Royal Enfield's Dalton Gauthier
and Pro Roofing/Parker Racing
Yamaha's Chad Cose, who ran
second and third early, served
as de facto cover for Daniels'
getaway.
By half-distance he was nearly
four seconds out in front. How
-
ever, that unassailable advan-
tage was made assailable by
way
of a red flag.
Shaken yet not stirred, Daniels
picked up where he left off in the
subsequent staggered restart
and ultimately closed out his
runaway victory with a(nother)
near-four-second margin in
hand.
Bauman, the career leader in
Short Track wins by a wide mar
-
gin, proved just how formidable
he
might have been even handi-
capped with a subpar start as
opposed
to the disastrous one
he suffered. Stuck near the back
of the top 10 on an ultratight cir-
cuit where riders were typically
forced
to sit down low and wait
for an opponent to make a mis
-
take before they could lunge up
the inside,
Bauman instead flung
his XG750R around the outside.
While a questionable tactic
initially, Bauman slowly made
it work to his advantage and
gradually powered around one
adversary after another.
While Daniels was well clear,
the two-time Grand National
Champion ultimately put every
-
one else behind him to finish
as
the race's runner-up while
left pondering what might have
been.
Kopp, stuck in fourth for much
of the contest, minimized any
further damage by diving under
-
neath Cose at the same moment
Bauman sailed
above him to
grasp third.
As a result, the three-rider
title tilt remains as such, only
with the defending champion in
the driver's seat with just three
rounds remaining. After his huge
week, Daniels is now 13 points
clear of Kopp (249-236) with
Bauman another three points
back (233) in third.
In the Singles class, Chase
Saathoff's catastrophic Super
TT—in which he barreled into
defending champion, points
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2026 P45
Briar Bauman (3), here
battling Declan Bender,
kept his title hopes
alive with second place.
Bauman is third in the
championship, 16 points
behind Daniels and three
behind Kody Kopp.
