the rulebook gifted them back a
millimeter, their inlet restrictors
expanding from 34mm to 35 at
the miles and TTs.
While that no doubt helped,
Mees' true ace-in-the-hole
was a further leaning into his
machine's inherent strengths.
Hooked up and on rails all day
long, by the time the main event
rolled around, the question was
no longer if Mees could win, but
whether or not Daniels could
Considering that the Yamaha
phenom took a big step forward
in 2023 as a second-year Mis
-
sion SuperTwins contender and
had
built himself a healthy title
advantage via a perfect run of
firsts and seconds, the return to
Sacramento felt like an invitation
to him to do further damage.
Mees and the rest of the Indi
-
an contingent did receive a small
rebalancing
in their direction
prior to the race when a tweak of
ROUND 7 / MAY 13, 2023
CAL EXPO / SACRAMENTO MILE, CALIFORNIA
FLAT TRACK I PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN FLAT TRACK
P94
3 BRIAR BAUMAN 7TH
MISSION SUPERTWINS
Rick Ware Racing's Briar Bauman
repeated his worst tally of the season
in seventh but also demonstrated that
he's not all that far away from return-
ing to the top step of the podium. As
he explained, what he really needs
now is one "uneventful day." "[I was]
up and down all day," Bauman said. "I
crashed in qualifying after fast qualify-
ing in the session before that. We had
a real big issue with shifting. I kept
catching a false neutral. It was just
catching for me the whole time. I got
out with the lead guys and was exactly
where I envisioned I would be. But I
had that same issue—I went into Turn
3 and flew off the line. I thought I was
going to go into the fence again, but
fortunately I didn't. I got back to them
and did the same thing, and that was
kind of it. It's a little frustrating because
the speed is there. The bike is really
fast, and that's awesome because I
haven't ever really had that before. I
just want to have one uneventful day,
and we didn't have that today."
MYOWNRACE
52 SHAYNA TEXTER-
BAUMAN 8TH SINGLES
Hopes that Shayna Texter-Bauman
might earn a fifth-career Sacramento
Mile win largely went up in smoke
Dallas Daniels continued
his streak of first- or
second-place finishes
with a runner up at the
2023 Sacramento Mile.
He maintained a 20-point
margin over Mees in the
Championship.
