Gar Wood, Ron's son, noticed this...
JD Beach's fastest lap of the Buffalo Chip TT main was 32.806 on an Estenson Racin framer Yamaha MT-07, with a road-bike derived twin engine. Ryan Sipes, who the commentators were describing as the motorcycle racer of the year, was on a Red Bull KTM 450 with trick suspension, the cutting edge of DTX bikes, put in a fastest lap of the AFT Singles main of 32.828s.
A twin was faster around a horrible, nadgery track WITH A JUMP than a supercross and AFT singles winner on a cutting edge DTX 450. Respect!
The remind you, here are the lower weight limits from the 2019 AFT rulebook
3.4 Weight Limits
a. Minimum bike weight:
i. AFT Twins (all displacements): 310 lbs. (140kg)
ii. AFT Singles (all displacements): 230 lbs. (104kg)
For UK readers it might be useful to say 80 lbs is 5.7 stone. For everyone else, that the weight of a large, adult male Labrador.
Like Gar says, 'People (and riders) complained how slow, hulking and lame a twin would be on TT's. Especially on a tight track like a Buffalo Chip type. So, competing on a "Chip" track, against top veterans, national winners, and 450 champs like Rush, Bromley, Gauthier, Cose, Sipes, Wells, Janisch, should be enough to judge what is faster. You would think there would be no competing against a top 450 on a tight track like that.'
Photo: Scott Hunter/ AFT