DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
(August 6, 2024) – Consider
the rust sufficiently shaken
off. In just his second race
back, super sub JD
Beach (No. 95 Estenson
Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) claimed
a hugely impressive victory on
Tuesday night in Rapid City,
South Dakota, winning the
Black Hills
Harley-Davidson Black Hills
Half-Mile presented by The City
of Sturgis, Round 12 of
the Progressive American
Flat Track season,
sanctioned by AMA Pro
Racing.
Beach blasted into the lead at
the green light of the
Mission AFT SuperTwins
Main Event at Black
Hills Speedway,
followed closely by full-time
Grand National
Championship contenders
Jared Mees (No.
1 Rogers Racing/SDI
Racing/Indian Motorcycle
FTR750), Briar Bauman
(No. 3 Rick Ware
Racing/KTM/Parts Plus KTM 790
Duke), and Brandon
Robinson (No. 44
Mission Roof Systems Indian
FTR750), along with the day’s
fastest rider in qualifying,
Chad Cose (No.
49 Indian Motorcycle of Oklahoma
City/G&G Racing Indian FTR750).
Robinson found an outside line
to his liking and used it to rip
around Cose, Bauman, and Mees in
rapid succession. However, his
attempt to do so for first
tipped the leader off and Beach
promptly used the same line
himself to secure his position
at the front.
Mees stuck with the low line and
made it work well enough to
counter Robinson and then take
the fight to Beach. Beach again
adapted, running high in Turns
1-2 and low in Turns 3-4, a
combination that gradually broke
the challenge of the nine-time
series king.
Beach’s victory was his
first-ever Half-Mile triumph,
moving him to within just a Mile
victory of the elusive
old-school Grand Slam. His
performance also makes him a
good bet to sweep Progressive
AFT’s 84th Sturgis
Motorcycle Rally doubleheader,
as he comes armed with a
skillset that seems perfectly
suited for Sunday’s race in the
Streets of Downtown Sturgis.
Beach said, “A goal of mine
since I was a kid was to get a
Grand Slam; I’ve got a Superbike
win, I’ve got a Short Track win,
I’ve got a TT win, and now I’ve
got the Half-Mile. I can’t thank
the team enough. We chipped away
at it all day long. In the race,
I knew I was going to stick to
the bottom until someone tried
to go around the outside of me.
I saw Brandon go up top so I did
too and I saw Jared going to the
bottom in 3 and 4, so I was
going up top, down low, up top,
down low. It was working so
good. To get this win is just
amazing.”
Mees kept Beach honest to the
checkered flag and was rewarded
with his fifth consecutive
podium. Tuesday’s second was
more than enough to push him
past the injured Dallas
Daniels (No. 32
Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT)
and put Mees at the head of the
Mission AFT SuperTwins title
fight for the first time all
season long.
Robinson was unable to keep up
his early heroics, eventually
dropping to nearly five seconds
back of the win. However, that
still kept him on the podium and
firmly in the championship
fight, where he now ranks
second, 17 points back of Mees
(236-219).
Rookies Declan Bender
(No. 70
GOMR/BriggsAuto.com/Martin
Trucking Indian FTR750) and
Trevor Brunner
(No. 21 Mission Foods/Zanotti
Racing Indian FTR750) continued
their impressive second halves,
claiming career-best results of
fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jarod Vanderkooi (No.
20 JMC Motorsports/Fairway Ford
Ohio Indian FTR750) was
fractionally behind the
up-and-coming duo in sixth,
while Cose closed out his
head-turning day in seventh.
Brandon Price
(No. 92 Memphis Shades/Sody
Ent/OTBR Yamaha MT-07) came home
eighth, Bauman ended his fade
down the order in ninth, and
Davis Fisher
(No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob
Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian
FTR750) rounded out the top ten.
Parts Unlimited AFT
Singles presented by KICKER
Tom Drane (No.
