It doesn’t matter how many times the DuQuoin Mile works its magic; the venue’s high-speed, high-drama theater always delivers. Apparently, it also doesn’t matter how long it makes you wait for that payoff. This year’s Magic Mile certainly did so for a spell before rewarding that patience with a pair of stunning main events, concluding what was originally meant to be an epic Independence Day celebration, one day late.
A resolute core of fans stuck it out despite being rained out late on the Fourth of July and then made to wait much of Sunday. The series hoped to return to action early that morning, only to fight a war on a surface that was alternately too wet and too dry, sometimes both at once.
But finally, the Mission AFT SuperTwins class lined up for 14 minutes and two laps of all-out action at the 2026 Grand National Championship’s first Mile-based brawl.
By Chris Martin | Photography by Tim Lester & Kristen Lassen
And while ultimately decided by 0.012 of a second, it was just as much won by a measure of months. One year to the day earlier, Estenson Racing Yamaha’s Dallas Daniels stood atop the podium in Du Quoin, flanked by fellow tuning-fork representatives James Ott on the G&G Yamaha and Declan Bender on the OTB Racing Yamaha.
Yamaha went on to claim eight of nine total podiums at the Miles a year ago, highlighted by Daniels’ two wins. That record proved a critical factor in Daniels’ successful Grand National Championship bid during a season in which the rival Harley-Davidson XG750R earned the most wins of any bike, and its leading protagonist, RWR H-D’s Briar Bauman, earned the most wins of any rider.
Daniels came in with hopes of a repeat performance in a championship defense that’s found him confronted by not just a peak-performing Bauman, but also rookie title leader Kody Kopp on the Latus Motors Racing Harley-Davidson.
It was apparent from the start that both sides of the H-D effort, which had split in two, not only mitigated their obvious weakness over the off-season but also transformed it into what might even be considered a strength.
Bauman and Kopp ran 1-2 in the weekend’s opening practice and then did the same in qualifying, albeit in reverse order. Daniels didn’t back down from the challenge, however, striking back to win the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge ahead of the main event.
Once the main was finally underway, the championship’s big three fought to separate themselves at the front of a seven-rider-deep lead pack.
And they managed to do exactly that, with a fairly large caveat: Rackley Racing KTM’s Davis Fisher broke the draft behind him in fourth and managed to grab onto the slipstream of the three ahead of him, transforming the race into a four-rider fight for victory for its final three-quarters.
Once Fisher threw it under Bauman with a little less than eight minutes remaining, it was on. The four threw haymakers while sizing each other up, with Kopp and Daniels doing the lion’s share of the leading as Bauman and Fisher prepared to pounce.
While heavy on the action throughout, it was effectively a series of simulations in advance of the inevitable final-lap melee.
When that time finally came, Daniels slashed under Kopp and Fisher to reclaim the lead going into turns one and two. He then went low again into three and stayed down there, catching Kopp off guard. Rather than tucking in for a draft pass, the rookie was forced to rail it at maximum velocity and hope to come out on top of a drag race on his XG750R against the Mile-proven Yamaha of Daniels.
Kopp did so by 0.058 of a second over Daniels and, even more consequentially, fended off Fisher’s storming KTM by an even slimmer 0.012 of a second.
Meanwhile, Bauman, despite leading with just over a lap remaining and coming within 0.167 of a second of victory at the flag, was left off the podium entirely. The win was the third of Kopp’s rookie season, good enough to move him into a tie for second-most rookie wins in GNC history. It also stretched out his title advantage over Dallas to eight points (192-184) and Bauman to 20 (172) while proving that he won’t be a sitting duck when the championship is decided in doubleheader fashion at the Springfield Mile in September.
“That was honestly a crazy two days here at Du Quoin,” Kopp said. “Obviously, we got rained out yesterday and came back this morning hoping to get on track at 10 a.m. We were fastest yesterday, so it’s kind of hard to go to sleep after you’re as fast as we were and not get to race. I just wanted to get out on track, hoping it was going to be wet and gnarly and something that played into my book of inconsistent tracks. We kind of got that, although it was a little more dry and skittery.
