Cycle News

tory margin of greater than 2.5 seconds. After Senoia, Bauman admit- ted that it was taking longer than he'd anticipated to gel with his new crew, led by Bryan Bigelow, especially as they tried to imple - ment more radical setup chang- es to the XG750R. But with another month to regroup and get the bike back where they needed it, Bauman is once again showing why he's widely considered the most talented rider in the field at the moment, not to mention the same title fighter who twice took down Jared Mees in his prime, even with equal machinery. Even with his resurgence, however, Bauman still has an uphill climb ahead of him. Kopp, in particular, has already proven himself a week-in, week-out presence at the front, even as he begins to accumulate premier- class experience. After opening his Mission AFT SuperTwins career in historic fashion with a pair of wins at Daytona, the Washingtonian has strung together three consecu - tive runner-up finishes in which he kept things interesting in races that would have otherwise been blowouts of eight, six and three seconds. Despite his rookie status, Kopp is wiser to championship strategy than most, with three AFT Singles crowns to his name and the GNC-winning combo of Dave Zanotti and Michelle Disalvo behind him. Surprisingly, the campaign that feels the shakiest at the mo - ment is that of defending champ From that point forward, the race for the win was waged by the Harley-mounted duo of Bauman and Kopp on the tim- ing sheets as much as on the track. The experienced Bauman stretched his advantage over rookie Kopp to more than two seconds before Kopp trimmed it back to just over a second with two minutes to go. Bauman wicked it back up at that point, however, slashing his way through lappers as he worked his way to a final vic - Dallas Daniels. While he and the powerful Estenson Racing effort that fields him will no doubt put things back in their natural order in short order, Daniels was gifted a third a week ago and then beaten to that same position by rookie Aidan RoosEvans, who made it a Harley-Davidson sweep of the podium, on Saturday. In fact, early on, Daniels seemed in danger of being swallowed up and shuffled back to the lower half of the top 10 before he found his footing and chased after RoosEvans. While a third and close fourth would be anything but worrying outings for just about any other rider, the Yamaha superstar had not finished off the podium, and rarely worse than second, in more than two full seasons outside of the single exception, which came last year when he was knocked off the bike by Bauman in Sturgis. That Daniels has shown even minor signs of vulnerability in third top 10 finish of the season. De- spite the solid finish, Brucks admitted that he's doing his best to learn along the way, and that isn't always easy. He said, "The start of the day was rough. I couldn't figure out the track. It was super inconsistent, and my suspension was off. We made a big change, moved up a bit in qualifying, and then went out for my heat race. I got fifth, which I think ties my best finish in a heat race so far. I felt great, but I didn't get a good start in the main. I got pushed back and couldn't do anything. The track was super hard to figure out, weird dirt. I don't know, I just couldn't figure it out. But it was a good night overall." MYOWNRACE VOLUME 63 ISSUE 18 MAY 5, 2026 P91 (Above) Points leader Kody Kopp (12) got into second place but couldn't catch Bauman. (Left) Aidan RoosEvans threw his championship hat into the ring by finishing third in the main.

• Cover