History In The Making. Racing Debut Of The New Indian FTR750 At The Santa Rosa Mile AMA Pro Flat Racing.

1indianracing2indianracingIndian Motorcycle®, America’s first motorcycle company, confirmed yesterday that on Sunday September 25th, its all-new Indian Scout FTR750 race bike will make its racing debut on at the Ramspur Winery Santa Rosa Mile AMA Pro Flat Track Race in Santa Rosa, California. The race takes place at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds at 1350 Bennett Valley Rd. in Santa Rosa, with gates opening at 11 am PDT.

3indianracing4indianracingThe Indian Scout FTR750 is a clean-sheet design racing machine developed by the Indian Motorcycle Racing engineering and design teams. The bike is powered by a purpose-developed, high performance 750cc V-Twin engine and features a unique, ultra-light steel frame, large centrally located airbox and sleek lightweight carbon fiber body.  Much like the design philosophy behind Indian Motorcycle’s family of production bikes, the design and engineering teams built the FTR750 to artfully combine state-of-the-art technologies with design elements from legendary Indian racing models from history.

The Indian Motorcycle FTR750 will be piloted in its debut by AMA flat track racing legend Joe Kopp. Joe is one of 15 riders to complete the Dirt Track “Grand Slam,” with victories on short track, TT, half-mile, and mile courses. In addition to his 2000 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship, he took the 1999 and 2000 AMA 600 Hotshot and Supertracker Championships. The Indian Scout FTR750 will feature Kopps’ #3 for the weekend.

57a89a0644528Indian Motorcycle accelerated its historic journey toward the official return to professional flat track racing with the public debut of the Indian Scout FTR750 on August 7 at the legendary Buffalo Chip venue in Sturgis, South Dakota. On-hand for the epic, invitation-only event were Bobby Hill and Bill Tuman, two surviving members of the legendary Indian Wrecking Crew, both AMA Hall of Famers, along with hundreds of motorcycle industry dignitaries and members of the press. The Debut of the Indian Scout FTR750 featured the #51 as a nod to Bill Tuman being the last factory racer to win a National on an Indian Motorcycle.

“It’s a proud moment for all of us at Indian Motorcycle to get the Indian Scout FTR750 on the track and formally launch our professional flat track racing program,” said Gary Gray, Product Director for Indian Motorcycle. “We’re delighted to have Joe Kopp riding for us at this historic debut event, and we look forward to a robust and highly competitive racing schedule for 2017.”

Leading up to the AMA Pro Flat Track event, Indian Motorcycle will sponsor the Pro/Am Hooligan and RSD SuperHooligan races in Santa Rosa on September 24. Saturday’s action kicks off at 4:30 pm PDT at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in the Chris Beck Arena. Participating in the SuperHooligan race class will be Roland Sands as well as various special guests. Roland Sands and his team from Roland Sands Design (RSD) will be racing their custom Indian® Scout® Sixty dirt track racers in the SuperHooligan class in what is sure to be an epic day of dirt track racing.

For tickets and information about the action-packed weekend of racing, visit Santa Rosa Mile. Racers interested in registering for the SuperHooligan class can register HERE.

22 Responses to “History In The Making. Racing Debut Of The New Indian FTR750 At The Santa Rosa Mile AMA Pro Flat Racing.”


  1. 1 Fausto Simoes Sep 7th, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Wow-great looking bike!

  2. 2 rebel Sep 7th, 2016 at 9:24 am

    that is pretty nice lookin’, how long before a 3 night INDIAN discovery special?

  3. 3 JohnnySpeed Sep 7th, 2016 at 9:37 am

    I’m obviously not a fan of the Ness-y style cover over the tank and air filter, but other than that it looks damn good and it’s always great to see more competition in dirt track racing. Hopefully it leads to them selling a street tracker style bike with their octane/scout motor. I’d buy a Polaris that looked like this in a heartbeat, no matter what brand name they slapped on it. Looks like it’d be fun to pull apart and do some custom work on too. This is pretty close to what I’d hoped for the Octane, after all the Pikes Peak talk surrounding it anyway, instead of the boring cruiser they shat out instead.lol

  4. 4 Brett Garner Sep 7th, 2016 at 10:52 am

    Indian is condemned to win…

  5. 5 Joshua Sep 7th, 2016 at 10:53 am

    Gonna be interesting!

