Enfield ofdreams
Engineered in the UK, Royal Enfield’s new racer is making a mark in American flat track
‘The first time a factory Royal Enfield had raced since the mid-1960s’
Royal En ield’s handsome Interceptor based flat track bike made its race debut at Williams Grove Raceway in Virginia on 12 September. Running in the Production Twins class rider Johnny Lewis inished sixth, from 15 starters, in the event inal, but that’s not the whole story.
This was the first time that a factory supported Royal Enfield had raced in serious competition since the mid-1960s – RE have never been a competition focused company – and the days leading up to the event were fraught. ‘This is version three of the bike,’ explained Adrian Sellars, who runs custom projects, based at the company’s UK R&D centre. ‘We shipped it to America on the Monday before Williams Grove, and Johnny bolted it together on Thursday. The engine had only ever been run on the bench and on the dyno before we shipped it. On Friday they ran the bike on track for the first time.’
Saturday race day was enlivened by a head gasket failure during one of the heat races, giving the team at the track an hour and 20 minutes to perform an engine out gasket change on the unfamiliar bike before the final. ‘It was 2am in the UK,’ says Sellars, ‘but we were all awake, at home in our pyjamas, with a glass of scotch, watching international streaming from the event. There were Whatsapp messages flying between the US and the UK, with the engine guys in the UK feeding the torque settings to Johnny Lewis’ team.’ The bike made it back onto the track with minutes to spare and finished sixth in the final.
AFT’S Production Twins class allows 650-800cc bikes using engine cases from showroom machines, but special frames. Rivals include the well developed Harley-davidson XG750R, plus Yamaha 700 and Kawasaki 650 based machines. The Enfield’s frame is made by Harris Performance in the United Kingdom, while engine development (the flat-tracker’s capacity is now 798cc) was a joint effort between the tech centre here in the UK and S&S Performance in the United States – who already manufacture a range of tuning parts for the Indian built twins. Other parts for the international effort were made in India.
The first version of the bike was shown at the EICMA show in Milan in November 2019, and tested at Leicester Speedway. Public reaction encouraged further development and the tie-up with Johnny Lewis’ Moto Anatomy team, though Covid has delayed the project. After the debut, how has the team’s ambition changed? ‘Obviously Johnny wants to win,’ says Sellars, ‘but finding the next weakness would be a success.’