59 Estenson Racing Yamaha
YZ450F) was in imperious form
while notching up the fourth
victory of his 2024
Parts Unlimited AFT Singles
presented by KICKER campaign.
The Australian got away in
second, one spot behind
defending champion and current
points leader Kody Kopp
(No. 1 Rick Ware Racing/Parts
Plus KTM 450 SX-F),but wasted
little time in deposing his
highly decorated rival for the
lead.
Meanwhile, Chase
Saathoff (No. 88 JPG
Motorsports Honda CRF450R) –
winner of the most recent two
races coming into Rapid City –
dropped to fifth from pole off
the line. Once in third, he
found the fight harder than did
Drane to move through on Kopp
and claim second, the champ
rebuffing multiple attempts by
Saathoff to squeak by up the
inside.
That constant pressure finally
worked in Saathoff’s favor,
however, as Kopp eventually made
a mistake in defense of the
position. Saathoff pounced the
moment Kopp ran slightly off
line, allowing him to turn his
attention to the escaping Drane.
But even with clear air ahead of
him, the JPG Motorsports pilot
could do nothing but watch the
Estenson Racing runner continue
to clear off at the front. Drane
ultimately claimed a
1.999-second margin of victory
over Saathoff with Kopp another
1.601 seconds back in third.
“We’ve just been working our
butts off all day, trying to
learn different things
throughout the day,” Drane said.
“We finally found a setting that
really worked for us and were
able to use it out there. I just
couldn’t have done it without my
whole Estenson Racing Monster
Energy team, who put in all this
hard work to get us back on the
top step.”
Behind the lead trio,
Tyler Raggio (No. 55
Raggio Racing/Sluggo Racing KTM
450 SX-F) worked his way past
veteran frontrunners
James Ott (No. 19 1st
Impressions Race Team Husqvarna
FC450) and Trent Lowe
(No. 48 American Honda/Mission
Foods CRF450R) to secure a
career-best finish of fourth.
Tarren Santero
(No. 75 Vinson Construction/P&M
Motorcycles Honda CRF450R)
rounded out a strong day with a
run to seventh, with
Evan Renshaw (No. 265
American Honda/Mission Foods
CRF450R), Jared Lowe
(No. 63 BigR/Little Debbie
Racing Honda CRF450R), and
Travis Petton IV
(No. 82 ECG Racing/A.M Ortega
KTM 450 SX-F) completing the top
ten.
While Drane and Saathoff
continued to inch their way
closer in the championship hunt
with each successive win, Kopp
is still well and firmly in
control. He continues to lead by
a full race haul of 25 points
with 264 to Saathoff’s 239.
Drane is eight points further
adrift at 231, while Lowe is a
distant fourth, now nearly 100
points back of Kopp at 168.
Earlier, Taia Little
(No. 11 Royal Enfield INT650)
fought her way to a second
victory of the season at the
conclusion of a four-rider scrap
at the front of the
Royal Enfield Build. Train.
Race. (BTR) Main Event.
Next Up:
In just five days, Progressive
American Flat Track will take to
the Streets of Downtown
Sturgis for the
Arrowhead Brass Sturgis TT
presented by Rick Ware Racing &
The CAT Rental Store on
Sunday, August 11. Attendance is
free of charge, while Tickets
for the Arrowhead Brass
Sturgis TT VIP Experience
can be purchased at
https://www.tixr.com/groups/americanflattrack/events/sturgis-tt-112510.
For those who can’t catch the
action from the circuit,
FloRacing is the live
streaming home of Progressive
AFT. Sign up now and catch every
second of the on-track action,
from the first practice to the
victory podium, at
https://flosports.link/aft.
FOX Sports coverage
of the Black Hills
Harley-Davidson Black Hills
Half-Mile presented by The City
of Sturgis, featuring
in-depth features and thrilling
onboard cameras, will premiere
on FS1 on
Sunday, August 11,
at 2:00 p.m. ET
(11:00 a.m. PT).
For more information on
Progressive AFT visit
https://www.americanflattrack.com.
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