The Lima Half Mile is circled on every racer’s calendar. Arguably, the sport’s truest test of physical and mental strength filters, separates and casts judgment down on potential Grand National Champions who hope to be deemed worthy.
It was considered inevitable that a midseason doubleheader at the venue, particularly one featuring a round of the Mission Triple Challenge—which determines its winner through three main events of escalating distance, pressure and importance—would carry massive title implications.
By Chris Martin | Photography by Dean Phelps
And it did, even if the three Mission AFT SuperTwins heroes battling atop the leaderboards came in separated by 10 points and left with that margin expanded by just a single point.
Inevitable, that is, if it even transpired. There was considerable doubt that Mother Nature would allow the event to occur, with confident predictions of heavy rainfall throughout Friday and Saturday leading up to the weekend. That forecast remained in place as late as Friday, but the storm clouds dissipated, allowing both days’ racing to unfold unhindered by weather.
Still, a dark cloud ultimately hung over Lima on the weekend. Saturday’s second premier-class heat race was marred by a multi-rider incident that tragically claimed the life of veteran racer Dan Bromley, the 2018 Singles Champion and reigning AdventureTrackers Champion.
A decorated racer and beloved paddock figure from a family with deep racing roots, Bromley’s condition was on the minds of all who raced for the rest of the night and weekend, and in their hearts once they learned of his passing. He was 30.
Half Mile I
Friday’s race action was spared any knowledge of that future, and at that point, everyone felt relieved to be racing at all.
Rick Ware Racing’s Briar Bauman entered with all the momentum, having won the previous four main events in convincing fashion. However, another Harley-Davidson-mounted pilot, Latus Motors Racing’s rookie points leader, Kody Kopp, quickly assumed the role of race-day favorite.
With the track’s pea-gravel surface serving as a salve for the chatter that had plagued him in recent rounds, Kopp proved unstoppable in main events one and two, running away at the front aboard his XG750R.
In the first main, reigning Grand National Champion Dallas Daniels earned runner-up honors on the Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07, ahead of Bauman, with the two swapping positions for second.
Widely expected to secure his third National win in main-event three, Kopp was instead struck by misfortune. A clutch issue sent him tumbling down the order and ultimately out of the race.
Bauman surged ahead and took full advantage, racing away to victory. That was good enough to give him his fifth consecutive premier-class win on the overall order, moving him into a tie with Ricky Graham for fifth place in career wins at 39 and putting him just one win short of equaling Graham’s all-time record of six consecutive victories.
Daniels came home second in the race and the overall order, while third in both was taken by Rackley Racing’s Davis Fisher.
Fourth appeared to belong to FRA Trust Advisor H-D’s Aidan RoosEvans on the strength of three fifths, with fifth overall going to part-time runner Henry Wiles on the DL Racing/HYMMC Yamaha (7-6-4).
That left Kopp all the way down in sixth despite his clear speed advantage. However, RoosEvans was black-flagged in main-event three. Dropping RoosEvans to the bottom of the order gave Kopp an extra point but not Wiles, which in turn catapulted Kopp up to fourth in the final results.
RoosEvans, meanwhile, tumbled down to 12th overall, while elevating Dalton Gauthier, in his first ride back with Royal Enfield, up to a solid sixth.
Bauman saw the result for what it was, a fortunate win, but a win nonetheless, and one that moved him into the lead of the Grand National Championship for the first time all year.
He said, “We just worked at it. It’s tough because Kody broke. The thing that’s tough is I felt good, so it’s always hard to read that. So, either way, we did exactly what we wanted to do: just work at it. We accepted that we weren’t the fastest, but we were going to work harder than anyone else, and we did. All the credit to Kody; he was ripping today. I don’t think we had anything from those first two, but I really would have loved to see where we’re at. He was super quick. We’ll just try again tomorrow. Hopefully, he’s all dialed, and we’ll go ahead.”
