FLAT TRACK
PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN FLAT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 14-15 / OCTOBER 16-17, 2020
DAY TONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY/ DAY TONA BEACH, FLORIDA
P60
BY ANDREA WILSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMERICAN FLAT TRACK/
SCOTT HUNTER
B
randon Robinson won the
battle with the double win at
the Progressive American
Flat Track season finale last week-
end in Daytona Beach, Florida,
but the defending AFT SuperTwins
Champion, Briar Bauman, won
the war. A second-place finish on
Friday night and a fourth-place fin-
ish on Saturday's rain delayed race
was enough to hold a determined
Jared Mees at bay for Bauman's
back-to-back title run.
"The feeling right now is, I'm just
numb," Bauman said. "I haven't
slept in like two weeks. I told myself
that with the second one I should
know the emotion, I should know
the feeling, but it was way closer
this year than last year."
Last year, Bauman secured the
crown a weekend early. This year
it came down to the wire on a very
nerve-wracking weekend.
"This one feels better than the
first one, honestly," Bauman said.
"They say the first one can be
lucky, and I think that for us, to
come back and win the second
one, I think that we were good
rather than lucky. The season didn't
really look like something I wanted
to ride. Obviously, I'm up for every
challenge but I love TTs, I love
short tracks. So, it was like, shoot,
'Jared is going to be great all year.'
He was. He was so good. So, to
beat him again this season, with
the shortened schedule, the two-
day events, it means a lot to me as
a motorcycle racer and a lot to me
as a competitor."
It was definitely a fierce battle
all season long with the two Indian
Motorcycle Progressive Insurance
riders trading blows at each of the
doubleheaders before Bauman
was able to put a gap on Mees with
four-straight wins at Williams Grove
and Dallas. For Robinson the year
itself was a personal battle as the
HCRR Racing/Ben Evans Racing
rider had to fight his way back from
multiple injuries: a broken ankle
before the season started and a
broken foot from hitting the wall
Briar Bauman
sealed the deal on
his second-straight
premier-class
American Flat Track
Championship
during a wild
weekend of racing
at the Daytona
Short Track
season finale
Briar Bauman once
again bested his rival
and Indian Motorcycle
teammate Jared Mees
to keep the number-
one plate.
WINNING
THE WAR
