IIIMY OWN RACE:
18 MAX WHALE
1-8 SINGLES
"I don't think I could have got any
be er of a start to the year than this,"
Max Whale said a er Friday night's
win. "I'm pumped—I can't believe it. I
had a bit of an ordinary start and came
from about fourth or fi h. It felt like
that race went forever! I could just
feel the boys breathing down my neck
the whole me. I just tried to keep
smooth, consistent laps. I knew if I
made one mistake, I would be buried
in the pack."
68 RYAN VARNES
1-11 PRODUCTION TWINS
"There was a li le contact," Ryan
Varnes said a er Friday night's win
and the close encounter he had with
James Rispoli. "I figured I had to get ag-
gressive out there in that main event.
James rode a solid race the whole me
and didn't really leave any openings for
me. I kind of just made my opportunity
that one lap, and he was able to hold
me off and come back around. On that
last lap, I had a run around the outside
and thought, 'I'm just going to go
for it.' I had to. I didn't want to come
in second, especially at the season
opener."
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 29 JULY 21, 2020 P67
PROTOCOL
With every state adopting differ-
ent guidelines, American Flat Track
was forced to implement a stringent
protocol in order to have the events,
including the wearing of masks,
temperature checkpoints, limited pit
access and the always popular social
distancing. Even with Florida being
one of the "hot spots," AFT was able
to get the season underway. It is still
uncertain where it goes from here,
though.
MORE TIME
Along with several class structure
changes came the all-new timed
main events. The all-new SuperTwins
mains on half miles is 12 minutes plus
two laps. When all was said and done
Friday's main was 37 laps and Satur-
day's 38 laps. This results in much
longer races and much more lapped
traffic than in the traditional 25-lap
races. "It was hard. I know they are
racing for position, too, but they need
to do a better job with the blue flag,"
said Briar Bauman of the lappers. "It
was intense," said Robinson. "This
track is really hard to pass on, but it is
what it is." Both the AFT Singles and
the AFT Production Twins went well
beyond their 15-lap totals of previous
years.
Briefly...
Defending champ Briar Bauman (1) had
to fight for his second-place finishes both
nights, which included a lap-last pass on
Sammy Halbert (69) in race one. Bauman
led early in Saturday's race two but had
nothing for his teammate, Mees. Brandon
Robinson (44) took third after an early
tussle with fourth-place finisher Halbert.
