2018 American Flat Track Season Offers Up Record Amount In Contingency Money
If there was ever a time to be an American Flat Track (AFT) racer,
now would be it as the series is loaded with more than $2 million
in contingency money with the most recent announcement of Ducati
ponying up $180,000 for racers. The 2018 contingency pool was
already flushed with a ton of money with Indian Motorcycles
announcing back in November that they would offer up more than
$350,000 for riders and Harley-Davidson upping the ante a month
later in December by announcing its pot of $562,500-the most ever
from one company.
These large caches of cash do come with stipulations though as each
manufacturer has its own set of contingency rules riders have to
abide by in order to be eligible. For example, for a chance at the
Harley money you have to be a privateer team/rider piloting either
the company's XG750R or XR750. Indian's contingency is up for grabs
for professional riders/teams and privateers campaigning the series
on the Scout FTR750. And for a shot at the Ducati money you need to
be on 821cc twin-cylinder motorcycle with an engine that powered
Ducati's 2015-2018 Monster and 2013-2015 Hypermotard models.
The contingency payout from each manufacturer for each
race is as follows:
Ducati
1st: $5000
2nd: $2000
3rd: $1200
4th: $750
5th: $500
With $10,000 for a Championship win.
Indian Motorcycles:
Championship - $25,000
1st: $5,000
2nd: $4,000
3rd: $3,000
4th: $2,000
5th: $1,000
6th: $900
7th: $800
8th: $700
9th: $600
10th: $500
Harley-Davidson
1st: $10,000
2nd: $8,000
3rd: $6,000
4th: $2,000
5th: $1,500
6th: $1,250
7th: $1,000
8th: $750
9th: $500
10: $250
The AFT season opener is just barely two weeks away on Thursday
March 15, and will take place at the trioval at the famed Daytona
International Speedway. Last season was an extremely exciting one
for Indian they snatched top honors with Jared Mees winning the
Grand National Championship in historic fashion. Mees set a new
single season record with 17 podiums to go along with his ten race
wins. Indian dominated the 2017 series with a total of 14 race
wins, 37 podiums and swept the podium six times.
While the AFT series has experienced 65-years of incredible racing
and rivalries, the last few years the series has exploded in
popularity with much more participation and fans attending events
or tuning in to watch the racing on TV or over the internet. In
fact, this year fans that can't watch one of the 18 motorcycle
races live can view the tape delayed telecasts on NBCSN on weekend
afternoons often following or preceding the network's NASCAR,
IndyCar, and Pro Motocross coverage.
