No one in the paddock defends their territory so fiercely or effectively as Briar Bauman.
Coming into Williams Grove, the California native/Pennsylvania resident was juggling twin home-soil streaks, having won the last four races held in the Golden State and the previous six in the Keystone State.
By Chris Martin | Photography by Tim Lester
That triumphant run is most impressive when stripped down to Williams Grove Speedway alone, where the Rick Ware Racing ace had won all four of the races held at the venue dating back to 2018, with his last non-win coming in the form of a Kawasaki-mounted third in 2017, where he finished behind only a pair of nigh-dominant factory Indians.
Bauman’s California double earlier this season helped springboard him to a five-win streak that transformed a 22-point deficit into a four-point lead. That hard-earned advantage held up for just one day, however, before a nebulous concoction of misfortune and controversy conspired to drop him back down into a 20-point hole as the Grand National Championship arrived in Pennsylvania.
Despite the recent disappointment, Bauman was presented with a golden opportunity to use his home-state mojo to kick off another comeback as the Mission AFT SuperTwins title fight entered its final six-race home stretch.
And his Pennsylvania magic did materialize, but not until it was needed the most. Throughout the day, championship leader Kody Kopp looked to be the most comfortable on a slippery Williams Grove Speedway, as he led the way aboard his Latus Motors Racing Harley-Davidson XG750R in practice, qualifying, and his heat race.
Similarly threatening was the on-form Davis Fisher, who was nearly as quick aboard his Rackley Racing KTM 790 Duke, a potential disaster in the making for Bauman’s ailing title chances.
Of course, reigning champion Dallas Daniels is always a factor, even on a day when his pace, like Bauman’s, didn’t immediately leap out at you.
It all shifted away from pre-race expectations once the green light shone, however. Daniels jumped out into the lead aboard his Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 with another Yamaha pilot, OTB Racing’s Declan Bender, providing temporary cover for Daniels’ impromptu escape just behind in second.
Bauman and Kopp both pushed past Bender within the race’s first minute-and-a-half. Soon after, Kopp made a run at Bauman for second. Bauman allowed Kopp to dive under him, then sprung out of the corner after their lines crisscrossed, not only taking the position back but powering ahead of Daniels in one fell swoop.
With clear air in front of him, Bauman threatened to shake free, but a tenacious Daniels just clung on, always within a half-second or thereabouts of the lead.
That gap, combined with Daniels’ repeated trial runs diving low on the approach to turn one, teased a potential last-lap slide job to steal the win.
And the champ executed it to near-perfection. But the “near” was enough to provide Bauman the space required to immediately counterattack. As a result, Daniels led on the final lap, but only for an instant, and Bauman held on in the final mad dash to the checkered flag by 0.077 of a second.
Behind, it was actually Kopp who was subjected to the “spoilerific” speed of Fisher, as the Rackley runner battled back from a poor start to steal away third late in the race.
As a result, Bauman (195) closed back to within 11 points of Kopp (206) and eight of Daniels (203), while reclaiming the momentum with the 2026 crown truly up for grabs.
While undoubtedly a stirring victory that came at an ideal time, Bauman was in little mood to discuss its particulars afterward. Instead, his thoughts were with the late Dan Bromley, who the paddock paid tribute to in numerous ways on the day (including every rider in all three classes brandishing his trademark number 62 for their opening practice session) as the series visited Bromley’s home state two weeks following his passing.
Bauman said, “The race was interesting. I really wanted to win by 6.2 seconds. Losing Dan hit me. I just wanted to go do something, but 6.2 was a little bit of a pipe dream. It was a goal I set, but we weren’t even anywhere near that.
“But like I said on the podium, I don’t want to talk too much about my night. We honored Dan, which I thought was sweet. I loved being part of that even though I never like losing someone. I just like letting their families know they mean a lot to us. So yeah, good day for me racing, but a better day as a human.”
“That definitely was a mental main event,” Daniels said. “I actually got a good start, but to be honest, before the main, I wasn’t exactly licking my chops. I was a little bit nervous just with how the heat race and the [Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge] went. And we made a small change to that Dash, but I didn’t feel it was better. But when I got the start, I was like, ‘Man, I don’t feel like they’re running over me,’ so I just kept doing what I was doing. I knew Briar was going to be good, and when he came by, I just tried to latch on to him. And when he didn’t immediately break away, I was like, ‘Alright,’ and I just tried to hunker down. I started searching around, which I hadn’t really been doing all day, and found something that was working. I had that low line in [turns] one and two. I was making up a lot of time, but I would lose it on the exit. So, I pretty much only had one chance, which was to try to park him in the middle of the corner. And I was real close to getting it about perfect.”
