The triumph was actually his first since the
opening weekend, when he was utterly dominant
en route to a pair of victories under the lights at
Daytona International Speedway. However, the time
in between has been spent no worse than in second
place and in hot pursuit of additional wins. That
consistent excellence has allowed him to assemble
an early 24-point gap over Mees – and considerably
more on everyone else.
Daniels' stiffest competition in Ventura came
from teammate JD Beach, who was in need of a big
result after crashing away a potential podium last
time out at the Dallas Half-Mile.
Beach managed to keep Daniels honest even if
he never really got close enough to mount a seri
-
ous assault. Beach's runner-up though did set his
season back on track while allowing him to reclaim
third in the standings from Bauman.
Unfortunately, the fifth part of that aforemen-
tioned potential five-way battle took another big hit
in what's becoming something of a nightmare cam-
paign. Mission Roof Systems' Brandon Robinson,
VOLUME ISSUE MAY , P91
the ranks in Australia. However, as
the track altered its character, so did
Drane's chances. He still managed to
adapt well enough to earn his second-
best result of the season in seventh.
Drane said, "The day started out pretty
good. We were at a track that was
similar to what I'm used to back home.
But as the groove started to settle in
for the Main Event, I had to try to adapt
to it because I don't normally ride a
groove back home. It took me a little
bit, but I was happy because toward
the end of the race, I started to come
back through the pack."
13 MORGEN MISCHLER
3RD SINGLES
Turner Racing Honda's Morgen Mis-
chler is officially back to form, logging
two consecutive podiums after open-
ing his campaign with a run of 11-10-
6-15. Mischler appeared in danger of
another down outing before pulling
it together as the day played out. He
said, "Dude, we started off slow. I'm
not going to lie. It was hard for me to
be comfortable to put the lap down
and we struggled with gearing. Finally
in the heat race, everything clicked to-
gether. The bike was so good. Huge
shout out to Jimmy Wood and the
Honda Racing team. Overall, it was a
great day. In the Main Event, we got
a solid start and were consistently
there, but they had a little bit on me
in the beginning of the race. I reeled
them in just enough to be like, 'Ah! I
see them!' But the last couple laps,
they ended up kind of getting away,
and I was mainly concerned with
holding my line, keeping my breathing
right, and trying not to make any big
mistakes."
MYOWNRACE
