Just eight days before the second-annual DAYTONA TT on March 15 of this year, AFT Singles phenom Shayna Texter was still waiting to lay eyes on her Husqvarna FC450 race bikes – which she’d be campaigning at Daytona and for the remainder of the American Flat Track season.

And then, suddenly, there they were, being unloaded behind a Florida photo studio where some initial PR shots would be done later that day. The bikes were brand-new, just out of the crate and perfect – except for the fact that they were 100% stock motocross bikes, not flat track-prepped specials, and thereby not yet fitted with the 19-inch front wheel, Dunlop DT3 tires, lowered suspension, flat-track handlebar, adjustable triple clamps and trick exhaust so common to these race bikes.

If these were your bikes, and you were planning to race the DAYTONA TT in a week’s time, you might be worried. Or panicky. Or worse. It’s certainly not the way you’d draw it up on a clean sheet of paper.

But if you were Shayna Texter, the winningest rider in AFT Singles history, and a woman on the cusp of launching her own program in this year’s AFT Singles series, you’d take it all in with a grain of salt – and maybe a wry smile and a shake of the head.

No doubt, the road to Daytona had been a slow and sometimes agonizing one for the 27-year old professional racer and college student as she pieced together a racing program mostly from scratch. Ideas, plans, negotiations and contracts with major manufacturers and smaller sponsors alike all take time and energy, especially for someone not totally well-versed with such things, and the minutiae can be daunting. And that was exactly Texter’s world during the off-season.

But by mid-February things began to gel. Having already signed on with a handful of sponsors that had supported her over the years, Texter then closed the lynchpin deal – a support contract with Husqvarna Motorcycles, just two weeks before Daytona. It took a while to get everything aligned, but it was a solid and forward-looking program – good for her, and good for Husqvarna.

The problem, of course, was time – not nearly enough of it for the handfuls of things that needed to be done to the bikes, transporter and team to make everything race-ready. More minutiae. And more stress.

Still, Texter remains sanguine about it, taking it all in stride and knowing the AFT season is much longer than Bike Week itself, even if she did have to race her new Husqvarna FC450 in basically bone-stock condition against a paddock full of thoroughly modified and tested machinery. As a new team owner, she knows she has to keep the longer view in mind.

And that’s where we started the conversion…

It’s been an interesting few months for you. What was the off-season like?

It’s been crazy, and up and down, and things took longer than I thought they would. But my effort this year has a lot of new moving pieces, and it’s always going to be a challenge to get everything organized and together. So I guess it wasn’t too surprising.

Even so, I’m in a very good place right now with Husqvarna and my team and other sponsors. It’s very exciting, and for a lot of reasons. I knew the type of people and sponsors I wanted around me this year, and the direction I wanted to go, and I didn’t want to short shrift anything. So even though it took time, and we’re not up to speed quite yet, the overall result has been really positive.

The FC450 is a fantastic motorcycle, and I already feel comfortable on it, even more so than the Honda I rode last year. It fits me, it’s fast, it turns and stops really nicely, and I know we can do well on it once we get it prepped the way [AFT Singles bikes] need to be prepped. We just need testing time. For Daytona we’d installed a few things: a Hinson slipper clutch, Galfer brake pads, wheels, handlebars, different shock and fork internals, and a lightweight FMF exhaust. I probably only got an hour of time on the bike a few days before Daytona; we actually ended up testing on my birthday. We tried a couple different suspension setups that day, and neither were right, so we’ll be trying some new settings for Atlanta. And the engine was bone stock except for clutch and exhaust.

Is it frustrating that you’re still not running on all cylinders? Or are you taking the longer view of the season?

I’m definitely taking the long view this year, by design and by necessity! [Laughs] And it can be frustrating, not having enough time in each day to get everything I want to get done handled at a professional level. I did my own thing for a lot of years, running my effort out of the back of a truck, so I know how most of this works.

Still, this is different. Now I’m representing Husqvarna and our sponsors the best way I can, representing myself as a rider and contender, and representing the sport of professional flat track racing, too. It’s a lot of work, for sure, and since I’m also finishing up my Sports Marketing bachelor’s degree in my off-hours, that takes time, too. I really want the sport to thrive, and I see that happening now. And I really do think I can get back to where I was last year pretty quickly; we just need to continue to work hard and be patient.

I’m also feeling like a bit of a pioneer with all this. We’re working things out on the bike, slowly but surely, and remember, the Husqvarna motorcycle is pretty new to the flat track scene. So it’s kind of cool, helping pave the way for a new manufacturer to the sport.

So how was Daytona for you?

We didn’t make the main at Daytona, but I’m actually very happy looking back at our effort there. I made the evening show, qualified for the heats, which I didn’t do last year. So we’re already ahead of where we were last season, and on a basically bone-stock motorcycle. Good thing we’re starting with such a good bike. In many ways it was an achievement to even make the race, given where we were a week or two before Daytona. I remember putting graphics on the bike during a photo shoot a couple days before the race, and watching the bike get safety-wired before tech inspection. My transporter didn’t get graphic-wrapped until two days before the race… so yeah, it was a bit of a rush. But we’ve come a long way in just the last few weeks, and I’m very excited about how much upside we have moving forward. I’m really excited about Atlanta, and then all the Half-Miles and Miles coming up. That’s where I feel most comfortable.

You got 3^rd at last year’s Atlanta national. Comfortable there?

I really like Dixie Speedway. I had a good shot at winning there last year, too. I screwed up the start in the main, though. The light sequence at the start was different from previous years, and when the light went green I just sat there. Such a brain fart! But it was a great rebound from Daytona, and I had some really good finishes in the races that followed. I’m hoping for a repeat of all that, and as we get to the Miles in May and June, I think I’ll have a good shot at scoring some wins and the points they bring. We should have some more horsepower by that time, too, so I’m feeling pretty confident. We should be ready to rock!

About ST52 Racing: 

ST52 Racing, launched by Shayna Texter ahead of the 2018 American Flat Track (AFT) season, competes in the AFT Singles class, with Texter riding the No. 52 ST52 Racing Husqvarna FC 450. Texter finished third in the 2017 AFT Singles championship after scoring five main-event victories and will look to write a new chapter of success for Husqvarna in AFT competition starting in 2018.