BY CHRIS MARTIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM LESTER & KRISTEN LASSEN
I
t doesn't matter how many times the DuQuoin
Mile works its magic; the venue's high-speed,
high-drama theater always delivers. Apparently,
it also doesn't matter how long it makes you wait
for that payoff. This year's Magic Mile certainly
did so for a spell before rewarding that patience
with a pair of stunning main events, concluding
what was originally meant to be an epic Indepen
-
dence Day celebration, one day late.
A resolute core of fans stuck it out despite be-
ing rained out late on the Fourth of July and then
made to wait much of Sunday. The series hoped
to return to action early that morning, only to
fight a war on a surface that was alternately too
wet and too dry, sometimes both at once.
But finally, the Mission AFT SuperTwins class
lined up for 14 minutes and two laps of all-out
action at the 2026 Grand National Champion
-
ship's first Mile-based brawl.
And while ultimately decided by 0.012 of a
second, it was just as much won by a measure
of months. One year to the day earlier, Estenson
Racing Yamaha's Dallas Daniels stood atop the
podium in Du Quoin, flanked by fellow tuning-fork
representatives James Ott on the G&G Yamaha
and Declan Bender on the OTB Racing Yamaha.
ROUND 10 / JULY 5, 2026
DU QUOIN STATE FAIRGROUNDS / DU QUOIN, ILLINOIS
FLAT TRACK I AMA PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN FLAT TRACK
P84
COMES ALIVE
KOPP
Kody Kopp gets his first win since the opening two rounds at Daytona.
