2025 American Flat Track Rounds 6-7 Results

| June 30, 2025

Physically punishing and mentally tasking, the Lima Half-Mile stands as one of the most coveted wins for a Grand National Championship racer.

And that elusive status has remained intact over the decades as the wins have been routinely collected and jealously guarded by the sport’s historical elites, with the likes of Scott Parker (seven wins), Jared Mees (five wins) and Chris Carr (four wins) standing atop the Lima Half-Mile leaderboard, just as they do the career GNC wins rankings.

Dallas Daniels (32) at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Dallas Daniels (32) scored a big win Friday night in the debut of the new Mission Triple Challenge that featured three main events and one overall winner.**

Story by Chris Martin | Photography by Tim Lester

A couple of riders now on a Hall of Fame trajectory, Rick Ware Racing’s Briar Bauman and Estenson Racing Yamaha’s Dallas Daniels, entered this year’s Lima Half-Mile battling to both assume Mee’s vacated throne and establish themself as the unquestioned modern master of the fabled pea-gravel cushion.

Both already had earned their bonafides; the fanatically fit Bauman came in with the points lead and three prior wins at the Allen County Fairgrounds while Daniels was the preseason favorite who flat-out dominated the proceedings in Ohio one year ago.

This year’s edition promised to be doubly (or triply) punishing, tasking and critical, with the first-ever Lima doubleheader also serving as the debut of the new Mission Triple Challenge format to be featured on the opening night of multiple doubleheaders this season.

Briar Bauman at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Saturday night’s race reverted to the standard single main-event format that Briar Bauman won.**

AFT SuperTwins

Daniels looked to reset the narrative on Friday after having been helpless but to watch as Bauman guided the Harley-Davidson XG750R to its first-ever premier-class victory following eight winless seasons, and then another and another, in succession.

That plan was going to perfection through practice, qualifying and main-event one, in which the rising star had the clear measure of the field.

That sense of security for the Yamaha pilot was turned on its head in the double-points paying main-event two. There Bauman stomped forward from a seemingly fading third to power past Daniels and Mission Roof Systems’ Brandon Robinson (the only other rider who could reliably tangle with the top two for more than just the briefest stints throughout the weekend).

Brandon Robinson at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Brandon Robinson was the only rider who could keep Daniels and Bauman in sight.**

Bauman won by over a second and was well poised to claim overall honors in the third and decisive triple-points-paying main event. And it seemed certain to play out that way until Bauman suffered from a slipping clutch late, which allowed Daniels to surge past and grab both the race and combined victory, thus earning him the maximum 23 championship points available on the night.

“Tonight was crazy,” Daniels said. It was the first time for this format. Honestly, I was looking forward to it as a rider. I always get super pumped watching the Triple Crown for Supercross. It’s just something cool and different. It was a breath of fresh air for us.

“But it was definitely tough. They upped the laps for each one, and on the most physically demanding track on the circuit. But it was awesome to go back-to-back at Lima. We’ve been on a dry spell, and it’s felt like forever since we won a race. It was good to stop that bleeding.”

James Ott at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **James Ott completed the top five in Saturday’s SuperTwins race.**

Bauman nursed his Harley around for the final five laps. The five seconds of padding he had built up on Robinson held up all the way up until the race’s final corner. Still, Bauman’s earlier results gave him overall runner-up honors, with Robinson third in the combined tally.

Robinson said, “Overall, a solid weekend. We were the third-best team for most of the weekend. Dallas and Briar put it on me tonight. I was there for a couple of laps. We essentially implemented the same changes we had for the Challenge, but it wasn’t sustainable in the long run. Regardless, those guys whupped my butt. I was kind of in conservation mode until Declan poked a wheel under me. ‘Whoa, I better get going.’ I got back on the throttle and got the job done in third.”

Memphis Shades/Corbin/Vinson’s Dan Bromley continued to demonstrate the potential of the lone Suzuki in the field with an overall fourth. Bromley hustled the GSX-8S to finishes of fourth, fourth and fifth, even managing to slice and dice with the leaders in the early laps on more than one occasion.

He was followed by Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield’s Max Whale, who earned his combined fifth on the strength of a 5-5-7 evening.