Half Mile II
In fact, the two swapped positions on Saturday. Bauman controlled his heat race, in which Kopp finished third, also trailing a very racy Jeffrey Carver Jr, who was subbing on the injured Brandon Robinson’s Mission Roof Systems XG750R.
Bauman then won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge race (again with Carver second), and Kopp was forced to seek his revenge from row two in the main.
All the while, Daniels kept his head down, winning his heat and slowly improving his form. Come the main event, the champ jumped out front despite nearly being eclipsed by Kopp, who nailed the start from the second row.
The two then settled into a race-long duel at the front, while Bauman struggled to hang on. He slowly fell off the pace and was swallowed up by Fisher, then Carver, and then everyone else, as Bauman was forced out of the race by a mechanical issue of his own.
At the front, Kopp braved the roost and applied every ounce of pressure he could, but Daniels withstood it all, including a late-race run through a thick patch of lappers, to claim the checkered flag.
The win came as both relief and renewed hope, instantly reminding Daniels and everyone else that he’s the defending champ and not just some underdog who has to get creative in order to fight his way on the box.
“That main event was good,” Daniels said. “I had a phenomenal motorcycle. My first few laps were good, but I could feel somebody right there. And to be quite honest, I didn’t really know it was Kody until about halfway, and it felt like he was getting ready to put a move on me. I kind of buckled down with two minutes to go and put in a good, good last few laps.
“I was a little nervous as we started catching some lappers. They were all kind of racing together, but I ended up pulling off the win. And man, I needed this. Not really even a win, just a ride like that where I felt good and the bike felt good, and that was it tonight.
“Today wasn’t easy for a lot of reasons. Obviously, we had a bad accident in the heat race, and all of us riders don’t take that lightly. It’s tough. It’s tough to line back up after seeing that and watching it. So, my thoughts go out to all of them. My thoughts are with them and with their families.”
Kopp said Saturday, “I kind of put myself in a hole. We were quick yesterday, and then that was just a super unfortunate DNF. But with that Triple Challenge format, it really worked out in our favor. Ended up fourth overall. And then today, we were fast early on, but in the heat race, we just had a bad first lap. And at Lima, you either have momentum or you’re going backward, and we were trending backward. But in the main, I just nailed that start. I think I technically might have had the holeshot into the corner from the second row. That was pretty cool. But Dallas had that drive down the back straight, and all I saw the whole main event was his rear tire, so I ate a lot of roost.”
Fisher again capitalized on another’s misfortune to secure third. The twin podiums came as a relief for him as well, having gone without a podium since the Daytona double-opener due to his own poor luck. In other words, he had no reason to feel any qualms about culturing a pair of thirds on the weekend.
Meanwhile, RoosEvans bounced back to beat his wizardly mentor, Carver, for fourth in Saturday’s main.
While his downfall was similar to Kopp’s from the night before, Bauman didn’t have the Triple Challenge format to cushion his fall. Whereas Kopp’s Friday ended with a DNF and fourth-place points, Bauman’s Saturday DNF only paid out a meager 14th-place bounty.
As a result, Bauman went from first to third in the standings, and Kopp reassumed the championship lead. That advantage, however, is just by a single point over the resurgent Daniels (169-168), with Bauman another 10 points back at 158.
AFT Singles
The Lima HM doubleheader served as a perfect encapsulation of Tom Drane’s domination over the Kicker AFT Singles category. Returning to the track where he exploded onto the scene with a runner-up finish in his Progressive AFT debut back in 2022, Drane was perfect on the weekend. He swept every practice, qualifying session, heat race, challenge race and main event—and generally in rather undramatic fashion.
On very few occasions did anyone even hint at challenging the Estenson Racing pilot, and when they did, it was at great risk of peril.
Turning Racing Honda’s Kage Tadman twice crashed out attempting to stick with Drane, while Tadman’s teammate, Walker Porter, made a major mistake and overtaxed himself trying to do the same.
