going to keep splurging these top of the head reports if I watch the AFT races on Fanschoice. I had to get up early for a flight on Sunday morning, so I set my alarm for 3.30am to watch a bit before I left, then streamed it on my phone, making a massive dent in my data allowance. I listened on headphones to the seemingly endless adverts until something was about to happen, then pulled into petrol stations to watch the action. Such is the life of a UK-based AFT fan. AFT Tw

Atlanta Short Track Thoughts

Mar 24, 2019

Atlanta Short Track Thoughts

As with the Daytona TT Thoughts, this is bullet point top of the head notions, hot reactions to AFT 2019 round 2 - Atlanta Short Track. SINGLES In one heat race there is a crash at the fastest point of the track, just before the braking point. The rider rolls down the track, gets up looking dazed. He obviously has a damaged helmet, but the AFT/AMA official looks to be helping him make the restart. This happens numerous times during the night, and occurs at every AFT race, but

KTM Announce Official AFT Team

Feb 20, 2019

KTM Announce Official AFT Team

KTM has a recent, winning history in pro flat track going back to the time single cylinder framers were outlawed by AMA Pro Racing, in favour of DTX bikes. Chris Carr won some of his Peoria TTs on a KTM 450. More recently, Dan Bromley clinched last year's AFT Singles title on a KTM 450. For the 2019 season KTM has entered an official team for the very first time, and, typically for the Austrians, have gone in shirts off with a couple of heavy hitters. The team is made up of D

AFT Production Twins Get Serious UPDATE

Nov 15, 2018

AFT Production Twins Get Serious UPDATE

It was only two weeks ago (in a post about AFT's 2019 rules) we described AFT's Production Twins as a 'somewhat half-arsed stepping stone class for AFT Singles riders to get on twins'. Today the series announced that the class will grow from a frankly pitiful two race 'championship' it was in 2018 to a full 11-round series for 2019. AFT Production Twins is aimed at younger racers, brought up on 450 production bikes to get a taste of twins and custom built flat track framers b

AFT Stars at Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Jul 12, 2018

AFT Stars at Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Britain's premier motorsport garden party welcomes a number of AFT stars for this weekend's Festival of Speed. The FoS is the event where various historic and current motor racing vehicles parade up the hill, in front of a big crowd. There's more to it that that, but that's the gist. It's an non-competitive event. The Revival, later in the year, is the event where period costume is encouraged and pre-1967 vehicles race hard for honours. Mees, Baker, Carver, Cose, Briar Bauman

Lima Half-Mile Thoughts

Jul 2, 2018

Lima Half-Mile Thoughts

If there was AFT one race I really wanted to attend this year it was Lima, unfortunately, I couldn't make it this season. Why Lima? Well, I've never been and it's one of the few cushion tracks left on the programme. But, what did we learn from the Ohio half-mile? The biggest news, as far I'm concerned, is Shayna Texter's win in the singles. This track is brutal - Jared Mees, who looks like he breakfasts on barbed wire and shits bullets, said this after his own win 'This track

Daytona TT Thoughts

Mar 16, 2018

Daytona TT Thoughts

All week I have been kicking myself for not going to the Daytona TT, but there were reasons. Chiefly, it's on a Thursday. If you fly to the USA and don't stay a Saturday night the flights are hugely more expensive and I didn't have the inclination or time to either go on the previous Friday or stay until the Sunday, days after the race. Secondly, even though I felt I got a good story last year, the event was underwhelming. I'll wait for another race a little later in the year

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