Australian young gun Tom Drane continued his red-hot form in the Progressive American Flat Track series, charging to a dramatic and hard-fought win at the iconic DuQuoin Mile to notch up his third straight AFT Singles victory and take control of the championship standings.
The Estenson Racing Yamaha rider has turned his season around in the space of just over a week, going from a lengthy winless streak to an imposing 20-point lead in the AFT Singles presented by KICKER class. His latest triumph came in a breathtaking eight-rider draft war, where less than four-tenths of a second covered the top eight across the finish line.
“It was dangerous coming off that last corner,” Drane admitted post-race. “I just wanted to get out there straight to the front and do everything I could to win that one. It is what it is, and I guess I just have to put my head down and come out on top.”
And come out on top he did—by just 0.020 seconds over fierce rival Chase Saathoff, who had hounded the Australian throughout the Main Event and wasn’t shy in voicing his frustration afterward. The pair’s intense battle included several elbows-out moments, with one particularly sketchy incident seeing Saathoff’s boot make contact with Drane’s handlebar through a high-speed corner.
“I thought I set myself up good on the final lap,” Saathoff said. “But it seems to me that Tom Drane doesn’t know how to go in a straight line sometimes. But that’s okay. We’re going to look past it and move on to the next one.”
Despite the tension, Drane proved once again that he’s the rider to beat in the second half of the season. Trevor Brunner completed the podium just 0.060 seconds back from the win, while a late-race shuffle saw Hunter Bauer and Evan Renshaw edge into the top five ahead of Bradon Pfanders, who had run up front all race before being swallowed up at the line.
Even Chad Cose and Tarren Santero, who were both in the mix until the final turn, had to settle for seventh and eighth respectively in one of the tightest finishes of the season.
Drane’s stellar run has lifted him to 153 points—20 clear of Saathoff (133), with Brunner third on 114 and Santero trailing in fourth on 87 as the championship hits the halfway point.
The Progressive AFT series continues with a much-anticipated debut at the Lucas Oil Short Track in Wheatland, Missouri, on Friday, July 18.