“Man, I pulled a good start. I put in a couple burners, and I knew I broke from them a little bit. And then I spun her up once, and I was like, ‘Alright, I can’t do this anymore. I got to sit in.’ Honestly, I thought I blew it the last lap when I didn’t get around Dallas into turn three. I thought it was over. I thought I had to lead it off four, and somehow we rolled them on the exit and won the thing.
“It feels good to win again. It just says a lot about my team that they’ve been working on this Mile package so hard. That’s a big one for the confidence as we go into next weekend in Pennsylvania. It kind of relights that fire of knowing there’s a championship here now.”
Runner-up Fisher said, “It’s been a long weekend. We were just trying anything we could, and we came up with something for the main event that just worked. It was a heck of a race, one of the most demanding Miles we’ve had for sure. I had some good corner feel coming off. I had to work for it. And it’s cool to see BMC Racing go 1-2. Kody was a little guy growing up racing in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s cool to battle with him.”
Fifth place went to rookie Hunter Bauer on the G&G Yamaha that Ott took to second here a year ago. Meanwhile, American Honda-backed Trent Lowe put the Turner Racing CB750 Hornet sixth, finishing just ahead of Bender and Fisher’s Rackley Racing teammate, Ben Lowe. Sunnyside Cycle Yamaha’s Cody Johncox and Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield’s Dalton Gauthier rounded out the top 10.
AFT Singles
Just when things on the Kicker AFT Singles front were trending toward predictable, the conditions conspired to keep things interesting.
The dominant Tom Drane came in the heavy pre-race favorite, even if the margin of victory was expected to be of the 0.0x variety. The reigning champion had a well-earned reputation as a Mile extraordinaire and was just rounding into midseason form, as evidenced by his three straight wins heading to Du Quoin.
That aura of invincibility was strained when Drane suffered a rare mechanical issue during his heat race, on a day when the weather-compressed schedule had done away with the Last Chance Qualifier.
No worries. The Aussie used his provisional start, lined up at the back of the grid, and carved his way up to second in the race’s opening lap and a half.
Once there, he settled into a seven-rider scrap for the win, fighting most heavily with his long-time rival, Chase Saathoff on the 1st Impressions Husqvarna, and his budding successor, young Australian Bodie Paige on the RWR/American Honda CRF450R.
But in the end, Drane was Drane, claiming the victory by 0.088 of a second to become the class’s all-time winningest Miler (nine wins) one week after becoming the class’s all-time winningest rider, full stop (now at 25 and counting).
Home-state hero Saathoff finished second for the third time in Du Quoin (and incredibly, his loss by 0.088 of a second is his worst-ever defeat here), while Aussie prodigy Paige upped his class podium record to three-for-three despite riding in pain after catching his foot in a rut.
Roof Systems/Texas Utility Studies/Vinson Construction’s Tarren Santero finished fourth, with Memphis Shades/Corbin/OTB Racing’s Bradon Pfanders in fifth.
Drane has well and truly taken over this title fight with a lead that now sits at 41 points over Saathoff (203-162) with six rounds to go.CN
2026 AMA American Flat Track Round 10 Results
AFT SuperTwins (Top 10)
- Kody Kopp (H-D) 25 Laps
- Davis Fisher (KTM) +0.012
- Dallas Daniels (Yam) +0.058
- Briar Bauman (H-D) +0.167
- Hunter Bauer (Yam) +8.448
- Trent Lowe (Hon) +19.172
- Declan Bender (Yam) +19.504
- Ben Lowe (KTM) +19.620
- Cody Johncox (Yam) +28.345
- Dalton Gauthier (RE) +28.795
AFT Singles (Top 10)
- Tom Drane (Yam) 18 Laps
- Chase Saathoff (Hus) +0.088
- Bodie Paige (Hon) +0.131
- Tarren Santero (Hon) +0.702
- Bradon Pfanders (Yam) +1.043
- Walker Porter (Hon) +1.286
- Evan Kelleher (KTM) +2.197
- Trevor Brunner (Hon) +5.283
- Kage Tadman (Hon) +16.334
- Jordan Beaulac (GG) +16.624
