Drane taken down, run over, yet still leads AFT Singles by 42 points

2026 Progressive American Flat Track

Rounds 12/13 – Sturgis
Jackpine Gypsies Super TT & Short Track

Tom Drane endured about as much drama as could reasonably be packed into two nights of racing at Sturgis, yet the young Australian still emerged from the Jackpine Gypsies double-header firmly in command of the 2026 KICKER AFT Singles Championship.

Drane arrived in South Dakota with a 45-point championship advantage over arch-rival Chase Saathoff, having reeled off five consecutive victories. That run included his historic Lima double that made him the most successful rider in AFT Singles history, followed by another dominant victory at Williams Grove.

Sturgis proved a rather different affair.

Drane was taken down while fighting for Saturday’s Super TT victory, with Saathoff subsequently disqualified and docked five championship points for the incident. Then, in Monday night’s Short Track, Drane was squeezed between two rivals at the start, crashed and was run over by another rider before being cleared by the medical crew to restart.

He fought back to seventh.

Saathoff went on to win Monday’s race, but after all that had transpired over the two rounds he had only managed to trim Drane’s championship advantage from 45 points to 42.

KICKER AFT Singles – Jackpine Gypsies Super TT

Saturday’s Super TT looked set to add yet another instalment to the increasingly intense Drane-Saathoff rivalry.

Evan Kelleher made the initial jump to the lead, but championship protagonists Drane and Saathoff worked their way past on successive laps before opening a margin over the remainder of the field.

That put the pair together at the front and, with around a minute-and-a-half remaining, Saathoff attempted to strike down the inside of Drane through the tight transition leading onto the pavement section.

The move went badly wrong. Saathoff collided with Drane and the pair hit the deck together, having already tangled earlier in the program.

Kelleher suddenly found himself back in front while Drane and Saathoff scrambled to retrieve their machines.

Drane eventually recovered to tenth. Saathoff reached the flag eighth, but officials subsequently disqualified him from scoring and docked him five championship points over the incident.

Drane made his feelings reasonably clear afterwards.

Tom Drane

“I felt like I had the pace to fight for the win, but unfortunately got taken out by another rider and was pushed back to P10.

“Time to move on. We’re ready to fight on the short track.”

Kelleher still had work to do once gifted the lead. Tarren Santero piled on the pressure as both riders chased what would have been a maiden Progressive AFT victory.

Kelleher held his nerve to win by just 0.529 seconds, and remarkably it was not only the first victory of his AFT career but also his first podium.

Santero took second, while Bradon Pfanders produced a charge from the back of the grid to complete the podium after an earlier heat-race clash with Trevor Brunner had forced both riders through the LCQ.

Walker Porter finished fourth ahead of Brunner, Jared Lowe and Kage Tadman, with Saathoff classified eighth on track before his penalty. Jack Brucks was ninth and Drane tenth.

KICKER AFT Singles – Super TT Results

*Saathoff was subsequently disqualified from scoring and docked five championship points over the incident with Drane.

KICKER AFT Singles – Jackpine Gypsies Short Track

If Drane was hoping for a less eventful Monday night, those hopes disappeared almost immediately.

At the start of the Main, the Australian was pinched between fellow second-row starters Walker Porter and Jack Brucks. Drane went down and was then run over by Jett Katarzy, who had nowhere to go.

For a time it appeared Drane might not be permitted to take the restart, but after a trackside medical examination he was cleared to continue.

That left the reigning champion at the back of the grid and facing a significant salvage operation on a tiny 0.20-mile Short Track where passing opportunities were at a premium.

Drane responded by fighting his way back through to seventh, limiting what could easily have been a much more damaging evening.

At the front, Saathoff was busy putting Saturday’s controversy behind him.

Bradon Pfanders proved the master of the starts throughout the evening and again launched strongly in the Main, forcing Saathoff to balance aggression with considerably more patience than he had displayed two nights earlier.

Saathoff repeatedly showed Pfanders a wheel before making his move around a minute-and-a-half into the race. He slipped underneath the Yamaha rider and quickly opened a gap.

Kage Tadman then found his way through on Pfanders and began closing on Saathoff, only for a mistake to halt that pursuit.

From there Saathoff was clear to claim his first victory of the 2026 season, eventually winning by a convincing 3.735 seconds.

