but not Wiles, which in turn
catapulted Kopp up to fourth in
the final results.
RoosEvans, meanwhile,
tumbled down to 12th overall,
while elevating Dalton Gauthier,
in his first ride back with Royal
Enfield, up to a solid sixth.
Bauman saw the result for
what it was, a fortunate win, but
a win nonetheless, and one that
moved him into the lead of the
Grand National Championship
for the first time all year.
He said, "We just worked at it.
It's tough because Kody broke.
The thing that's tough is I felt
good, so it's always hard to read
that. So, either way, we did exactly
what we wanted to do: just work
at it. We accepted that we weren't
the fastest, but we were going
to work harder than anyone else,
and we did. All the credit to Kody;
he was ripping today. I don't think
we had anything from those first
two, but I really would have loved
to see where we're at. He was
super quick. We'll just try again
tomorrow. Hopefully, he's all
dialed, and we'll go ahead."
Half Mile II
In fact, the two swapped posi-
tions on Saturday. Bauman con-
trolled his heat race, in which
Kopp
finished third, also trailing
a very racy Jeffrey Carver Jr,
who was subbing on the in-
jured Brandon Robinson's Mis-
sion Roof Systems XG750R.
Bauman then
won the
Mission #2Fast2Tasty Chal-
lenge race (again with Carver
second),
and Kopp was forced
to seek his revenge from row
two in the main.
All the while, Daniels kept
his head down, winning his
heat and slowly improving his
form. Come the main event,
the champ jumped out front
despite nearly being eclipsed
by Kopp, who nailed the start
from the second row.
The two then settled into a
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2026 P97
28 KAGE TADMAN
6TH /4TH SINGLES
More than any other challenger,
Turner Racing Honda's Kage
Tadman showed the sheer speed to
run with Tom Drane. Unfortunately,
that speed came only as a result
of hanging his CRF450R so far out
that it looked like he could crash in
any turn. And in two of them, he did.
"Today was definitely a whole lot
better than yesterday," he said on
Sunday. "I took another spill in the
Dash, but I felt good going into the
main event. I knew what I needed to
do and was able to execute it pretty
well. I've still got plenty of things to
work on, but you know, fourth place
isn't bad."
MYOWNRACE
