Tom Drane won the Ventura short track singles tournament

2024 American Progressive Flat Track Championship
Shortcut Ventura

Image by Tim Lester

AFT Singles – Ventura Short Track

Australia’s Tom Drane of Estenson Racing Yamaha claimed his second win of the 2024 season in the action-packed AFT Singles Main Event at the Ventura Short Track, which has seen the tables turned multiple times.

Polesitter, points leader and defending dual champion Kody Kopp immediately dropped to fifth while Chase Saathoff seized the opportunity to possibly run away with his second career win after finally got his first win last time in Texas.

While Saathoff built a second plus advantage up front, Drane, Dalton Gauthier, Trent Lowe, Kopp and Logan Eisenhard formed a second large group, each trying to find a way to respond to the other’s instant pace. leader.

Gauthier was the first to find it, slowly closing the gap to first place, regaining about a tenth at a time around the tight circuit. But when he found his way onto the rear wheel of the Honda pilot, he realized he was being attacked by a charging Drane.

Gauthier was unable to put up much resistance, briefly giving way to the Australian ace, a fate Saathoff would suffer soon after as Drane passed to take the lead.

Saathoff attempted a counterattack but Drane rebuffed the attempt and then fled; The Yamaha runner eventually achieved a gap of 1.394 seconds by the time he took the checkered flag.

Tom Drane

“At the start of the race I had to really work hard and figure some things out. As of late, I’m starting to find some lines that really work. (Once in front) I don’t let (Saathoff) him back. I was sure I was making that move. I can’t thank my entire team enough. We called that bike from the beginning of the day. We keep perfecting it and making it better and better. The team put in a lot of effort and now we are here.”

While Drane pulled away, Gauthier jumped on Saathoff and quickly created his own separation en route to second. Lowe and Kopp continued from there with the Turner Honda rider taking the final spot on the box and the Rick Ware Racing star pushing his championship rival to fifth in the final order.

As a result, Kopp continues to lead the championship chase, now 14 points ahead of Drane (108-94) and Saathoff is now far behind in third place (90).

Key Results AFT Singles – Ventura Short Track

AFT Singles Chart – Top 20

SuperTwins Mission – Ventura Short Track

Briar Bauman scored his first win of the 2024 Progressive American Flat Track season, with a thoroughly dominant performance in the Memphis Shades Ventura Short Track on Saturday night at Ventura Raceway in Ventura, California.

The two-time national champion enters the weekend looking for not only his first Mission AFT SuperTwins win of the year but also his first podium of any kind. He ended that unusual drought in the most convincing fashion, backing up an incredible victory in the Mission Challenge with a wire-to-wire escape in the Main Event.

Bauman’s superiority finally brought order to what was initially chaotic. A red flag flew shortly after the first start due to a terrifying incident that sent Johnny Lewis flying off the wall and crashing back into the pack, which had not yet separated.

That caused a chain reaction that also included Ben Lowe, Declan Bender and Morgen Mischler, who completed a full forward flip in mid-air after making contact with Lewis and his machine. was shot down. Miraculously, all four men got up and Lowe amazingly managed to get back up to start again.

The second red came quickly after the spill of hometown hero Kayl Kolkman, who would also return for the restart later.

A third red flag was narrowly avoided when Davis Fisher got up after a crash and immediately reentered, allowing the race to continue and eventually find its rhythm.

And the beat it hit was a victory march for Bauman, who was never challenged on his way to a 4.613-second margin of victory.

Briar Bauman

“First and foremost, I can’t help but thank Shayna (Texter-Bauman) and Kenny Coolbeth, along with everyone else at Rick Ware Racing. We could write a novel about what happened this season. We had quite an interesting season, let me tell you. This was probably a bigger change for me switching to a new group of guys than switching from an Indian to a KTM last year. It’s too big. I told myself all week that no one understood how long I had been waiting for this and that my team deserved it more than I did.”

The only rider who can even pretend to be following Bauman tonight is title hopeful Dallas Daniels. The Estenson Racing pilot actually started his race from fifth, passing Brandon Robinson, Jared Mees and Jarod Vanderkooi before putting himself in position to make an honest effort while reeling from Bauman .

After that challenge proved insurmountable, Daniels had to be content to consolidate second place while Vanderkooi, Mees and Robinson contested the final spot on the back grid.

Defending champion Mees raced to that honor as he usually does, with Vanderkooi and Robinson completing the top five.

Sixth and seventh belonged to twin chargers Bronson Bauman (No. 37 Fastrack Racing Mission Foods KTM 790 Duke) and Kolkman, who battled their way up from 15th and 16th, respectively.

Meanwhile, rookies Trevor Brunner and Max Whale were eighth and tenth, with Honda-mounted Dan Bromley splitting the two by claiming the new machine’s second top-10 in second place. ripe.

Daniels now leads the fight for the Mission AFT SuperTwins title by two points over Robinson (103-101) with Mees third at 93 and Bauman closing in impressively at 84.

SuperTwins Main Results – Ventura Short Track

SuperTwins Ranking – Top 20

Progressive American Flat Raceway will complete its season-opening five Short Tracks next weekend with the Silver Dollar Short Track opening at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California, on Saturday, May 18.