Kolby Carlile is really liking the Mile tracks in 2018. The Estenson Racing rider executed another master-class performance Saturday night at the Minnesota Mile to take his third win of the season on his Yamaha YZ450F.
Carlile and his crew put in a lot of hours prepping for the penultimate American Flat Track round at Canterbury Park, and it paid dividends. The 2017 AFT Singles champ led every session, won his Heat and led from start to finish in the Main. Although on paper it was a perfect night, during the final moments of the race, Carlile had a big scare with an electrical gremlin. Thankfully, though, luck swung his way, and he was able to keep his lead and cross the finish line on top.
Kolby Carlile – AFT Singles #1:
“Yeah, I led wire to wire to broken wire, almost ending the perfect wire-to-wire win.
“We worked really hard these past couple weeks. We definitely weren’t just sitting around. We took the bikes apart. Found some things that we could improve on, found some new stuff. Obviously, it paid off. We did fix a broken wire the other night. I think it broke again with four laps to go in the Main event. It got pretty bad out there. I was starting to freak out thinking I wasn’t even going to be able to finish the race. Luckily, everything worked out to where I could finish the race and win it. It definitely wasn’t optimal at the end, but I knew if we could get the bike to start up one more time coming through three and four to the checkered flag I’d win it.
“I’ve just got to give a big thanks to my team. They gave me a motorcycle that makes my job a little bit easier. I can really focus on just riding hard and not having to worry about people being able to draft me super easily. All thanks to them. A perfect night again. It’s awesome.”
Catch the Minnesota Mile on NBCSN, October 14 at 2:00 p.m. ET.
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