Estenson Racing’s Ryan Wells took home a sixth-place finish in challenging conditions at the inaugural Laconia Short Track, June 2, in Loudon, New Hampshire. Although not the result he was hoping for, it was a valuable points-haul to sit fifth in American Flat Track’s AFT Singles Championship.
It was perfect weather for racing in front of a packed house at New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s all-new quarter-mile flat track. Short tracks are inherently “bull rings,” and the fans were treated to some fever-pitched battles. Those battles were not easily fought, as the tricky track surface presented a challenge to the riders throughout the day.
Wells started the day out well with a solid, third-place finish in his Heat. In the Semi, the 2016 AFT Singles Champion won an epic battle to take victory aboard his Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F. He went on to get a good start in the Main Event, but unfortunately, on the restart taking the outside line shuffled him back in the pack. Wells fought on and was able to work his way back to up sixth.
The Estenson Racing squad gets a weekend off before heading to Lima, Ohio, for the Lima Half-Mile on Saturday, June 29.
“I started off fairly decent, just a little bit off the pace and third in the heat. I made some good passes in the Semi, got to the lead and won the race. The Main Event started out well. I was running third and then the red flag came out. I got a really good start on the restart, was side-by-side with second, but I tried to go around the outside and got hung way out in the loose stuff and kind of faded. It dropped me back to eighth in one straightaway. Luckily, we had another restart, so I got to pick a few more off. It was just a rough short track. It was tough to make passes, tough to stay consistent, which I knew I needed to do. At the end of the day, I stayed upright and got some points.”