Tom Drain takes AFT singles lead with Williams Grove win

2026 progressive american flat track

Round 11 – Williams Grove Half-Mile

Saturday saw the race at the Appalachian Harley-Davidson Williams Grove Half-Mile, which marks the 11th round of the 2026 Progressive American Flat Track season, in which Australia’s Tom Drain extended his win streak in AFT singles to five, increasing his buffer over chief rival Chase Saathoff, who had to settle for runner-up on his Husqvarna.

In the Mission AFT Supertwins, Brier Baumann was in form on his Harley

The only support class for the round saw Royal Enfield builds. train. Race. (BTR) The series ended for the year where Madisela Rodriguez dominated, finishing four seconds ahead of nearest rival Emma Gottsch, but Gottsch retained the title.

kicker aft singles

The dominance train of Kicker AFT Singles champion Tom Drain (No. 1 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450) moved into the Williams Grove Half-Mile.

Rival Chase Sathoff had the pace for most of the day, however, in the main event, Drain worked under holeshotter Braden Pfanders and opened up a gap by the end of Lap 1.

Even after Saathoff moved into second place on the next lap, Drain continued to increase his advantage to more than four seconds, claiming his seventh victory of 2026.

tom draine

“I looked back a little bit at the halfway point and saw I had a good gap. I decided to take some fast laps and give it all the effort to the end, which I was able to do. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my entire Estenson Racing Monster Energy Yamaha team.”

While no match for Drain, Saathoff was much better than the rest of the field, running a very lonely race for second place – it was his third such finish in a row and his sixth podium in his last seven starts.

Local hero Logan Eisenhardt emerged from the pack to finish third, as the Pennsylvanian celebrated a popular first Progressive AFT podium in front of the home crowd. He was followed by Jared Lowe to complete the top four of the procession.

Fifth, however, was a different story altogether, as four riders went to the wire in a huge scrap for position. The spot ultimately went to Taryn Santero, who moved from the bottom of the top ten to finish just ahead of early leader Pfanders.

Evan Kelleher finished seventh, 0.009 seconds behind Pfanders, while Walker Porter and Trevor Bruner finished eighth and ninth respectively. Dylan Cunningham finished tenth, joining Eisenhardt and Pfanders as three Pennsylvanians in the top ten.

In this round, Drain’s already significant lead over Saathoff (226-181) increased to 47 points. Cage Tadman, who finished 14th on the night, remains in third place with 153 points.

Kicker AFT Singles – Williams Grove Half-Mile Results

kicker aft singles standings

Mission AFT Supertwins

Pennsylvania transplant Briar Bauman picked up her seventh consecutive win at state in Round 11, the win is actually Bauman’s fifth consecutive win at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, and a streak that ran through 2018.

Ten minutes and two minutes into the two-lap mission in the AFT SuperTwins Main, Cody Kopp ducked under Bauman to take second place. Immediately afterward, Baumann not only defeated Kopp but also passed Dallas Daniels to take control of the lead.

The remainder of the race was tense, with Daniels consistently overtaking Baumann by half a second or more, while planning for a possible strike on the final lap.

And that bid was almost fulfilled. On the final lap, Daniels executed a near-textbook slide-job, slightly ahead of Bauman as he exited Turn 2.

However, Daniels provided enough room for Bauman to return. Baumann then managed to keep the Yamaha Pilot behind him as they negotiated Turns 3 and 4.

The drag race after the checkered flag saw Baumann hold the line just 0.077 seconds late.

The win marked the 40th win of Baumann’s premier-class career, making him the fifth rider to achieve the mark, joining veterans such as Scott Parker, Jared Mees, Chris Carr and Jay Springsteen.

But victorious Rick Ware Racing Ace didn’t want to talk about himself after the race.

briar bauman

“I don’t feel like I deserve to talk about my race tonight; I feel like tonight was in honor of Dan Bromley. There was a family that lost a husband, a son, a father… all of the above. We’re standing in his home state of Pennsylvania. My race was good, but that’s not what tonight is about. I felt like we did an incredible job in honor of Dan.”

Title leader Kopp saw his advantage greatly diminished, as Davis Fisher bounced back from a near-disastrous start to overtake Kopp and score his third consecutive podium finish.

Bender finished fifth, less than half a second behind Kopp, while Trent Lowe took his second consecutive sixth place. Aidan Roose, Evans raced up from an LQC grid slot and finished seventh, while Chad Koss, Hunter Bauer and Dalton Gauthier rounded out the top ten.

With only five races remaining to decide the Grand National Championship, Kopp leads by just three points over Daniels (206-203) and 11 points over Baumann (195).

Mission AFT Supertwins – Williams Grove Half-Mile Results

Mission AFT Supertwins Standings

Royal Enfield Build. train. Race. (BTR)

Madisela Rodriguez kicks off the 2026 Build.Train.Race. (BTR) in supreme fashion by securing their second consecutive win of the season.

Rodríguez and Emma Gottsch traded the lead back and forth a few times at the start, before Rodríguez eventually gained control of the lead and raced away to win the race by more than four seconds.

The entire season belonged to Gotsch, who captured the championship through three wins and two runner-up finishes in five races.

Gottsch actually came late on the trail of Hannah Brewer, who picked up her second podium of the season in third.

Rodriguez’s victory moved her to second place in the final standings, while Julia Heese, who missed the final due to injury, finished third overall.

Royal Enfield Build. train. Race. (BTR) Williams Grove Half-Mile Results

Royal Enfield Build. train. Race. (BTR) standings

next up

Progressive American Flat Track will kick off the 86th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on Saturday, August 8 with the Caterpillar Jackpine Gipsy Super TT.