Note: AMA Pro Racing will be highlighting all 24 of the athletes racing in X Games Harley-Davidson Flat Track, which will take place Thursday, June 4 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and be shown live on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. ET, 5:30 p.m. PT.

No one won more races (five) than Bryan Smith in 2014, and if it weren’t for a little bad luck in the season’s penultimate race, many people think the Michigan rider would have cruised to the AMA Pro Flat Track Harley-Davidson GNC1 presented by Vance & Hines title.

Smith was leading the championship with two races to go, but he was black flagged for a smoking bike at the Calistoga Half-Mile. He didn’t pull into the pits and was later disqualified, putting Jared Mees in position to eventually take the title. One has to wonder how sweet redemption in the form of winning X Games Harley-Davidson Flat Track would be.

Really, the entire 2015 season is about finishing what Smith feels he started last year. Scoring an X Games Flat Track medal at Circuit of the Americas would only fuel his fire as he guns for that coveted No. 1 plate.

A fierce competitor, Smith isn’t afraid to take chances. He often tries lines around the track no one else is running, but always manages to put his menacingly fast black No. 42 Crosley Radio Kawasaki EX650 at or near the front of the pack.

Smith has been most at home on the longer circuits in AMA Pro Flat Track competition, winning three of the five Mile events on the schedule in 2014 and finishing second in the other two. But he also won two Half-Miles a season ago, so the 3/8-mile circuit at the X Games is still in his wheelhouse.

Name: Bryan Smith

Home: Flint, Mich.

Age: 31

Ride: No. 42 Crosley Radio Kawasaki EX650.

In their words: “There’s a few things that are special about it. It’s the inaugural X Games Flat Track, and hopefully it’s one of many, so I’d want to win it because it’s the first. And obviously it’s flat track’s first time, my first time, and probably everybody in the field’s first time competing on live TV. FansChoice.tv is really cool, but X Games is live on ESPN. My friends will, hopefully, be able to live in the moment like I will be able to if I win the gold medal.”