DEAD GOOD WINTER THROWDOWN

Max Inman was one of a big Dead Good Racing Crew who travelled to Florida to race at one of the biggest non-AFT races in the US. He wrote us this report...

Monday 12th January 2026 and a bunch of flat track racers from the UK fly to Florida. I was lucky enough to be invited by Rory at Dead Good Race Team to join them for the eight edition of Cory Texter Promotions’ Winter Throwdown at Callahan Speedway, Florida.

Sixteen of us landed in Orlando, and jumped in the hire vehicles to head straight to Southern Training Facility in Bainbridge, Georgia, 300 miles away. We arrived at 3am and got some rest ready before the 11am practice the next morning.

The UK and US crew at the Bainbridge Practice Day

With help from Rory, and US team owner James Parker (father of racer James Parker) and his team we all had bikes ready to jump on and start testing. This was an pre-race practice day and we joined some familiar names in the American Flat Track scene including Chad Cose, Declan Bender and Bradon Pfanders.

US racer Declan Bender and Jack Bell

We rode until late on Tuesday then rested up and got ready to head to Callahan Speedway in Florida, on Wednesday, 200 miles east, above the city of Jacksonville on the map.

Day One

Jack Bell (#39), Adam James and Jacob James (#71 in top photo) were all racing on the Thursday evening in the 1v1 head to head Pro only races. With over 50 entries and only 20 racers making it past qualifying into the knockouts we knew it was going to be tough.

Bell qualified in 25th position, only 0.038 seconds off the knockout spots. Adam James (#19, above) qualified 26th position just 0.045 seconds off, while his brother, Jacob James qualified in 42nd position 0.3 seconds, considering they were all riding borrowed bikes, with little practice, against some of the world’s best flat trackers the Dead Good Race Team Crew were happy with this.

Jack Bell on a Triumph 450 like he races in the DTRA and Europe

All riders improved from the prior visit in 2025 and we knew what bike set up changes to make before racing in the Premier Expert and Open Expert classes on Friday and Saturday. 

Day Two

Skye Adams (#43, above), Jamie Kimber and Nicole Miles kicked off the day racing in the Women’s Class in Group One. Adams finished 7th in the Women’s final with strong lap times, Kimber finished 10th after some battles and trying some lines. Miles also had strong lap times but just missed out on the Main by one position. 

Leon Bennett (#71, above), Danny Williams and I (#83, below) all made the Novice Main after fast times all morning and strong heat results. Bennett qualified 8th and climbed a spot finishing 7th, I qualified 5th but after a bad gate pick I couldn’t get to the inside line and dropped to 11th, Williams qualified 12th, climbed some positions but lowsided coming out of turn two on the penultimate lap. 

Bennett, Adams, Kimber and I all raced in the Amateur but none made the main which shows how fast it is across the pond! 

Sam Neville raced the 30+ class and qualified 10th on a 250cc and finished 11th. Bell and the Adams Bros raced in both Expert classes, Bell made the Open Expert main, qualifying 11th but climbing all the way to P8! 

Overall we had the team had a strong day and were ready to go again on Saturday.

Day Three

Kimber (#27, below), Adams and Miles all raced again in the Women’s Class, Kimber learned from her previous line experiment and finished with a very strong 5th after qualifying 4th. Adams finished 10th and Miles just missed out on qualifying for the main. I made the Novice Main again, qualifying 11th and finishing 10th. 

Onto the afternoon groups Jack Bell, Jacob James and Adam James all raced the Expert classes and Bell made the Premier Expert Main this time qualifying 11th and finishing 11th. 

Bennett, Inman, Kimber and Adams all raced both Amateur classes again but just missed out on the mains.

Danny Williams and Sam Neville (above) both raced the 30+ class, Williams qualified with a strong 3rd and finished 7th with Neville qualifying 10th and finishing 9th. 

And that was that was the racing concluded. All riders had a great time and gave a solid performance, we headed back to the airport with a stop off at Daytona Speedway, stay

tuned for more DGRT news coming very soon! 

Rory, the driving force behind Dead Good Race Team with Nicole Miles

Huge thanks to the sponsors for the trip, Dead Good Race Team, RE ZRO, Hawkeye Moto,

Devitt X Vanoni Racing, Dirt Track Riders Association and Gavin Lee. Also a massive thanks to Parker Racing Team for supplying bikes and help all round, all week, and the rest who helped our crew with bikes, Daryl and Ryder, Audy, Paul, Eirik, Chris and Cory. 

Thanks also to @mariahlacycreative for the test day shots and @lacyjophotos for the race track pictures.