In two weeks time a champion on two wheels and four will attempt to add a trophy to his case from yet another different discipline of motorsport. Travis Pastrana will be joining the nigh-unbeatable Red Bull-sponsored KTM factory team for the Atlanta round of the Progressive American Flat Track series AFT Singles class. The guy has definitely done a lot more dangerous stuff than this, but it’ll be no easy running, considering the level of talent he’s stacked up against in the series.
The Atlanta Super TT, which goes down at Atlanta Motor Speedway south of the city on March 1st, will run the NASCAR track’s start-finish straight as an extended segment of pavement, mixed with a section of dirt track TT, plus a jump and a right-hand turn. There’s nothing about this event that is traditional to flat track running, so maybe it’s the best time for someone like Pastrana to jump into the deep end, as the rest of the grid will also be struggling to figure out the new weirdness.
Pastrana is best known for running his old Suzuki 250 two-smokers, but recently switched to KTM for reasons of parts availability. His old 250 RM had been discontinued years before, and he wanted to stick with 2 stroke race bikes, which led him to the Austrian brand. As luck would have it, his main sponsor for basically his entire life—Red Bull—is also the title sponsor of the factory KTM American Flat Track team.
In any case, he’ll be jumping on an orange bike at Atlanta Motor Speedway with his signature #199 and Red Bull decals. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-F has already proven quite successful in this championship, with Shayna Texter-Bauman sweeping the series’ opening weekend at Volusia a few weeks ago.
When it comes to making motorcycles go scary speeds and jump over shit, there’s very few people better than Pastrana. I know I’m looking forward to seeing this one.
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