Bauman responded in Saturday night’s Lima HM II, which reverted to the standard evening program. There the RWR ace put it to Daniels and the field early, opening up some two seconds on the field in his quest for revenge.

Daniels made things interesting by systematically reeling his adversary back in over the race’s second half, arriving just outside of striking distance to finish just under four-tenths back of the field.

Despite Daniels’ impressive charge, Bauman had proven his point and demonstrated that his championship campaign has real staying power. While he and his team elected to go with the H-D in part due to the season’s Short Track-heavy schedule, Bauman has now conquered Lima’s Half-Mile cushion where Daniels had won by nearly six-and-a-half-seconds a year ago, and could have easily done so twice if not for a mechanical issue on Friday.

Bauman also cemented his place as a Lima legend, scoring his fourth victory on a fourth different make of machine, boasting wins at the venue on a Kawasaki, Indian, KTM and Harley-Davidson.

Tarren Santero at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — Tarren Santero was second overall in the Singles Triple Challenge.

He said, “The night was so good. I didn’t know where I was going to stack up against Dallas. He’s so good here, and the whole team is good. I didn’t know what to expect, especially on the XG. We had a good test a couple of weeks ago, but still, they’re so fast and so good.

“And I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t my one that I’m like, ‘Ahh, where are we going to be?’ And to steal a win from him here. He won last night, but I think we could have won there as well.

“It’s going to be a dogfight though. This is so gnarly. He got close to me at the end. But we needed this after last night after the mechanical, and the team deserves it.

That said, the weekend provided Daniels a much-needed boost as well, as he upped his podium streak to 20 and scored his first race win since March. That historic consistency has kept him within 10 points of Bauman (149-139), despite the RWR pilot winning four of the last five races. It also creates the creeping pressure of knowing that even the smallest mistake could prove a killer when competing against the preternaturally steady Daniels.

Robinson completed the double podium weekend in third, but only just. He was pushed to the absolute brink by an unlikely contender. Declan Bender, who opened the season without a ride and only just joined OTBR following Brandon Price’s step back from the sport due to medical reasons, chased Robinson down and threw a couple of overtake attempts at him before finishing just a tick behind him in fourth.

G&G Racing Yamaha’s James Ott completed the top five after winning out in a melee which also included American Honda/Progressive Insurance’s Trent Lowe, Fastrack KTM’s Jarod VanDerKooi and Bromley.

Tom Drane at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — Tom Drane (59) dominated the Singles racing. He topped Friday’s Triple Challenge and Saturday’s sole main event.

AFT Singles

Prior to the weekend, Estenson Racing’s Tom Drane was paradoxically struggling through a protracted winless and leading the AFT Singles title fight. He’d been good all season long, but everyone, Drane included, expected him to be great. At Lima, he was great.

He was nearly untouchable all weekend long, save a Herculean performance on the part of Turner Racing Honda’s Trevor Brunner to better him in one of Friday’s triple mains. Otherwise, Drane was in his own category pretty much throughout practice, qualifying and race action.

Trevor Brunner at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Trevor Brunner’s 2-1-15 scores put him sixth overall on Friday and, with his third on Saturday, he retains the third spot in the Singles points chase.**

Title rival Chase Saathoff largely limited the damage with a 3-2 weekend, but getting pipped by Mission Roof Systems’ Tarren Santero at the end of Friday’s main event three to flip the combined order could prove costly down the stretch.

Chase Saathoff at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Chase Saathoff (88) finished on the Singles podium both nights.**

Brunner fought mechanical gremlins all weekend, but still made a strong impression on both nights, including the aforementioned win in Friday’s main event two and a close third in Saturday’s main.

Meanwhile, the rookies continued to be a huge story, with Kage Tadman adding a pair of top fives to his unprecedented run of two wins in his first two races. Brunner’s teammate, Walker Porter, came out swinging as well, scoring a seventh and a fifth in his maiden Progressive AFT weekend.

Declan Bender at 2025 AFT Lima Half-Mile — **Declan Bender battling up inside the top five both nights at Lima, finishing with an eighth in the Singles Triple Challenge and a fourth the next night.**

Following his huge Lima doubleheader, Drane now leads 130-114 over Saathoff. Brunner is third at 98.CN