DUQUOIN, In poor health. — Progressive American Flat Monitor, sanctioned by AMA Professional Racing, will rejoice Independence Day weekend in explosive vogue with the Memphis Shades DuQuoin Mile on the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds July 5.
The season’s first contest of final velocity and technique at a high-speed Mile will function the fruits of a week-long celebration of one of the iconic and intrinsically American types of motorsport. Progressive AFT is sharing the highlight with the Roof Techniques AMA Flat Monitor Grand Championship.
The truth is, the newbie championship motion is already underway, with the nation’s future stars having kicked off their week on Sunday, June 29 and operating proper up till they hand the venue over to the world’s best skilled bike dust trackers on Saturday.
Whereas the Springfield Mile is commonly considered the crown jewel of the season’s schedule, the DuQuoin Mile – a circuit legendary for its outright velocity, continuous drama, and photo-finishes – is the right host for the yr’s first Mile.
Often called the “Magic Mile” – and for good motive – the DuQuoin Mile was famously the battleground for the closest ever end within the seven-decade-plus historical past of the Grand Nationwide Championship; in 2015, Jared Mees beat Bryan Smith by an impossibly shut 0.000 seconds to say the victory.
Since returning to the annual slate in 2023, the DuQuoin Mile has seen 4 riders in with a shot at victory proper as much as the checkered flag.
Final season, Mees edged Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT), Brandon Worth, and Briar Bauman (No. 3 RWR/Elements Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R) by margins of 0.389, 0.444, and 0.686 seconds, respectively.
And that was a relative blowout in comparison with the showdown in ‘23, the place Mees overcame the problem of Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Techniques Harley-Davidson XG750R), Daniels, and Bauman by 0.033, 0.097, and 0.160 seconds, respectively.
Masters Of The Mile
Whereas a mixed mastery of all 4 dust monitor disciplines – Mile, Half-Mile, Brief Monitor, and TT – is the last word measure of a dust monitor racer, the Mile is usually considered the game’s signature type.
It usually takes years for a rider to grasp the finer factors of race-long technique and final-lap ways. However as soon as it lastly does click on into place, a rider can show almost unbeatable in that area.
Regardless of their ultra-close nature, the ending order of a Mile isn’t random. Every era usually sees the emergence of a Mile maestro who racks up winner’s trophies whereas leaving the opposition with treasured little alternative for glory.
That torch has been handed alongside in current many years from Scott Parker to Chris Carr to Bryan Smith to Jared Mees. Led by Parker’s 55 Mile wins, all 4 boast at the very least 25 Mile wins, whereas solely 5 different riders have even damaged into the double digits courting again to the sequence’ origins in 1954.
Curiously, whereas the presence of ten-time Grand Nationwide Champion Mees loomed giant at Lima – the scene of his maiden premier-class win and the place he now serves as co-promoter – he may solid a fair longer shadow this weekend in DuQuoin.
Mees fully dominated the self-discipline in recent times, a incontrovertible fact that served because the cornerstone for his run to immortality.
In the course of the full breadth of the Indian period (2017-2024), Mees received 66% of all Miles (27-41), regardless of overlapping with the later days of Smith’s Mile mastery. Mees turned much more dominant as time went on, claiming 13 of the newest 17 Miles (76%) since 2021.
Consequently, his retirement left only a mixed eight Miles wins unfold out amongst the energetic area of full-time racers – three apiece for Bauman and Robinson, and two for Daniels.
Which of the three is almost certainly to take the torch and run with it?
Daniels and his Yamaha will probably be sturdy, there may be little doubt of that.
The Harley is extra of a query mark, simply because it’s an unknown on the Miles in its present guise with its present riders. Nevertheless, the identical was mentioned concerning the XG750R and the cushion Half-Mile of Lima, and seemed how that turned out.
It’s The FBI…
New era Quick Boy from Illinois, Declan Bender (No. 70 Memphis Shades/Corbin/OTB Racing Yamaha MT-07) made an enormous impression in his return to the scene at Lima.
He went into Ohio with comparatively modest expectations. How may or not it’s any totally different, contemplating he was new to the workforce and the bike and using a monitor that isn’t completely suited to his fashion?
And but he did that. Bender poked his method up into fourth in Friday’s Principal Occasion 3, after which earned the place for actual by pushing Robinson to the flag in the hunt for a podium lead to Saturday’s rematch.
His confidence should be hovering as he seems to be to defend his residence turf on a monitor the place he completed sixth a yr in the past and the place his new mount completed on the field within the arms of Brandon Worth.
I’m Not Alone
Bender isn’t the one rider with the potential to make this one other DuQuoin Mile the place ending inside fractions of a second of the winner is not any assure of a podium.
Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing KTM 790 Duke) and Jarod VanDerKooi (No. 20 Fastrack Racing/Wally Brown Racing KTM 790 Duke) each have big-time abilities and are motivated for bounce-back performances after battling by way of comparatively powerful outings at Lima. That and the KTM mill packs an enormous punch and is a confirmed Mile monster.
In the meantime, the foursome of Dan Bromley (No. 62 Memphis Shades/Vinson Development Suzuki GSX-8S), James Ott (No. 19 G&G Racing Yamaha MT-07), Max Whale (No. 18 Moto Anatomy X Powered by Royal Enfield 650), and Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Progressive Insurance coverage Honda Transalp), proceed to impress week-in and week-out whereas demonstrating the success of the brand new all-production bike ruleset.
Regardless of their range of equipment, three of the 4 managed to complete fifth or higher at Lima, whereas the one holdout – Lowe – is knocking on the door, choosing up the second and third sixth-place finishes of his season final weekend.
