Dallas Daniels Scores First-Career American Flat Track Win in Peoria

It feels awesome, not only for me to get my first win, but to reward everybody who’s been helping me over the years and my awesome team, Estenson Racing. We’ve had to face some adversity already here at the beginning of our short season, but it’s been good for us because we’ve been learning how to rebound and how to come back stronger when we have bad days. 

“Coming here I felt really confident. I have ridden this track a couple times. My dad always went very well here. I was in the top three in both qualifying sessions, got third my Heat race, won the Semi, so we were sitting second for the Main Event. I knew I had the speed. I just had to get an okay start. I didn’t really need to holeshot it. I just needed to play it safe the first few laps. I got past Jesse [Janisch] going into turn one, and he ran it up the inside of me, and I was actually able to square up him and [Ryan] Sipes and pass both of them at the same time. Then I followed [Dan] Bromley for a little bit. I had kind of a line going off the jump through the right-hander and the left. I would get out a little wider and miss the bumps going into turn three. Bromley hit them and huckabucked, and I was able to get to the bottom and pass him. That was really it. At about two laps to go, I looked back just to make sure – because I was starting to kind of make some mistakes. I was making myself tired and getting nervous, but coming across the line and seeing everybody and being able to take my dad and sister for our first victory lap, it’s hard to put into words. My family, my mom, my sister, they’ve all done so much for me. My grandma, my grandpa, my mechanics – Josie, Larry... Everybody’s done so much, and to get it here at my home track, it was awesome.

I started off the day pretty good. I was fifth in the first qualifying session, but I had to miss the second qualifying session. We went out for the Heat race and the track just got way rougher than the last time I was out there. It was just really hard for me to kind of catch up, I think. It’s a tough track. There’s one thing about this track, when jump is rough, it’s hard for me to get used to it. Of course, the jump got rough today. I just was not comfortable at all. It’s definitely not the results we were looking for, but we’re looking forward to the Springfield Short Track. We’re going to try to make another run for it and finish off the year strong.

It just was hard because I felt like we had more speed, but going through turns one, two, three and four, the bike didn’t roll through the turn as well as I hoped. I was behind (Jared) Mees. He would make ground, and then I would make ground on him. We were just kind of going back and forth, but there really wasn’t anywhere where I could get by him. With four laps to go, Rob (Pearson) got by me in the last turn. He came flying by me. I had a feeling that he knew that we were fighting for third. Going into the last lap, he was real close to me. I wanted to make sure I was right there. I knew he was going to try the same pass (on Mees) that he did on me. When he was going for that, I kind of set up wide and turned it and got a good drive. Then Rob wheelied and started coming over, we came together but I just stayed on the gas. To get third is great. We’ve got some Miles ahead of us now, looking to see what we can do.

Not the Peoria I was hoping for. I felt okay today, I just couldn’t get going the way I wanted to all day. In the Main Event I felt okay, just had some big moments down in turn three and four. So, I had to play it safe down there and try to make some time up on the rest of the track where I felt like I could at times. It was just kind of give and take the whole race. As the race went on, I felt like I kind of figured out an okay way to get around, but at that time it was a little too late. There must have been a serious battle going on in front of me. I think towards the end I was going their pace, but got into some lappers. They were not quite courteous and not really getting out of the way. A disappointing day for me, but we’ll take a couple weeks off and go to Springfield.

I’m super happy with how today went. I felt pretty good all day. I qualified twelfth overall and finished up the Main Event in 10th. I put in a solid 25 laps that I’m really happy with. We had an issue before the Main Event, so I had to hop on my backup bike, which I hadn't ridden all day and it didn’t have the best suspension for what we needed. Nothing we could have predicted, but we pulled together. I kept my head level and just put in a solid 25 laps. I rode hard. It was my first time ever getting lapped and I didn’t want to mess up the winners’ race. I had a pretty good gap on 10th place until I got lapped. I think when I got lapped I just got in my head a little bit and I couldn’t hit my marks after that, so I fell back to 10th, but no big deal. I’m learning. A top 10 is a good, respectable finish for me today at Peoria. The team worked great. I can’t thank my mechanic and crew chief enough. I’m looking forward to Springfield.

It was not a terrible day. I had my best qualifying effort. The track got a little rough and I kind of struggled in my Semi, but was feeling better in the Main. I was going decent, right around the top 10, and then the last couple laps just something happened and the bike was cutting out. To be honest, it was a pretty solid day. I was a lot farther up than I have been any other races, from first practice to Semis and stuff. So I’m definitely improving and was happy to get some decent laps in, and really ride the bike a lot. I would have liked to finish better, but things happen. Looking forward to the next one already.