Estenson Racing’s Ryan Wells crossed the line 13th on Saturday night, July 13th, to salvage points in American Flat Track’s AFT Singles Championship at the New York Short Track at Weedsport Speedway.
The day started out well for the New Yorker who was fastest in practice aboard his Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F. Unfortunately, the 3/8-mile clay short track threw some curveballs at Wells and his crew, and he was unable to find the comfort zone that he had earlier in the day. He qualified 10th and went on to finish fourth in his Heat and seventh in his Semi, which put the 2016 AFT Singles Champion on the third row of the grid in the Main Event. Wells got off to a good start and made some passes early on, but got shuffled back and ultimately ran a lonely race to the checkers in 13th.
The Estenson Racing squad gets a two-week break before heading to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the Buffalo Chip TT on Sunday, August 4.
“It’s definitely a bummer, especially since we came out of the truck swinging. We were the fastest qualifier in free practice and then it kind of seemed like we just went downhill from there. It sucks. I felt really good riding. Once the track got slick and blue-grooved, I didn’t seem to be able to do anything with it. I got off to a decent start from the third row in the main event. Made a few first-, second-lap passes, but slowly worked my way backwards and spent most of the race by myself. It definitely wasn’t for a lack of effort, Nick [Daniels] and I both, we know we tried our butts off. It just wasn’t our day.”