Ultimately, Drane left Ohio with his fifth win of the season, his fifth in a row at Lima, and the 24th of his Singles career, surpassing Kopp for most in class history.
2025 Nicky Hayden AMA Flat Track Horizon Award recipient Bodie Paige paid tribute to Drane by reenacting his ’22 feat. The young Aussie finished second in his Progressive AFT debut and then backed it up with a Saturday third.
“It was a hard race for sure,” Paige said after Saturday’s race. “I didn’t get a good start, didn’t really execute that the way I wanted to. But it was a good race. The boys are great; they had some serious pace. I just tried to save a little bit again for the end because I knew my fitness was going to be there. I had confidence in myself. It’s good to get another podium.”
Porter held on to at last score his maiden pro podium with third on Friday, while Drane’s long-time rival, 1st Impressions Racing’s Husqvarna’s Chase Saathoff, improved from fourth on Friday to take second-place honors on Saturday.
Drane now leads by 37 points over Saathoff (180-143). Tadman, who came away with sixth- and fourth-place results despite hitting the deck a couple times on the weekend, is a close third at 140.
AFT ProSport 450
The pea-gravel surface makes Lima a welcoming circuit for Australian and Canadian riders who grow up racing on similar tracks. Further evidence of this came in the final AFT ProSport 450 race of the year, where Australian Jed Fyffe took the win; another Aussie, Neiko Donovan, finished third; and Canadians Mateo Racine and Loic Nadeau finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
The Americans weren’t completely shut out, however, as Michigan’s Charlie Jaques finished second and Silver Dollar ST winner Adam Costan-Wood slotted in between the Canadians in fifth.
With the AFT ProSport 450 season concluded, the world’s top motorcycle dirt track amateurs will now follow the pros to DuQuoin for the 2026 Roof Systems AMA Flat Track Grand Championship on July 5-10.CN
2026 AMA American Flat Track Rounds 8-9 Results
Half Mile I
SuperTwins Overall (Top 10)
- Briar Bauman (H-D)
- Dallas Daniels (Yam)
- Davis Fisher (KTM)
- Kody Kopp (H-D)
- Henry Wiles (Yam)
- Dalton Gauthier (RE)
- Ben Lowe (KTM)
- Chad Cose (Yam)
- Declan Bender (Yam)
- Trent Lowe (Hon)
Singles (Top 10)
- Tom Drane (Yam) 20 Laps
- Bodie Paige (Hon) +3.361
- Walker Porter (Hon) +4.858
- Chase Saathoff (Hus) +5.333
- Jordan Beaulac (GG) +8.097
- Kage Tadman (Hon) +8.194
- Tarren Santero (Hon) +10.583
- Jack Brucks (Hus) +10.768
- Trevor Brunner (Yam) +13.010
- Bradon Pfanders (Yam) +14.463
Half Mile II
SuperTwins (Top 10)
- Dallas Daniels (Yam) 25 Laps
- Kody Kopp (H-D) +1.583
- Davis Fisher (KTM) +6.226
- Aidan RoosEvans (H-D) +9.550
- Jeffrey Carver (H-D) +9.814
- Chad Cose (Yam) +13.895
- Ben Lowe (KTM) +19.850
- Trent Lowe (Hon) +23.376
- Declan Bender (Yam) +24.598
- Logan McGrane (KTM) +1 Lap
Singles (Top 10)
- Top Drane (Yam) 21 Laps
- Chase Saathoff (Hus) +4.525
- Bodie Paige (Hon) +6.773
- Kage Tadman (Hon) +9.016
- Brandon Pfanders (Yam) +13.216
- Evan Kelleher (KTM) +13.862
- Tarren Santero (Hon) +14.288
- Walker Porter (Hon) +14.560
- Jordan Beaulac (GG) +15.371
- Trevor Brunner (Yam) +17.079
