Today and tomorrow see the first mile races of the 2021 AFT season, and it's back to the Remington Park horse track, Oklahoma City, for the first time since 2018.
Last time AFT raced on this cushion mile the top three in the Twins class was:
1. Mees, 2. Wiles, 3. Smith.
This time Mees is in contention again, and, hopefully recovered from recent injury, while Henry Wiles is now in the Singles class, on a Honda 450, and Bryan Smith is making his first appearance of the season. Smith is trying something different, riding a unusual looking Indian FTR750, created for him by long-time collaborator Howerton Motorsports. The Crosley Howerton FTR has a close resemblance to the Kawasaki parallel twins Smith and Howerton won the 2016 title with.
A notable absence this weekend is title contender Sammy Halbert, out after breaking several metatarsals in his right foot, when he clipped the wall, but didn't crash, in the Mission Dash for Cash at Chicago, last time out.
The SuperTwins leader board is looking a little more familiar after four rounds now Briar Bauman is leading, but Yamaha's JD Beach is still in second, with Mees and Vanderkooi tied in third.
In the Production Twins class, Cory Texter and Harley-mounted Chad Cose are already breaking away from the chasing pack. Johnny Lewis announced that the Royal Enfield team are sitting out this weekend, 'due to limited parts', but will be at the Lima Half-Mile the following weekend. Dan Bromley won the previous OKC Mile, when he was in the Singles class, and will be a contender in the Production Twins class.
AFT Singles is being led by Dallas Daniels, who has a one point advantage over his team-mate, Mikey Rush. The Singles class only raced two miles races last season, the Indy double-header, and those were won by Brandon Kitchen and Henry Wiles. As always, it's so difficult to pick a winner in this class.
In the 2018 race, Bromley won, in what was his title year, from Ryan Wells (who is also now in Production Twins) and Shayna Texter, who is still a factory KTM Singles rider.
For more information on Progressive AFT visit https://www.americanflattrack.com.
The gates will open for fans both days at 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT with Opening Ceremonies set to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. Live coverage of the entire weekend’s racing activities will be available on any device for only $1.99 a month via TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.
The Indian Motorcycle of Oklahoma City OKC Mile I & II presented by KICKER will air back-to-back on NBCSN on Saturday, June 26, starting at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT, featuring exclusive features and cutting-edge aerial drone and onboard footage accompanied by expert commentary.
Foreign fans can livestream using this link: http://www.americanflattrack.com/international-streaming