Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman continued his love affair with Daytona International Speedway with his fourth Mission King Of The Baggers win in a row on a sunny and warm Friday in Florida.
With a new lap record from qualifying, Wyman started from pole position and showed his speed from the get-go as he stormed to a lead and was never headed in Friday’s first of two Mission King Of The Baggers races at the “World Center Of Racing.”
Wyman wasn’t completely without worry, however, as he started to feel the heat from behind as defending class champion Troy Herfoss clawed away at the 19-time race winner’s lead. But it didn’t last as Herfoss crashed his S&S/Indian Motorcycle Challenger with five laps to go in turn six, leaving Wyman to back off and cruise to a 2.6-second victory.
Herfoss, meanwhile, was able to remount to finish eighth, scoring eight points that may prove valuable in his title defense.
Wyman’s new Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing teammate Bradley Smith finished second. If you had to read that twice, you’re not alone. Even the Brit was shocked at his performance just a day after he made his first laps in fear at Daytona International Speedway.
Smith won a last-lap battle with SDI Racing’s Cameron Petersen by .42 of a second with the South African making the mistake of leading out of the chicane on the final lap. Still, Petersen was also elated to finish on the podium in his maiden Mission King Of The Baggers race.
TAB Performance Racing’s Kyle Ohnsorg was fourth, less than half a second ahead of Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis.
S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Tyler O’Hara fought through some mechanical issues to finish sixth, with Rocco Landers riding the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to seventh and Herfoss riding his crashed factory Indian to eighth.
What of the other stars of the class? Two of them were eliminated in the first corner of the opening lap when Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s James Rispoli ran into the back of S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Loris Baz, wrecking Baz’s Mission King Of The Baggers debut.
The other two retirements were RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim and Lyndall Brakes/M3’s Max Flinders.
SC-Project Twins Cup – Chapin Wins A Thriller
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin earned the first SC-Project Twins Cup victory of his young career today and, if that wasn’t impressive enough, that debut win came at Daytona International Speedway.
The race was a battle to the bitter end with four riders breaking away and fighting for the duration. As is often the case at Daytona, all that really mattered was the run to the flag from the chicane, and Chapin seemed to be able to show his cards without paying the price. His Suzuki GSX-8R was fast enough that the reigning MotoAmerica Junior Cup Champion seemed to be able to get to the finish line first no matter what spot he was in on the exit to the chicane.
Chapin ended up crossing the line just .087 of a second ahead of defending class champion Alessandro Di Mario and his Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660. Third place went to Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who was just .174 of a second behind Chapin.
The fourth rider in the lead pack was Koch Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky with the Yamaha YZF-R7-mounted Arizonan just a tick over a second behind and well clear of fifth-placed Avery Dreher on the Bad Boys Racing Suzuki GSX-8R.
“I may not have been the fastest in the infield, but I knew I had the bike underneath to get out there and get this done,” Chapin said. “Everyone else rode great. Props to Dom (Dominic Doyle), Alessandro (Di Mario) and Sean (Ungvarsky). They were all ripping, and this one feels great. I think I learned that I need to just send it a little bit harder into turn one. It seems like that was where I was really struggling, but I will try and do the same thing tomorrow.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – It’s West In The East
Saddlemen Racing Development’s Cory West showed that the weight of carrying the number-one plate wasn’t too heavy as the defending series champion held off his teammate Travis Wyman to win the opening round of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship at Daytona International Speedway.
The margin of victory was typical Daytona – .042 of a second.
Third place, some four seconds adrift, was the first of the KWR Harley-Davidsons ridden by class rookie James Rispoli, who was 2.5 seconds ahead of his teammate Cody Wyman.
Edge Racing’s Jason Waters and his Triumph 765RS were fifth and the first non-Harley-Davidson to cross the finish line.
“I didn’t really want to lead out of the chicane because you’re not supposed to do that here,” West said. “But the bike was running strong. We’ve got a few little things we need to work on to make it better for tomorrow, but I’m super happy, and this first one is for my wife and our baby. This was awesome.”
Earlier in the day, West earned pole position for the two Super Hooligan National Championship races at Daytona with a new lap record of 1:51.032.
Daytona 200 Time Attack – Scott Great Again
Daytona Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott earned his second successive pole position for the Daytona 200 with the 19-year-old lapping Daytona International Speedway at a clip of 1:48.135 in Friday’s Time Attack that featured the fastest 12 qualifiers.
Scott turned in his quick lap on his seventh and final go-around of the 3.51-mile Daytona International Speedway and that put him ahead of three-time Daytona 200 winner Josh Herrin and his Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati Panigale V2 by just .383 of a second.
TOBC Racing’s Brandon Paasch will complete the front row of the grid for Saturday’s Daytona 200 after lapping at 1:48.55 on his Triumph Street Triple 765 RS.
Row two of the grid will feature PHR Performance Triumph teammates Peter Hickman and Richard Cooper with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante joining the two Brits.. Truelove Brothers Racing’s Matt Truelove will lead row three alongside Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio and Team Classic Suzuki’s Danny Webb.
The following quotes are from Friday’s post-race press conference following the Mission King Of The Baggers race.
