FLAT TRACK
AMERICAN FL AT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUNDS 5-6 / SEPTEMBER 5-6, 2020
ILLINOIS STATE FAIRGROUNDS / SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS
P74
"It was a carnage race, abso-
lute carnage," said Rispoli. "In
the end, I fired it up the inside in
Turns three and four, was able to
get a little bit of a gap, tucked for
dear life, and no one came by."
Varnes, Gillim, Texter, Eslick,
Nick Armstrong (Lessley Broth-
ers Racing/Competetive Sheet
Metal, Yamaha MT-07), Wells and
Kevin Stollings (Roof Systems of
Dallas TX/Motion Pro, Kawasaki
Nina 650) filled out the top 10, all
under one second off the lead.
AFT SINGLES
In an unusual scheduling quirk,
American Flat Track scheduled
two Singles main events for the
Friday night Short Track at the
Fairgrounds Arena. The after-
noon qualifying sessions were
used to set two semi races that
would advance 16 riders into the
tobody, Kawasaki Ninja 650),
Lowe, Varnes, Pat Buchanan
(Parkinson Brothers Racing/Pro
1 Industries, Kawasaki Ninja 650)
and Hayden Gillim (Burcham &
Glidden Racing/Vance & Hines,
Harley-Davidson XG750R).
Varnes worked his way to the
front, looking to repeat his Satur-
day performance. With less than
a minute remaining on the race
clock the red flag came out as
Pat Buchanan fell.
The mad scramble restart
saw Varnes holding a narrow
advantage but when the two-lap
signal came out, it was Rispoli in
the lead for the first time. It was
Lowe in front for the white flag,
but Rispoli was able to pull just
enough of a lead out of turn four
to hold off Lowe and Cose at the
finish line.
(G&G Racing/Roof Systems of
Dallas, Yamaha MT-07) inserted
himself into the mix.
Varnes led off turn four and
held off Cose by just over a 10th
of a second. Lowe and Texter
were also in the draft to the line.
"We had some issues earlier
in the day, but we battled through
them. The bike ran awful in the
semi," said Varnes. "We tore
our secondary bike apart just
to get our primary bike back up
and running for that main event
and luckily it just ran flawlessly. It
was so easy to ride, and it didn't
seem they could draft by me."
Sunday's AFT Production final
was a race the crowd had come
for as Cose, Rispoli and Texter
fought over the lead. Also in the
mix were Ryan Wells (Parkinson
Brothers Racing/Waters Au-
James Rispoli
(43) out-dueled
Saturday's
Production Twins
winner Varnes for
the win on Sunday.
