Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you won’t have missed all the sideways action that brims on social media channels over the winter months. It seems that every man and his dog, or anyone who is a name in racing, is having a dabble at flat track, including the likes of Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi who are constantly at it – and with good reason, too.
Flat track is a massive part of their training and there’s a lot to be said for keeping your wheels on the floor instead of hitting jumps and railing ruts, MX-style. The thing is it’s not a new craze – this sport has been huge over in the States for decades. The likes of Aldana, Roberts, Rainey, Spencer and Mamola all grew up on dirt ovals, and when they came to Europe to race in the Transatlantic Trophy in the 1970s and 1980s, they seriously opened some eyes.
In recent years we’ve seen other young flat trackers like Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner rock up and take MotoGP titles, and now the current crop of GP riders use flat track as their go-to training tool, which has been made extremely popular with Marc Marquez’s Superprestigio and Valentino Rossi’s Ranch. But why flat track? What’s so good about it?
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