Exclusive: Gary Gray on the End of the FTR750 Era

There are just three races before for the Indian FTR750 is excluded from American Flat Track competition. One more swing at a title, that if it wins, would be the bike’s eight consecutive title. An Indian FTR750 rider has won every AFT championship since it was introduced in 2017, and Jared Mees has his sights set on this one.

We caught up with Gary Gray, Indian Motorcycle’s Vice President of Racing, Technology & Service, the man who has been heavily involved in the steering of FTR750 project from development to the present, to discuss the legendary racebike.

Interview: Gary Inman Photos: American Flat Track

Gary Gray (third left) celebrates a Daytona win with riders Jared Mees and Bryan Smith

SIDEBURN: How important has competing and winning in flat track been for Indian Motorcycle?

GARY GRAY I think it's paramount. Our brand was founded by two racers in 1901, Hendee and Hedstrom, who met at a racetrack. One more of an engineer and builder of bikes and the other a storied bicycle racer, so it's always been in our brand's history. And, as you go through the years, the 1911 Isle of Man TT, then the late 40s and early 50s of the Wrecking Crew and flat track, and then on to Burt Munro. I don't think a lot of people would know as much, or care as much, about Indian motorcycles if it weren't for racing, so to go back to racing, what we were trying to do is reconnect the brand to its past and probably its most memorable days. [When it comes to] owner confidence or potential buyer confidence, even though we're America's oldest company, obviously it's gone through many fits and starts over the years. And to instil confidence in people that, ‘Hey, these guys are for real’, building a flat track bike that can go out and win and beat the world's best, I think helps set a tone for what the brand stands for and what it's capable of.

What was the long-term plan at the very beginning of the FTR750 project? How far did it stretch?

I don't think we thought out seven years. Our long-term planning here usually goes about five. In flat track, we were set for at least three years. We wanted to do it for at least three and kind of evaluate as we went. It's obviously evolved over that time.

I can't envisage the company imagined for more than it has achieved, but is there anything that you would have done differently?

Maybe not win so much. I've learned through racing that the more you win, the more they want to slow you down. I don't know how we would have controlled that when we sold bikes [and] at times two-thirds of the field that were running Indians, and it's probably a third of the field now. So, you really couldn't dial them back.

The first year that we came out, our singular goal was everything that we're going to do, every decision we make, we're going to make to win. So, we signed the best riders. We signed Jared Meese and Bryan Smith and Brad Baker. We had the three fastest guys out there. And there were people that said, ‘Do you really want to do that? Because if they don't win, it's the bike's fault. It's not their fault.’ We're like, No, if we want to win, we've got to have the best talent.

We also gave as much as we could to the series, paying contingency and building the 50 FTRs that we sold to the field. I think we did everything that we could. We always work with the best people. Kenny Tolbert, Dave Zanotti, Ricky Howerton. And we had the Bauman brothers racing together as a family. We had husband and wife [Briar Bauman and Shayna Texter-Bauman] racing together. You couldn't write that and believe it to be true. So, no, I don't think we could have done any better than what we did.

Brandon Robinson, 44, one of AFT's privateers to have won in the FTR750

Was it always planned to wind back on the factory involvement when the company did, and carry on supporting the top privateers?

Oh no, it was more [as a result of] the restrictions that came in. I learned that, Well, if I spend more money to try to make the bike go faster and I spend more money to have the best crew chief, best mechanic, best riders, all they're going to do is slow us down more. Clearly, they don't like us winning all the time, and if we keep winning all the time why would I spend piles of money on development and racers to go out and win just to have somebody open up a Microsoft word and put it in words that slow us down? At that point I'm like, Spending money towards this is a bit foolish at this point. And at the same time, we had Kenny Tolbert and Jared Mees with Craig Rogers and Steve DeLorenzi that were a very formidable team [Jared Mees has always been factory-supported but running his own team]. They went head-to-head with whoever we hired. Jared's always been considered factory, but the other riders we had as a factory team were great. And you got Jerry Stinchfield [owner of the Roof Systems team] running a pretty complete package and a lot of others out there that were highly competitive. So, it was a bit fortunate at the same time that we had people to carry the torch versus throwing money at the wind just to be restricted more.

I saw a figure reported that Indian motorcycle paid $4 million in prize money/contingency to privateers on FTRs across the last nearly eight seasons. Can you confirm that figure?

