MotoAmerica: King of the Baggers COTA Recap

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.

Tyler Herfoss Address Post Race 1 Comments

“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

1. Troy Herfoss (Indian)
2. Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson)
3. Tyler O’Hara (Indian)

Race Two Top 3

1. Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson)
2. Troy Herfoss (Indian)
3. James Rispoli (Harley-Davidson)

Indian and Harley Davidson secured 3 podiums each this weekend.