Meanwhile, Bender continued his second-half turnaround. After either failing to make the main or finishing 10th or lower in the first six races of the season, he’s now finished ninth or better in the last five, a run that includes a fourth in Nashville and the fifth he added at Williams Grove.
American Honda Turner Racing’s Trent Lowe scored another sixth, hinting that he might also be finding his form as the season winds down, as he did a year ago before winning in Springfield.
Aidan RoosEvans fought his way up from the back of the grid after being taken out in his heat. Fueled by what he termed a “Mario Kart” move on the part of Schaffer’s MotorSports/Ryan Varnes Racing’s Logan McGrane, RoosEvans won the LCQ and slashed his way up to seventh in the main.
The Yamahas of Pro Roofing/Parker Racing’s Chad Cose and G&G Racing’s Hunter Bauer came home eighth and ninth, respectively, while Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield’s Dalton Gauthier rounded out the top 10.
AFT Singles
Kicker AFT Singles was more of the same Drane “thang,” as the Australian continued to pile up the points and statistics.
He upped his all-time record by scoring his 26th career class win in drama-free fashion, checking out from the start and storming off to claim a fifth consecutive victory with more than four seconds in hand.
While a predictable result in hindsight, 1st Impressions Husqvarna’s Chase Saathoff actually seemed to have the measure of Drane in the lead-up to the race, winning both his heat and the RV68Foundation.org Challenge race in convincing fashion.
As it turned out, Drane was again in a class of his own, with Saathoff second. So too were Eisenhard Racing/Mark Tepper Racing’s Logan Eisenhard in third (the Pennsylvanian scoring his maiden Progressive AFT podium in front of the home crowd) and BigR Racing’s Jared Lowe in fourth.
Actual bike-to-bike fighting was reserved for fifth, where Roof Systems/Texas Utility Studies/Vinson Honda’s Tarren Santero won out in a battle with sixth-placed Bradon Pfanders on the OTB Racing Yamaha, seventh-placed Evan Kelleher on the Schaeffer’s Motorsport KTM, and eighth-placed Walker Porter on the Turner Racing Honda.
Santero put in double duty at Williams Grove, doing his usual work in the AFT Singles class, while also throwing a leg over Brandon Robinson’s Mission Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R in Mission AFT SuperTwins. Santero showed real speed in his premier-class debut, posting the fourth-best time in the opening qualifying session. But the back-and-forth bounce between bikes may have hindered his ability to demonstrate his full potential in the main event.
Santero said, “The Singles main was good. We got off to a pretty rocky start, got shuffled back, but we started picking away at it towards the end. I slowed down to go fast towards the end, and then things started piecing together for us. Going into the SuperTwins main, I’d say that was mentally challenging more than anything. It was hard trying to learn throughout the day and then go straight from the Singles race to the Twins and remember everything. But it was fun.”
Drane’s lead over second-ranked Saathoff (226-181) is such that he could take the next two rounds in Sturgis off and still be guaranteed to be leading in the points when the series arrives at Peoria for round 14 of 16.CN
2026 American Flat Track Round 11 Results
SuperTwins (Top 10)
- Briar Bauman (H-D) 25 Laps
- Dallas Daniels (Yam) +0.077
- Davis Fisher (KTM) +3.763
- Kody Kopp (H-D) +4.558
- Declan Bender (Yam) +5.046
- Trent Lowe (Hon) +6.871
- Aidan RoosEvans (H-D) +9.122
- Chad Cose (Yam) +9.636
- Hunter Bauer (Yam) +10.725
- Dalton Gauthier (RE) +11.881
Singles (Top 10)
- Tom Drane (Yam) 21 Laps
- Chase Saathoff (Hus) +4.305
- Logan Eisenhard (KTM) +7.274
- Jared Lowe (Hon) +8.933
- Tarren Santero (Hon) +11.621
- Bradon Pfanders (Yam) +12.333
- Evan Kelleher (KTM) +12.342
- Walker Porter (Hon) +12.579
- Trevor Brunner (Yam) +14.128
- Dylan Cunningham (KTM) +14.818
