Vance & Hines Racing team rider Jesse Janisch raced a Harley-Davidson XG750R motorcycle to the Mission Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines national championship in the final weekend of competition on the 2022 Progressive American Flat Track series. Racing at the Volusia Speedway Park half-mile in Barberville, Fla., Janisch won his seventh race of the season on Friday to take a 21-point advantage into the season finale on Saturday night. His eighth-place finish in that final race secured the championship.
Harley-Davidson also won the Mission Production Twins manufacturer’s championship, as Harley-mounted racers scored 365 points on the season, beating Yamaha riders by 10 points. Janisch led the class with seven wins and added six other podium finishes on the season. Billy Ross (Roof Systems Racing) and Michael Rush (Hellipower Racing/Las Vegas Harley-Davidson) each won a Mission Production Twins race on their Harley-Davidson XG750R motorcycles.
Hard Working, Hard Charging
“I’m so happy to win this title for Vance & Hines and Harley-Davidson,” said Janisch. “Vance & Hines have worked so hard in flat track, and my Harley-Davidson was fast right off the truck for the first race. I don’t think we even started making adjustments to the bike until mid-season. That’s a credit to my mechanic Josh Sutter, crew chief Steve Polk and team manager Craig Koontz.”
Janisch battled Mission Production Twins defending champion Cory Texter for much of the season, and Janisch held a 9-point lead before the final two races at Volusia Speedway. His win on Saturday and a 6th-place finish by Texter aboard his Yamaha meant that Janisch only had to finish 15th or better in the last race to secure the title. Texter won the final race, but Janisch wrapped up the championship with 320 points, 7 points ahead of Texter.
Great Expectations
“When you work for Vance & Hines there’s an expectation that you will win races and championships. There are no excuses. I started this season with that mindset,” said Janisch. “There are some tracks on this series that are tough for me, and I always tried to stay in the points. The West Coast swing, with wins at Castle Rock and Sacramento, was the strength of our season.”
Janisch started racing at age 4 at local tracks in central Wisconsin and became an AMA Pro rider in 2003 at age 16. He has raced in just about every discipline in the sport, and in 2018 and 2019 finished top-10 in points in the American Flat Track singles class. Last season, however, the 35-year-old racer from Palm Coast, Fla., was without a ride until he was called by Vance & Hines to replace injured rider Dalton Gauthier for the final six races of the season. Janisch scored five top-four finishes, including a win at Charlotte, results that earned him a full-time seat at Vance & Hines for 2022, and he took that ride all the way to a championship. See the current line of H-D motorcycles here.