  6. 6 mars Sep 7th, 2016 at 2:33 pm

    Why does this company advertise the “since 1901” history? they have been making motorcycles for a couple of years. I mean do you guys really fall for this stuff…sad.

  7. 7 ferris bueller Sep 7th, 2016 at 2:35 pm

    Sorry Indian but your debut was in Springfield over Labor day weekend at the mile in the GNC 2 class!
    It got smoooked! Last place in its heat race.

  8. 8 Woody's Sep 7th, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    For a race bike, that airbox plenum/filter area makes complete sense. More HP, doesn’t hang out either side, and you don’t care about the reduced fuel capacity anyway.

  9. 9 seymour Sep 7th, 2016 at 4:19 pm

    mars – did you hear Lincoln got shot

  10. 10 JohnnySpeed Sep 7th, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    Mars – I completely agree with you, but the only reason Polaris bought the Indian name was to aquire the history that goes with it. It’s kind of inevitable. Disingenuous, silly and lame yes. But still inevitable, because there’s too many people out there that are ready to buy into the marketing.

  11. 11 JohnnySpeed Sep 7th, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    Woody’s – You’re right, the airbox plenum/filter area does make sense and the tube frame is gorgeous looking in that area too, I’m just not a fan of the shape of the cover. Thats such a minor and very subjective issue when held up against the rest of the bike though.

  12. 12 Septic the Sceptic Sep 7th, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    SInce when? Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!!!!!!!!

  13. 13 James just another crazy kiwi Sep 7th, 2016 at 7:20 pm

    Since 1901 ? few decades missing ! that was dumb marketing

    They did not need to put that there all it does is draw ridicule

  14. 14 Drew Sep 8th, 2016 at 7:36 am

    Indian FTR750…… Welcome to the big stage, AMA Pro Flattrack! 🙂 🙂
    There is an old saying “What wins on Sunday sells on Monday”
    It won’t be their purpose built race only bike, but if things go well it very likely could help
    boost sales of their existing and future models.

  15. 15 Dr, Rock Sep 8th, 2016 at 8:17 am

    Let me point out the S&S logos on the tailpipes! Congrats to that team for their input and hard work in supporting this industry changing project. We all know the passion and intelligence found in Viola that has resulted in the best USA sourced performance products on the planet! Just ask the Arana’s!Knowing they are involved tells me this thing is legit and will perform at the levels we all expect it to.
    S&S: Faster since 1958 baby!! No questions on that one brothers…….

  16. 16 Rick Bostock Sep 8th, 2016 at 10:21 am

    not for noth’n but when polaris won the court case to acquire the indian trademark rights (previously owned by sammy tanner) didn’t the historical records and blueprints ( proceeding from 1901) come with the purchace?

  17. 17 NoH2oh Sep 8th, 2016 at 10:55 am

    Say what you will about manufactured heritage, but there is no doubt Polaris/ Indian is all in and not doing this Indian rebirth half arsed. Kudos for that.

  18. 18 nicker Sep 8th, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    Too much visible plumbing to make it as a street tracker……???

    -nicker-

  19. 19 Knucklehead Sep 9th, 2016 at 9:46 am

    I’m with Mars. Misleading the public. Imagine corporate doing such a thing.

  20. 20 BobS Sep 9th, 2016 at 8:17 pm

    To Mars and his sympathizers, you only have yourselves to blame. I too think it’s stupid Polaris makes such a big deal out of Indian being “the original” that dates back to 1901. The problem is so many riders (maybe you?) are willing to overlook Harley’s shortcomings by giving them credit for being in continuous production since 1903. As if it’s ok the bike being ridden is sub-par because the superior riding competitor has only been at it for a couple decades. Unfortunately, imo, too many riders give a priority to “heritage” instead of selling a better performing bike. I can’t fault the corporation for giving the buyer what they want, even if I think what they want is stupid.

  21. 21 nicker Sep 10th, 2016 at 11:45 am

    RE:
    “… give a priority to ‘heritage’…”

    Seems to me, linkage with the past must be a big part of the it.
    Why else would so many riders “dress up” in their weekend “outlaw uniforms”….???

    If it was all about performance electric bikes would be flying off the shelves.

    -nicker-

  22. 22 Woody's Sep 11th, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    @ Bob, what does quality have to do with “since 19xx” except a deflection when there’s no good argument? 😉

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Cyril Huze