Yeah, absolutely. Annually we would go through and add it up and be fairly proud of how much we gave to the paddock, because part of the reason we came back to flat track racing was not to only help our own brand, but we'd been to a few flat track races and said, ‘This is amazing and more people need to see this.’ And so part of our comeback was to help the series grow. We went back through and added up all the years and all the wins and we pay through tenth place to the privateers, and the factory guys only paid first through third, but they got more for first through third than, than the privateers did. And yeah it was over $4 million.

And how does Indian view that spend?

I mean, I think it's good, part of it was to help the series grow. These guys and girls can't get around the US and buy flights and buy gas and buy tyres and hotels and food without money. It's the single biggest thing that helps racing move forward. So, I think it was good and it was good to have just as many interesting characters. Over 40 people rode the Indian FTR750 over the last seven or eight years. I think it was I think it was a good spin.

The sight and sound of a flying FTR is soon going to be history, as far as pro flat track is concerned

How many FTRs have been built?

So, we built 50 that we sold through our dealers, which, historically, was kind of AMA's minimum number to be considered production. And then, to support the factory race team and other racers who came to us later and asked for bikes, we built just over 100, probably 102, 102 total engines and frames that we've put together.

Any idea how many still exist?

Not many engines have fully blown up. And I've only seen a couple chassis bent to the point where they couldn't be brought back. So I would say close to that. It's probably in the 90s still out there.

What do you see as the future life of these bikes?

That's a great question. I have no idea. We always heard the rumour mill around AFT that they wanted to get rid of the bike, but we didn't know when or if that would ever really happen. They told the racers on a Saturday [and] they called us on a Tuesday, I think. Then the notice came out Friday [16 August], just a few days ago. So, we've only known officially for days that this is happening. What our focus is on is, we have three races left with this bike, let's make the best of it. I actually wasn't planning to go to the Springfield Mile this weekend, and I booked a flight because this is last chance to see the FTR750 on the Springfield Mile. So we're just trying to celebrate the last few days that bike has left and all the people that have ridden it. And I think all the great things that we've done for the series.

Jared Mees with the Indian FTR road bike

When it comes to win on Sunday, sell on Monday, has the FTR 1200 road bike performed as well in sales terms, as a bike related to this awesome racing success should?

Yeah. I mean I think the FTR750 not only helped that bike, but I think it helps the whole brand. People grow up wanting to ride a Harley Davidson, right? And they have for years. And honestly, we're an upstart. We've only been around for 11 or 12 years. We're fairly new to the table and to give somebody that's buying the Chieftain or a Roadmaster or a Pursuit or a Challenger, when they're sitting at the bar with their buddies and they bought an Indian and their buddies are elbowing them, ‘Why did you buy that? Why didn't you buy a Harley?’ And they can say, ‘Well, they kicked your guy's ass this weekend on the racetrack.’ It makes a compelling story. I think for everyone that buys an Indian can be proud of what we've done on the racetrack.

Following on, do you think the 1200 would have sold as well if the FTR750 race project had never existed?

I think it would be hard for someone to take a sporting or a sportier Indian seriously, if not for what we did on the racetrack. Hard to tell but I think it had to have helped.

Is there any possibility of Indian coming back with a road bike engine modified to race?

I don't know yet. I mean, we've only known days and these projects, even building a race bike takes months, if not years to do it. The first one, we started on September of 2015, and we didn't race it until 2017. We’ve got just over a month of racing this bike left and we'd better make the most of the time we have left with it. So that's kind of been the focus.

Can Indian retire unbeaten? There are three rounds to determine it

When you say make the most of it, do you mean from a marketing point of view and brand point of view, or also giving Jared and his team the very best possibility of winning that championship?

Yeah, I think it's both. I don't know what we can do or would need to do for Jared at this point. I mean, he's won nine championships, and his tuner Kenny Tolbert has won 14, but I called S&S and said ‘Are there any parts that they need?’ We shouldn't stub our toe at the end here. Let's make sure. But, primarily, it’s the marketing. And that's why we did sort of the social media campaign and the press release because if you want to see this bike, you've got three races left to do it. Go buy your tickets and, and hopefully we'll see you at the track.

Thanks for your time, is there anything else you'd like to add?

I would like to publicly thank all of our sponsors who've helped us and stuck with us over the years. So people like Mission Foods and Juan Gonzalez, I mean, that guy's fantastic, not only for us, but for motorcycle racing, period. And Progressive Parts and Drag Specialities. And lately Performance Finance, we do financing of our bikes through, has stepped in, I want to thank them.

And thanks to AFT for having a series that gives us a place to compete. Let's go buy tickets and watch watch the last three episodes of the FTR750 making history.

Get tickets through American Flat Track