The second installment of the MotoAmerica Mission Foods King of the Baggers competition concluded this weekend as a support series for the MotoGP championship. This stop at Circuit of the Americas offered 2 races for championship points. Troy Herfoss and Harley-Davidson Factory Racing won race one by just under three tenths ahead of Kyle Wyman. Tyler O’Hara was .685 of a second behind the winner taking third place.
“Firstly, it’s an honor to be standing here today with my first win, especially with these two great competitors,” Herfoss said after his first-ever bagger victory. “There are more wins between these two guys than I dream of having. So, to get my first win here in COTA at MotoGP is a great feeling. To answer your question, yeah, it did feel like I was out of it. I’ve got a lot of days on the bike now.
There’re no excuses to not be able to be competitive, but I don’t have a lot of experience racing because Daytona was not really a race in the infield. It was a race to get to the outfield. So, I didn’t see the true speed of these riders in the infield a lot of time, whereas today there were six guys going toe-to-toe, fighting at their best pace. So, I couldn’t ride the lap they were riding. I could not ride my bike the same way the guys in front of me could ride their bikes, even between the different manufacturers.
Herfoss Continued
“I know it’s a short race, but I spent the first two laps just confused. Over-riding the corners, over-riding the braking. I didn’t concede, but I sort of sat back to take a breather. Got nabbed by Bobby Fong and went, ‘okay, it’s time. I’ve got make something of this.’ Honestly, once I started riding my own race it became a lot easier to make my passes.
I knew that if I could sneak through on Tyler (O’Hara) behind Kyle (Wyman) I could see that Kyle was calculating what he was going to do with Tyler. I knew that was my only hope because I didn’t have better speed than Kyle. I just knew that if I could get him by surprise… Just because Kyle, Tyler and I are riding a different lap, even on the same bike. You’ve got to take them when you can get them. I fought as hard as I could. It’s a real privilege to be up here on the top step.”
However Wyman wasn’t willing to settle for second. In race 2 Wyman bounced back to take the win. He finished almost 7 tenths ahead of Herfoss with a record-breaking lap of 2m14.890s. He said, “Obviously, we’re super happy. To come out of the first two rounds with this many points is a big deal. It was a good race. I got a worse start today, so I had to be more patient. Like I said on the podium, really learned my lesson in September. I really panicked when I got shuffled back and it cost me a championship, potentially. That’s just experience. You can’t rush or pay for it, and I was just patient today and luckily didn’t get caught up in the melee behind me.”
Race One Top 3
- Troy Herfoss (Indian)
- Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson)
- Tyler O’Hara (Indian)
Race Two Top 3
- Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson)
- Troy Herfoss (Indian)
- James Rispoli (Harley-Davidson)
Indian and Harley Davidson secured 3 podiums each this weekend.