Dallas Daniels strengthened his bid for the American Flat Track Singles crown

Image Thumbnail

Dallas Daniels strengthened his bid for the AFT Singles crown with another dominant victory Saturday night at the Dallas Half-Mile II, in Mesquite, Texas. His teammate Mikey Rush joined him on the podium for a stellar Estenson Racing 1-2 finish at Round 10 of the Progressive American Flat Track Series. On the AFT SuperTwins side of the tent, JD Beach returned to a top-10 finish. Kolby Carlile ended the day in 14th.

Daniels continues to gain momentum as the season progresses. After winning both the Semi and Main the night before, he picked up where he left off and was the fastest qualifier on day two, with his teammate Rush in third. The Estenson duo battled each other in the Semi with Daniels coming out on top to start on pole for the Main Event. When the lights went out, it was Rush got off to a good start in second. Back in fourth, Daniels put his head down and quickly worked his way forward. He passed his teammate on lap four, and then a few laps later, made the same move on his title rival to take over the lead and go unchallenged for the second time this weekend. Daniels is the only rider in the competitive AFT Singles class to win more than one race this season, earning a total of five wins to sit at the top of the standings with a 34-point lead.

After Daniels made his way through, Rush was able to follow suit a couple of laps later and make the pass for second. Feeling less than 100% after getting his leg caught in a hole during Friday night’s race, the Californian focused on keeping the runner-up spot. With the championship on the line, the competition made a late-race push, but Rush was able to hold him off for a 1-2 finish for the team. His efforts moved him back up to the third in the standings.

The AFT SuperTwins team had a better day with Beach solidly in the top 10. He got a decent start in his Semi and was running sixth before being pushed up the track to avoid another rider going off track, ultimately finishing seventh. In the Main Event, he got a good start from the fourth row of the grid into sixth and then got shuffled back to eighth. As time ran out on the clock, he lost a couple more positions and crossed the line 10th. His young teammate Carlile continued to work on finding comfort on the grooved clay track. The New Yorker started in 16th and kept pushing on and improved to 14th.

The Estenson Racing team heads east to Woodstock, Georgia, for the Progressive American Flat Track Series Atlanta Short Track doubleheader on October 2-3.

Tommy Hayden
Estenson Racing Team Manager
“It was a great night for our AFT Singles team. Dallas was able to pull off the double and Mikey was able to get second for a 1-2 finish for our team. The crew and riders have really been firing on all cylinders the last few races. We just need to stay focused and keep the momentum rolling.

“The Twins guys had a little better night with JD closer to the front guys and running in the top 10 for the entire race. Kolby did not make the gains he had hoped for the Main Event, but both guys kept their head down and pushed hard until the end of the race. Fortunately, we will be testing here again tomorrow and can hopefully learn some stuff that can help up improve for next week’s race in Atlanta.”

Tommy Hayden
Dallas Daniels
Estenson Racing AFT Singles
“It was a perfect day at the Dallas Half-Mile. We were the fastest qualifier, won the Semi and won the Main Event, and on top of that, extended our points lead. After missing the Main Event earlier this year at Volusia, we had to claw our way back up, but now we’re there and we’re the guys. I’m really happy about that. It’s also really cool to come here to Dallas and be able to say, ‘Dallas does the double in Dallas.’ I kind of wanted to do that all weekend. No one has won the double in the Singles class, so that’s cool. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year on this amazing motorcycle with this amazing team.”

Dallas Daniels
Mikey Rush
Estenson Racing AFT Singles
“I had a good night at the Dallas Half-Mile II. I was a little bit injured from the night before. I had to dig deep and put down some smooth laps. I was able to finish second and regain some points in the championship, which was great. It was also awesome to go 1-2 with my teammate Dallas and reward the Estenson Racing guys for all of their hard work.”

Mikey Rush
JD Beach
Estenson Racing AFT SuperTwins
“The day went a bit better for us. The track conditions didn’t change as much between the day to the night. In the Main Event, I got a good jump from the fourth row and got up to around sixth on the first lap. As the race went on the track was getting rough and we just weren’t ready for that. Between that and the rear tire getting hot we started working our way back a bit. It’s not what we wanted but we went better than the night before. We’ll keep working on making progress.”

JD Beach
Kolby Carlile
Estenson Racing AFT SuperTwins
“I just feel like I had a bit of an off weekend with my riding. We kept progressing with the bike each time on the track. I was happy with how we ended in qualifying. We messed up a little bit with the tire selection for the Semi, but I just felt like the rest of the night I was a tick off with my riding. I think I was suffering from not feeling super comfortable. We have a short week before Atlanta, but we keep figuring things out with the bike each week.”

About Michael Le Pard 10080 Articles
"Mr. Totalmotorcycle". Owner and Founder of Total Motorcycle, the World’s Largest Motorcycle Site with over 425 million readers since 1999. Total Motorcycle is my pride and joy and being able to reach 425 million people has been incredible and I could not have done it without the support of my visitors, readers and members...thank you so much! We are all making a difference to millions of riders worldwide.