| September 26, 2022
Brandon Robinson, JD Beach win the races; Mees pulls ahead in the championship
By Chris Martin | Photography by Tim Lester
With a bar-banging, 3/8-mile high-banked clay oval playing host to the Progressive American Flat Track season’s penultimate doubleheader, the inaugural Cedar Lake Short Track promised to be brilliant and/or brutal.
And it was, the exact definition dependent upon one’s race-day perch, be it saddle, pits or stands.
With two full points-paying Mission SuperTwins main events jammed into a single Sunday afternoon and four riders locked within 29 points of the championship lead, the series’ biggest names rode exactly as the situation demanded.
Indian factory pilots Jared Mees and Briar Bauman and Estenson Racing Yamaha’s Dallas Daniels and JD Beach spent the better part of the day hunting for fleeting gaps to the front on a smooth, one-lined track, and then making them where they were only half-imagined.
Mission Roof Systems’ Brandon Robinson exploited the collective desperation by sneaking his way into the lead after Bauman pushed Beach wide. However, while doing so, he was in turn nudged into Bauman by Mees.
That double contact then forced Robinson to exploit his own desperation, as he was forced to race without brakes for the remainder of the main. While less than ideal, he had no choice but to explore the upper limits of corner speed around Cedar Lake Speedway and managed to translate that hard-earned knowledge into a dominant victory.
Bauman gradually fell from second and into the clutches of both Mees and Beach as the minutes ticked away. He was unceremoniously removed from a podium position soon after (it would get much worse for him before the day was out).
Rookie phenom Daniels was never really in contention for the win, but he did well to fend off Robinson’s Mission Roof Systems teammate Jarod Vanderkooi and later the charging Jeffrey Carver Jr., who hustled his Dodge Brothers Racing Harley-Davidson XR750 around “VDK” and into sixth.
The scene-stealing Robinson said, “We knew that starts and being aggressive were going to be important and we saw that in the main events. Guys were bumping and banging and being cutthroat. In the first main, I was able to benefit from that and sneak into the lead. But when we did that, I snapped the tip of my brake lever off, so I raced with no brakes from lap three on. That was kind of scary actually, and I don’t want to ever do that again. But thankfully I figured it out and was on rails.”
As impressive and unlikely as Robinson’s no-brakes-necessary victory may have been, it merely set the stage for the explosive drama yet to come.
The twice red-flagged second premier-class main was even more of an argy-bargy affair. Reigning champion Mees punted both Beach and Robinson in separate overtaking attempts that saw him lose a position himself to the third rider, all the while archnemesis Bauman continued to pull free at the front.
A red flag and staggered restart gave Mees a renewed shot at Bauman, and he took it via a relatively spectacular and rare-for-the-day maneuver around the outside.
Bauman quickly countered with an inside attack of his own—one not functionally dissimilar from those that Mees had employed to move through Robinson and Beach, but also one that struck hard enough to dump Mees onto the dirt.
That brought out another red flag, along with plenty of bad feelings; both of the leading title contenders were assessed to have been the causes of the red flag and thus forced to restart from the back of the pack.
Beach took maximum advantage of the opportunity, holding Robinson at bay to earn his class-leading fourth victory of the year. Daniels made hay as well, turning a likely fifth into a podium finish, while making up a great deal of points.
Mees did what he could to slash his way from 14th to an eventual eighth, closing right up on the rear of a freight train disputing fifth—eventually won by Latus Motors Racing’s Bronson Bauman and also including G&G Racing/Yamaha Racing’s Brandon Price and Carver Jr.—before finally running out of laps.
Bauman was even less fortunate. His charge never really took hold before he was finally forced out of the race altogether and ultimately credited with 16th position.
That disastrous result saw Bauman fall from second in the standings and nine points back before the day began to fourth and 22 points out (261-239).
Mees actually expanded his lead from that aforementioned nine to 16 over Daniels (245) and 18 (234) over Beach, although the separation from first to fourth shrank by seven points in the process.
The intensity, commitment, and the day’s end result did well to demonstrate that all four remain in realistic contention. Each of them is still within single-race striking distance and further big points swings remain a distinct possibility, especially in the fallout of the eventful Cedar Lake ST shootout.
Main number-two winner Beach said, “The day was crazy. It’s weird to have no semi and then go straight into the mains, but I think it made the mains even more intense. Coming away with a win feels great, and it definitely helps with the points. With two rounds to go, it’s crazy how much the points have changed so quickly. We’ll see what we can do going into the final two rounds.”
SINGLES
Seventeen-year-old Kody Kopp proved himself worthy of the years of hype he enjoyed as an amateur, securing the 2022 Parts Unlimited AFT Singles crown a full two rounds early.
He did so in his second-half fashion, finishing off the box for the fifth straight race but growing his points lead all the same. It was (another) mature ride by the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing ace, who finished fourth to seal the deal. Of course, that steady performance was made possible by his stunning early-season form that saw him assemble a mammoth title lead on the strength of six wins and eight podiums in the first nine races of the year.
Kopp came home directly behind Estenson Racing Yamaha’s surging Trevor Brunner. Brunner’s third saw him overtake Turner Racing Honda’s Morgen Mischler in the points to move into second but remain 51 points back of Kopp (273-222), officially ending the championship competition.
While’s Kopp’s season-long achievement garnered the bulk of the attention, the race also saw a notable winner in 1st Impressions Race Team’s Chad Cose, who defeated Mission Foods/Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda’s Trent Lowe after the two duked it out to see which of them could become the first non-factory pilot to win a race in the class this season.
PRODUCTION TWINS
Cory Texter’s most obvious path to a third and final Mission Production Twins crown was laid out before him ahead of the Cedar Lake Short Track. His points deficit said that he needed to win all three remaining races and hope Vance & Hines’ Janisch finished third or lower at least once.
The G&G Racing Yamaha rider’s path—while still difficult—is now even more direct, as he notched up the first of the three necessary wins and saw Janisch come home third behind Memphis Shades/Corbin/Vinson Road Boring’s Dan Bromley, who continued his perfect season record of either sitting on the podium or the couch.
Texter showed some serious fight in scrapping his way to Sunday’s win. As a result, he now trails his rival by just nine points (284-275), setting up an epic doubleheader finale at Volusia Speedway Park when he and Janisch will square off for the number-one plate. CN
SUPERTWINS
Race 1
- Brandon Robinson (Ind)
- Jared Mees (Ind)
- JD Beach (Yam)
- Briar Bauman (Ind)
- Dallas Daniels (Yam)
- Jeffrey Carver Jr. (H-D)
- Jarod Vanderkooi (Ind)
- Brandon Price (Yam)
- Davis Fisher (Ind)
- Shayna Texter-Bauman (Ind)
Race 2
- JD Beach (Yam)
- Brandon Robinson (Ind)
- Dallas Daniels (Yam)
- Jarod Venderkooi (Ind)
- Bronson Bauman (H-D)
- Brandon Price (Yam)
- Jeffrey Carver Jr. (H-D)
- Jared Mees (Ind)
- Cory Texter (Yam)
- Ben Lowe (Ind)