The Texas Half-Mile marks the beginning of a new championship in American Flat Track – AFT Production Twins. A class designed to bridge the gap between AFT Singles and the premier AFT Twins class, Estenson Racing’s Kolby Carlile is looking forward to lining up this weekend and launching his campaign for the title. We had a chance to sit down with the 2017 AFT Singles champ to talk about his rookie Twins season thus far, the Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT and his thoughts on the new AFT Production Twins class.
We’re only two rounds in so far, and the first two were in the premier class [AFT Twins]. What’s your thoughts on your season so far?
So far I’m pretty happy. I’ve learned a lot already. I’ve been able to find out where some of my strengths are and where some of my weaknesses are, and where I can work on some. Generally, I’m just really happy. I’m farther ahead than I thought I would be on some tracks. At Atlanta we struggled a bit, but at the end of the day what I came out with in my head and what we saw, I was pretty happy with, even though it wasn’t on paper.
It’s quite an ambitious project for the team as a whole this year with an all-new bike.
Yeah, we’re developing the bike more and more each race, so as the season goes on I know the bike will just keep getting better and better. We’ll have more data to come away with for next year and even later on this season.
What are your thoughts on the Production Twins class? It’s an all-new class this year.
I’m happy to see that there is the same amount of entries in this class as there is in the AFT Twins class, so that’s good. It should definitely be interesting. It allows some kids to ride two classes on the same day, and then it allows some riders to pop out of the premier class to try and contend with their production engines. It’s definitely going to be interesting, but I’m looking forward to that.
What are your expectations for the class?
I really want to win, obviously. I’m going in with that mindset. I believe I can definitely contend for the championship. I think I’ve got a good motorcycle. Then again, this is only my third race on the twin. There are some guys in the class that have quite a bit more experience, but at the end of the day it’s just a motorcycle. The learning curve speeds up sometimes.
Then this year, JD’s been around for a long time helping you out, what’s it like to have him as a teammate?
It’s good having JD on the team. I can bounce some ideas off him. This weekend we won’t be competing directly against each other, so we’ll have some more time to watch each other, and that might even help a little bit more. He’s always got some insight that should be able to help me as the night goes on and as the season progresses as well.