American Flat Track (AFT) has a long and illustrious motorcycle racing history, with the series officially sanctioned in 1954 but its roots stretching way earlier. Motorcycles have changed a lot over those years, and the competition rules have needed to change with them.
Recently, AFT implemented another set of new rules. Unfortunately, they’re bad news for Indian Motorcycle.
The Indian FTR750 motorcycle is now ineligible to compete in the AFT SuperTwins class.
According to the new rules, all bikes competing in the series must be based around a production engine. Companies are free to tweak the powerplant to their hearts’ content (within other rules), but the base version must be available to the regular consumer.
Well, one look in the Indian catalog reveals that the FRT750 is not a production motorcycle.
As such, the Indian FTR750 is out of the competition. To say that this is a game changer for AFT races is an understatement.
Dominating the Race
In the early days of flat track racing, Indian was a powerhouse and its rivalry with Harley-Davidson is the stuff of legend. After World War II, however, the company changed ownership and withdrew from racing, soon going out of business altogether.
Indian came back, however, but not with a flat track bike—not until 2016. That’s when the manufacturer introduced the FTR50 and turned AFT racing on its head.
You can’t really exaggerate how dominant this motorcycle has become. For instance, in the 2024 season, the bike held a win rate of above 75%.
The in 129 races, the FTR750 has secured 286 podium places, which gives it a podium ratio of 96%. But that’s all ratios and ratings and statistics. Let’s put this in the clearest possible terms.
Since 2017, every AFT SuperTwins champion has ridden an Indian FTR750.
The 2024 season, which concluded in September, Jared Mees (who was instrumental in the development of the FTR750) snatched his 10th Grand National Championship. That’s an unprecedented achievement and truly cements Mees’ reputation as the AFT GOAT—and of course, he set his record astride an FTR750.
When Can We Buy an FTR750?
The question now is, what comes next? Will Indian bid farewell to flat tracks and ride gentle into that good night?
Unlikely. Indian has dominated AFT so hard that it’s very difficult to imagine they wouldn’t rage against the dying of the bike.
As of now, Indian appears to have two options. They can either start racing the current 1200cc production FTR, or put the FTR750 into consumer production.
Oh wait, they can’t do the former. The same set of new rules that booted the FTR750 out also dictate that bikes in the SuperTwins class can’t have displacements larger than 900cc.
So, that leaves introducing the FTR750 as a production motorcycle as the only feasible way to bring it back to flat tracks. I’m fully expecting Indian to announce the bike’s availability sooner rather than later.
The question, though, is whether Indian will keep offering the current 1200cc FTR model, or ax it in favor of the 750. Considering the whole slew of FTR1200 models the company offers, it might be more likely that it’ll sell both the bigger and smaller variants.
