In “10 Minutes + 2 Laps with…”, we take the same amount of time required to complete a Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event (give or take a red flag) and use it to catch up with, and hopefully learn a little about, some of the more prominent figures on the Progressive American Flat Track scene. This week, we chat with the series’ leading multi-hyphenate, Johnny Lewis.

AmericanFlatTrack.com: A few years back, your one-line summary might have been, "The guy who’s qualified for premier-class Main Events on more types of motorcycles than any other rider.” But since you began your association with Royal Enfield, I think it’s probably shifted to, “The guy wearing the most hats in the paddock,” – rider, coach, team manager, lead developer, brand ambassador, entrepreneur, and others I’m probably leaving out. Anyway, I’m curious – at what point did you really start to branch out beyond being quote-unquote “just a rider.” 

Johnny Lewis: Honestly, it was kind of right away. My dad owned a plumbing/heating/air conditioning business, and though he paid for all my racing stuff, he made me value the money that he was spending to go racing. I was 12 years old and paying for my signups. I would come home after school and have scrap metal, copper, or whatever I had to do to make a couple of extra bucks. Though realistically, he didn't really need the money, he just made me value it.

That kind of led me to, at 16, building résumés for other riders in the offseason. I built Bryan Smith's résumés when he was racing and at the top of his game when I was racing Supermoto. And Nicole Cheza, Jared (Mees)' wife. I was building their résumés and stuff even when I was racing factory KTMs.

I just never took a break; that's my mentality. That kind of led into me training riders and thinking I can develop a race bike and manage a race team and put on all these schools across the country. And that obviously led into what I'm doing now. From a very young age, it was just embedded in me.

AFT: Did having that broader perspective, especially the analytical approach necessary as an instructor, allow you to recognize the potential upside in effectively replacing yourself as rider and putting Dalton (Gauthier) on the bike?

JL: Yeah. I mean, I understand at the end of the day, a selfish person would be like, “No, no, no, I can ride.” And they ride hurt, and they collect a paycheck, but they're not getting the job done. It's meaningless.

It’s one of those things where I saw the broader perspective of, “I need to do this. This is a transition. I do plan on retiring soon.” At that moment, right away, it was like, ‘Yep, go with (Dalton), put all my efforts into him going fast.” And a couple people were like, “Man, he went out and got a podium on the thing right away.”

But I was like, “Thank God…” That was me doing a good job. I wasn't bitter about it. That was me showing that, aside from racing a motorbike, I can actually do my job.

AFT: Right, it validated you in all the other ways.

JL: Yeah, it showed Royal Enfield, “Hey all this (stuff) Johnny Lewis has been telling us we have to do to run a race team is right. And if he tells us we're going to put another rider on the bike, trust him, it’ll be okay.”

It worked. And it wasn’t the first time. I got hurt in 2022, busted my knee, and I put Cameron Smith on the bike at Weedsport and he went out and almost won the damn thing.

I love the racing aspect, but it’s more all the other pieces that I’ve always loved. That’s why I’ve run a race team, I run schools, I’ve run amateur flat track events and promoted them. That’s why I’ve been going over to England since like 2016, teaching schools over there.

The bigger picture is not just me racing and going fast around the track and that being my one thing. It's always been, “How do we grow the sport? How do we grow the brand? How do we make the sponsors happy? How do we make all this work?”

That might have been my downfall (as a racer) because I was never selfish. I didn’t approach it like Jared Mees and it’s “the Jared Mees show,” and it’s everything he does.

I kind of looked out for everybody all these years. I can look at it and think maybe should have been a little more selfish. But at the end of that day, I'm happy where I’m at with my career – being a recognizable person whether I'm on the bike or off the bike.

AFT: So when you saw Dalton get on the podium, that wasn't bittersweet, it was purely sweet for you…

JL: Oh, 100%. It validated my contract for next year. “Hey, I'm pretty good at this manager (stuff) only…. I'm going to do that.”

AFT: Dalton has a reputation for having a ton of natural ability, and you’ve coached a lot of high-level riders. Was there anyone – any single rider – that you’ve worked with who really stood out in terms of sheer talent?

JL: I mean, obviously, I got to work with Dallas Daniels at a young age. His dad brought him to one of my Supermoto schools back when he was like nine years old, and that was the one and only time that I ever charged the Daniels any money for training. All these years that I trained Dallas, that was the one and only time. Nick, Dallas’ dad, jokes that was the best $150 he's ever spent.

That was one of the times. But obviously, I've worked with a lot of riders over the years. Oliver Brindley from England, the first time I actually saw him ride was at the amateur nationals. This kid was like pushing the front end on an 80. I walked up and said, “Who are you?”, because I knew pretty much every other amateur kid in the country.

I talked to his dad and helped them make a lot of connections and come race over here and train at the property and stuff. He was just highly motivated and also super talented.

