Daniels Devastates Rivals in Lima Blowout
Grand National Championship leader Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) checked off another career goal with a peerless performance in this year’s edition of the Lima Half-Mile presented by Indian Motorcycle and Drag Specialties, Round 9 of the 2024 Progressive American Flat Track season, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, on June 29 …
Mission AFT Supertwins
Despite lining up for Saturday’s Main Event as the only rider among the leading title contenders without a prior win to his name at the Allen County Fairgrounds - and despite Yamaha similarly being without a premier-class victory in the history of the fabled event at Lima, Ohio - Daniels was simply unstoppable from start to finish.
He immediately leapt out into the lead and set about executing his escape. Ripping off a series of laps quicker than anyone had managed all day long, Daniels stretched out his advantage by big chunks over the race’s opening half.
With some three seconds separating him from Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) and five from Jared Mees (No. 1 Rogers Racing/SDI Racing/Indian Motorcycle FTR750), Daniels was already deep into traffic by the race’s halfway point. Even after easing up late, he would go on to lap more than half the field before at last taking the checkered flag with nearly six-and-a-half seconds in hand.
Reigning champion Mees took second after catching Robinson (third) from a couple of seconds back, ultimately moving through with an inside-outside-inside maneuver as the clocks hit zero.
Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian FTR750) scored fourth, ahead of last year’s Lima HM winner, Briar Bauman (No. 3 Rick Ware Racing/KTM/Parts Plus KTM 790 Duke) in fifth. Brandon Price (No. 92 Memphis Shades/Sody Ent/OTBR Yamaha MT-07) finished five seconds back of the Fisher-Bauman fight in sixth.
There were Three Yamaha MT-07 riders in the Top 10, with four on the Indian FTR750, two KTM 790 Dukes and Dalton Gauthier eighth on the Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield 650.
Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER
Australian Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) overcame the best efforts of a motivated Kody Kopp (second on the No. 1 Rick Ware Racing/Parts Plus KTM 450 SX-F) to win the Parts Unlimited Singles. While Chase Saathoff (ultimately third on the No. 88 JPG Motorsports Honda CRF450R) took the holeshot from pole, Drane cut up underneath him to snatch away the lead exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap.
The championship’s fourth- and fifth-ranked riders, Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) and James Ott (No. 19 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450), finished in those same positions, but only after chasing down promising rookie Evan Renshaw (No. 265 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R), who equaled his best-career Progressive AFT finish in sixth.
Including the winner, there were two Yamaha YZ450F riders in the Top 10, three on the Honda CRF450R and five on the KTM 450 SX-F - one of them on the Husqvarna badged FC 450 iteration.
Next Up - Progressive American Flat Track will conclude its month-long run of four consecutive races with the Memphis Shades DuQuoin Mile at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, on Saturday, July 6, followed by the July 28 Peoria TT. The series will then head west again - for a unique Double Header at the 85th Sturgis Rally.
First up will be the Black Hills Half-Mile at the Black Hills Speedway, Rapid City, SD, on August 6 and then the all-new, innovative Sturgis TT on a Half-Mile course in downtown Sturgis, on August 11 - the final day of the Rally. Starting and finishing at the Harley-Point between Lazelle and Main Street, the race will see the debut of a new concept - a Tracker Class for production based ADV bikes.
After Sturgis it is back to Illinois for a Springfield Mile Double Header on August 31 and September 01, with the final race now confirmed as a September 14 series debut Short Track at the Lake Ozark Speedway at Eldon, Missouri, during the Lake of the Ozarks Bike Week.
www.americanflattrack.com
