The Royal Enfield Twins FT are flat track race machines, based on the Interceptor 650 platform, co-developed by RE and Moto Anatomy, the race team Johnny Lewis owns and operates. Last weekend, Johnny competed in the American Flat Track (AFT) competition aboard the RE Twins FT in the motorcycle’s debut race at the AFT in the Production Twins class, with the team bagging the sixth and seventh spot in the Sunday race. The competition was held at Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania, USA.
Johnny said in a recent statement that the Twins FT platform has been in rigorous development since the past six months. The team will continue to make necessary adjustments to the bikes for the rest of the season.
The new race bikes have been deemed “competitive straight out of the box”, owing to their outstanding performance. While sixth place is an achievement in itself for a new competitor, what’s more surprising is that the bikes arrived four days before the race, sparing Johnny with no time for track testing! In fact, at one point in the Saturday race, Johnny managed to creep up to third place but was let down by a torn gasket, forcing him to retire from the race.
“We’ve been working consistently over the past six months to develop a competitive package for Royal Enfield. The latest iteration of the race bike was shipped over from India in pieces on Monday (September 07th) and we’ve been working around the clock to put it together. I’ve really enjoyed the development process of the motorcycle and Royal Enfield along with the other partners involved have worked hard to make this happen. The bike performed well, and we’ve got a great foundation to build upon”, Johnny said.
The team faced perilous times during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic when the AFT season was postponed. However, the team, which includes Johnny, the crew at Harris Performance, Royal Enfield and S&S cycles has been resilient and successfully completed the race bike, with just a few days to spare before the competition.
Johnny’s team will be participating in Royal Enfield’s Build Train Race program in the Atlanta and Daytona AFT rounds, exhibiting custom INT 650 builds. As for racing, Johnny and the team will continue to gather more information across the remainder of the 2020 AFT season, with hope to improve the Royal Enfield FT package for the 2021 racing season.