It’s endless. I mean, I've worked with Evan Renshaw and all these other kids that are coming up now. I feel old. I was working with them when they were on 50s and 60s, and now they’re pros and faster than me.

But it’s also so rewarding. A couple years ago I looked at a 450 Main Event, and I had worked with, I think, 14 of the 16 riders on the grid at some point. To see them all pursue it and keep pushing through is cool.

But there are those ones that you just see with that next-level talent. And Dalton was one of them.

AFT: Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe you're officially retired, at least as a full-time racer, but you're going to continue with Royal Enfield in all your other roles. Is that the case?

JL: Yeah. I'll probably get my license this year and hold on to it just in case I get the bug. But I’m going to be strictly a team manager and rider coach. We’re going to be pushing the slide schools more and trying to get more people on the slide school programs. We're going to be at AFT events next year. I just got back from India. We had a lot of meetings and stuff over there and launched the new slide school bikes.

So there will still be a lot of hats that I wear, it’s just different not wearing a helmet.

AFT: Do you feel that taking that part off your plate will allow you to be more effective in the other roles?

JL: Yes, 100%. It's tough. I've only ridden a motorcycle once since my crash in May. That's a super long time for me.

I mean, I’ve jumped on a motorcycle and done wheelies and hung out on my property and whatever riding with the kids. But I haven't strapped the helmet on and gone 100% on a motorcycle since May. Because I feel like I'm not 100% physically right now. And there's time I had to take off mentally. I just want to get everything back in a row.

It's a weird feeling when you know how to do something really well, but you haven't done in a while. You start doubting yourself and then you're like, “Oh, right, I know how to do this.” I just have to remind myself, even though I’m not putting a helmet on at Daytona for the first round, I still know how to do this.

Also at the same time, I know how to do it almost better off the bike as far as being a coach. I feel like I am really good at that aspect. And some days that's more rewarding than me standing on the podium.

It would feel great. I love the photos. I really like the champagne. But like I said, when Dalton was on the podium on the Royal Enfield, the feeling I had was greater than I ever had getting my own podiums.

We did it with somebody that just jumped on the bike, but he didn’t really just jump on the bike. We went testing ahead of time, and we didn’t really change anything on the bike on race day that I didn’t think of. “Hey, this is what we've been working on. This is what looks good. This is what I would do. Just go do this. It feels like this. Do this.”

I really walked him through everything, and that's a pretty cool feeling in itself.

AFT: It’ll be a different landscape this year with the Indians no longer on the grid. You’ve done a lot of development on the bike over the years. Moving forward, I would imagine you're going to have one of the more sorted packages out there. What's it looking like to you?

JL: We made a lot of progress last year against the Indians. There were times when the KTMs were struggling that we were almost the next bike in line.

Sometimes, it makes me go, “I should just do one more year.” You’ll have guys that were on Indians on other bikes, and with Jared out of the picture, I go, “Maybe this is the year we could do pretty good.” All these what-ifs.

But at the same time, I know that the rider I'm putting on it is somebody I'm going to be able to work with and keep progressing. And we do have a package. Mike Stauffer has been building the engines the past couple of years, Matt Schmidt is my crew chief and my data guy at the track, and Josh Young is my mechanic.

We have this group of guys now, and we get on meetings every other Friday just talking and brainstorming and really trying to break this thing down to have the best bike possible. We are a team. And building up a team is something I’ve really worked at.

I think we could surprise some people this year. I mean, everybody is going to get their stuff together, and all these guys we’re racing against are super talented. But I think we have a good chance to be in contention for the top three a lot of times, and maybe even in the championship.

AFT: You still haven’t made a rider announcement. Is that something that’ll come soon?

JL: We haven't made an announcement yet. Royal Enfield is a big corporate entity, and we just had a big event over in Goa, India, called Rider Mania. We went over there, launched the slide schools and did all that. At the same time, we already had an agreement, but I was finishing up my contract for the team, and now we're finishing up the contracts for the rest of the crew.

We're probably going to try to do it at the Royal Enfield dealer meeting here at the end of January.

AFT: But you know who the rider is…

JL: Yeah, we've already locked it down. We want to make sure the sponsors are all in line and make a good announcement. We want to be professional in the presentation and in how we make the announcement.

AFT: Okay, time for the bonus questions. First one: Can you name an interest or hobby of yours that's completely removed from racing, engines, or wheels?

JL: (Long pause). Not really. (laughs). You know, I guess you could say just building stuff. I love building stuff. My property, I literally started seven years ago with 16 acres and a blueberry farm. And now I have flat tracks and motocross tracks and built shipping container homes and multiple houses on the property, a gym and all that kind of stuff too. And this winter, I’m doing a project for a lady by building a shipping container storefront.

AFT: And finally: What would be your death-row style last meal?

JL: Final meal… I don't know. I was vegan for seven years, and now I'm not. So it would probably be a big steak.