Australian Superbike Champion Troy Herfoss won the MotoAmerica Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge dash-for-cash race Friday afternoon at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), in Austin, Texas. Riding his S&S Indian Challenger, Herfoss won the three-lap sprint by 2.836 seconds.
Bobby Fong was the runner-up on his SDI/Roland Sands Racing Indian, and defending King Of The Baggers Champion Hayden Gillim finished right behind Fong in third on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Road Glide.
The King Of The Baggers field will have a warm-up session and two full-length races on Saturday at COTA.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Herfoss Takes Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge At COTA
Australian Troy Herfoss Takes Challenge Win, S&S Indian Motorcycle Teammate Tyler O’Hara Will Start Saturday’s Two Races From Pole Position
AUSTIN, TX (April 12, 2024) – After two hectic laps that featured plenty of bag banging, S&S Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss earned his first-ever Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge victory when he pulled clear of the melee behind him to win the three-lap dash for cash.
Herfoss was in the mix from the start and took full advantage of all the shenanigans that went on to gap the pack giving chase by 2.836 seconds.
SDI/Roland Sands Racing/Indian Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong ended up second with a last-lap pass on RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim.
Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman ended up fourth, .222 of a second behind Gillim and was the last man standing as the other two starters in the six-rider race failed to finish.
Pole-sitter Tyler O’Hara led off the start but put his hand up as he negotiated the esses to let the others know he had a problem that would take him out of the race.
Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli, meanwhile, was out of the Challenge before it even started as a mechanical put him on the sidelines right off the start.
Only 15 minutes or so earlier, O’Hara showed in Q2 that he would be a force to be reckoned with as he shattered Wyman’s lap record of 2:15.461 with his 2:15.029. Wyman was a hair (.056 of a second) slower with his 2:15.085 and that was .491 of a second faster than Herfoss and his 2:15.576.
Wyman’s teammate Rispoli ended up fourth fastest with Fong fifth, Gillim sixth and RydFast Racing’s Kyle Ohnsorg seventh. RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers, Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Travis Wyman and Mad Monkey Motorsports’ Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 qualifiers for Saturday’s two races
