little bit of a fairy tale, but Dal-
las caught up to me and beat
me.
Tonight, we were off, and
we made some big changes,
and I'm so damn proud of the
Rick Ware Racing/Parts Plus/
Jacob Company/Latus Motors
team. Man, like, second race on
this thing; a lot of people said it
couldn't compete. And we just
went head-to-head with [Daniels
and Yamaha] two nights in a row
at our first race weekend."
AFT SINGLES
The 2025 AFT Singles title con-
tenders thought they were finally
done with the class' long-ruling
champion Kody
Kopp, who was
recruited by Kenny Roberts to
try his hand at road racing in
2025 after winning the 450cc
crown in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Preseason title favorites Tom
Drane and Chase Saathoff even
did an admirable job of taking
the baton before Kopp made his
exit, properly vanquishing him
by running 1-2 in the final three
races of the '24 campaign.
Unfortunately for them, Kopp
wasn't willing to let them off the
hook quite that easily. With an
opening in his preseason train
-
ing schedule that aligned with
the Progressive
AFT opener,
Kopp pulled together a last-min-
ute entry, both encouraged and
supported
by Bob Lanphere, and
completely obliterated the field
both nights.
Even a crash suffered during
Friday's sighting lap couldn't pre
-
vent him from pulling clear on
the opening lap and
essentially
turning the week into one long
victory celebration while push-
ing his career victory record that
much further
out of reach.
It was a quiet week for Esten-
son Racing ace Drane. But quiet
is better
than last year's opener,
which saw him end up in the dirt
on the final lap after clashing
with Saathoff, a result that may
have ultimately cost him the
crown. The Aussie's 2-3 week
hands him the effective points
lead with Kopp not defending.
This year it was Saathoff's
turn to deal with the drama.
He was left on the line waving
his arms at the start of Thurs
-
ROUNDS 1-2 / MARCH 6-7, 2025
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY / DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
FLAT TRACK I AMA PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN FLAT TRACK
P106
In Singles, Chase
Saathoff capped
off the two days of
short track racing
in second place.