Tadman resisted a late attack from Trevor Brunner to retain second, with Brunner just 0.101 seconds further back in third. Pfanders was fourth ahead of Santero and Jared Lowe, with Drane’s recovery earning him seventh.

The numbers underline just how valuable Drane’s fightback was. Despite finishing only tenth and seventh across the Sturgis double-header, he leaves South Dakota with 241 points against Saathoff’s 199.

Saathoff actually gained only three points on Drane across the entire weekend, while Tadman sits third on 183.

KICKER AFT Singles – Short Track Results

KICKER AFT Singles Championship Points

Mission AFT SuperTwins

While the Singles championship leader spent Sturgis fighting fires, Dallas Daniels produced the opposite kind of weekend in Mission AFT SuperTwins.

The reigning Grand National Champion arrived at Sturgis three points behind rookie championship leader Kody Kopp and left with two victories, the points lead and considerably more momentum than he had carried into South Dakota.

Mission AFT SuperTwins – Jackpine Gypsies Super TT

Daniels was untouchable in Saturday night’s Super TT.

The Estenson Racing Yamaha rider shot into the lead from the start and had already built an advantage of more than a second before the contest had properly settled.

His only significant scare came around two minutes into the race when Daniels caught a boot in the dirt and came perilously close to being thrown from the MT-07.

A 1.665-second advantage gave him enough breathing room to gather himself and continue, and from there the result became increasingly emphatic.

Daniels eventually won by 6.784 seconds.

Briar Bauman had appeared capable of challenging Daniels earlier in proceedings, but an early battle with Dalton Gauthier allowed the Yamaha rider to escape. Once Bauman had cleared Gauthier, the deficit was already beyond his reach.

Gauthier held third to the flag on the Moto Anatomy X Royal Enfield 650, securing only Royal Enfield’s second premier-class Progressive AFT podium.

Kody Kopp had qualified fastest but found passing difficult and then survived a spectacular near-fall while challenging Gauthier. The save kept him upright but cost several seconds and left the then championship leader fourth.

Declan Bender claimed fifth ahead of Henry Wiles, Trent Lowe, Davis Fisher, Aidan RoosEvans and Hunter Bauer.

The victory elevated Daniels into the championship lead for the first time in 2026, with 226 points to Kopp’s 220 and Bauman’s 214.

Mission AFT SuperTwins – Super TT Results

Mission AFT SuperTwins – Jackpine Gypsies Short Track

If there was any doubt Saturday’s performance was partly down to Daniels’ particular strength on a TT circuit, he removed it on Monday.

The Jackpine Gypsies facility had been transformed into one of the smallest and tightest Short Tracks on the Progressive AFT calendar, but the result at the front remained remarkably similar.

Daniels nailed the start and simply disappeared.

He had stretched the lead to almost four seconds when a red flag just beyond half-distance erased his entire advantage and brought the field back onto his rear wheel.

It made little difference.

Daniels immediately went back to work at the restart and rebuilt his advantage to 3.563 seconds by the chequered flag, completing a perfect Sturgis SuperTwins sweep.

The ride behind him from Briar Bauman was perhaps equally impressive.

Bauman made a disastrous start and was then pushed up the racetrack, leaving him eighth with very few obvious passing opportunities available.

So he created one of his own.

While virtually the entire field hugged the preferred lower line, Bauman committed to the outside and somehow made it work, rolling around one rival after another.

With a minute remaining he swept past Kopp and then Chad Cose to complete his charge into second.

Kopp slipped underneath Cose at virtually the same moment to take third, ensuring the three championship protagonists filled the podium.

Cose held fourth, while Gauthier finished fifth to cap an excellent two-round Sturgis showing for Royal Enfield.

Fisher, Bender, Trent Lowe and RoosEvans crossed the line in close formation from sixth through ninth, while Wiles rounded out the top ten.

Daniels’ two wins have transformed the championship picture. He now leads on 249 points, 13 ahead of Kopp and 16 ahead of Bauman with three rounds remaining.

Mission AFT SuperTwins – Short Track Results

Mission AFT SuperTwins Championship Points

Next Up – Peoria TT

Just three rounds remain in the 2026 Progressive American Flat Track season.

Next comes one of the most famous events in the sport, the 79th running of the Peoria TT at the Peoria Motorcycle Club in Illinois on Saturday, August 22.

Drane will take a 42-point Singles advantage into Peoria, while Daniels heads the much tighter SuperTwins battle by 13 points over Kopp and 16 over Bauman.

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