With rain postponing race 1 on Thursday night, all eyes were on the weather radar Friday as multiple storms cells narrowly missed Volusia Speedway Park. As track crews worked all afternoon into the early evening to provide a decent surface, riders and teams rolled out their machines and prepped for the night’s event.
Before we get into the night’s event, I would like to apologize in advance for the lack of action shots. While we are grateful for the American Flat Track series providing us with media access to cover this event, we were met with an unfortunate situation of media vs. photo credentials which confused myself along with several of the AFT staff. While trying to obtain content for the event, I was continuously informed that I needed to move, didn’t have appropriate access, or was questioned as to the validity of my involvement.
With this constant confusion, I was only able get a few photos of race bikes as they sat stationary in the pit area, but eventually resigned to the grandstands where I could actually see the racing.
The lack of track time leading into Friday’s race seemed a daunting task for the riders, but these fearless athletes came directly into their qualifying sessions at full speed and ready to fight.
In the Parts Unlimited AFT Singles class, it was Tyler Scott and Kody Kopp winning their semi races ahead of the night’s main event. Kopp continued with a blazing pace by going on to win the Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda Challenge, taking the $2,500 prize. And it was Kopp again taking victory in the main event aboard his Red Bull KTM just ahead of his teammate Max Whale and Turner Racing Honda’s Dalton Gauthier.
In the Mission Production Twins class, Dan Bromley and Cole Zabala took their respective semi race wins while reigning champion Cory Texter struggled to close the gap to the front. Texter continued to push for progress, but was only able to muster a seventh place finish in the main event.
Johnny Lewis showed excellent speed as the Moto Anatomy X team continues to make tremendous progress on developing the Royal Enfield 650. Lewis was able to manage a solid fifth place result while Nick Armstrong took the victory just edging out Bromley by .102 seconds. And it was Vance & Hines Harley Davidson rider Jesse Janisch rounding out the podium in third.
Estenson Racing Yamaha rider Dallas Daniels showed great promise early on as the Mission SuperTwins rookie took semi race 1 win, with his teammate JD Beach grabbing first place in semi race 2.
The main event for the SuperTwins class saw Indian’s Briar Bauman take victory with a comfortable lead ahead of his brother Bronson Bauman on the Latin Motors Racing Harley Davidson. The Estenson Racing Yamaha duo of JD Beach and Dallas Daniels finished third and fourth respectively, while reigning champion Jared Mees rode his Indian FTR750 to round out the top five.
The Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. class provided extra excitement as this field of talented women took their bikes to the fast banks of Volusia Speeday. It was the number 31 of Jillian Deschenes who took a narrow victory ahead of Jaycee Jones. Lanakila MacNaughton took a comfortable third place ahead of Malary Lee and Erin Ferris in fourth and fifth.
With the continuous rain pounding the mid-Floria region, race 1 has been canceled and the series moves on to Fort Worth for the Texas Half-Mile event March 19th.
Ryan Yearwood is the motorsports correspondent for SoBros Network as well as the pioneer and visionary behind SoBros Outdoors. Follow on Twitter: @OutdoorSoBro.
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