Cameron, first Baggers race of your short Baggers career so far. You’ve had a pretty miserable time of late. This has got to feel really special to be able to put yourself up on the podium after what you’ve been through.
Cameron Petersen – Third Place
Honestly, you’re going to make me emotional just thinking about it. It hasn’t been an easy road the last few years. No matter what you’re riding, where you’re riding in the world, getting on the podium and being competitive is a nice feeling. Honestly, coming into this year I never really expected that this would happen, being on a Bagger. After I tested the thing the first time, I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Just never had so much fun on a motorcycle before. It’s just a big learning curve. Still trying to figure the thing out. I catch myself out there doing some pretty weird stuff on the bike that I’ve never done before. So, just slowly clicking away at it. We do have a long way to go to catch up to Kyle. That first lap was pretty incredible. Just so stoked to be up on the box and have this feeling again after a few rough years.
You didn’t get a very good start. Were you like, “Oh, no. Not again?”
Cameron Petersen:
Yeah, funny. First time I ever practiced a start on the bike was Q2 this morning. It went about the same. I almost did a backflip and landed right on my head. The race was the same thing. I let the clutch go, the thing came up, almost did a backflip. Slowly picked away at it. I had some luck. Unfortunate about the first-turn incident. As the race went on, I started to feel more like myself. I think tomorrow is going to be another step in the right direction. If you had told me last year that I would have been battling with Bradley Smith on a Bagger out here at Daytona, I definitely wouldn’t have believed you. Pretty damn cool that these things work out.
Bradley, we talked yesterday, and I walked away from that conversation going, “Man, he’s going to get smoked.” I think you kind of agree with me. You’ve got to be really surprised. As a footnote, for those of you that don’t know, Bradley Smith has basically raced in every series in the world that you could possibly race in on a motorcycle. He’s got tons of experience, but this was obviously his first outing on a King of the Baggers bike, and also his first trip to Daytona. Tell us a little bit about the change from yesterday when there was a bit of fear in your face, until sitting on the podium in second place.
Bradley Smith – Second Place
I don’t know where to start. I’m probably going to say exactly the same as Cam in terms of I didn’t expect to be on the banks of Daytona either. I don’t think I had started a race for four years. I thought my racing career was done, but funny how things turn around from absolutely nowhere when you least expect it. It’s been great to be welcomed to MotoAmerica. It’s been great to be welcomed into the Harley Davidson team. Kyle has been great, also my buddy James in welcoming me. All the team has been trying to move the process along as quick as possible. But when you turn up at Daytona for the first time, it doesn’t matter what prep you do. Your eyes are just wide open and going, “Oh, my god. What am I doing?” But I’m very pleased that I managed to sleep on it last night and come out better this morning. Managed to find that lap time in qualifying, and then just got a good start and did what I could. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t fast, but I did what I could. Stayed upright. I think sometimes that’s all that’s needed. There are a million things that are running through my head right now, but just grateful for the opportunity to be back. Roll on race two tomorrow.
Kyle, you’re kind of on the complete opposite of these guys. It’s like expected of you to run at the front and do well. It seemed like from the time we got started here yesterday that your confidence was there, and everything was going to be okay, and here we are.
Kyle Wyman – Winner
For sure. The team has worked really hard this winter trying to find a few things that we can take into Daytona. We have more stuff on the way after that I’m looking forward to. When we finish the day on Thursday in this case, but the first day of the weekend, typically on a Friday, and we have the gap, we have a pretty good win rate. It’s really all about starting fast for us. They definitely threw us a little bit of a curve ball with the tire change today, but I think that fortunately it was definitely the right move. We still had a little bit of an issue out there, but we’re in a much better spot than I think everybody was yesterday. But the bike’s fast. The boys have been working hard. Definitely end of last year if you told me it was going to be Cam and Bradley sitting next to me, it’s pretty wild what Bagger racing has done. It’s been a really cool journey to this point and continues to be more and more fun. Today was a really fun day.
Were you aware that Troy crashed when he was behind you?
Kyle Wyman:
I wasn’t. I had an instinct that he was maybe dropping off because I didn’t hear him. So, I took a peek, actually out of NASCAR turn four, and I literally saw nobody. I thought that maybe he was right up my ass, because I was like, how is it possible that nobody is at least in the shot? Then I came by the pit board, and it said, “Plus 7.” I was like, “Are you joking? What is happening?” But pace was hot. I put down some really good laps in the beginning. Felt really comfortable. Definitely nearly got caught out a couple times. These conditions were definitely a little bit trickier than we’ve had all weekend long. Fortunately saved a couple near-crashes on the front just pushing. But I was able to put the pressure on and got a pretty good points lead on my main rival at this point, so it’s a good feeling.
Back to the tires for a second. Would you have taken the option of using the other one for the race, or was it just not going to work for anybody?
Kyle Wyman:
I think it was only going to maybe work if they shortened the race, which we might see tomorrow. They’ve done that the last two years. Shortened it to six laps. With what we’re seeing, we might see that come down. I went faster on this tire today than I went yesterday. So, I guess even if I had the option, this was the right choice.
As far as you know, I don’t think anybody had a problem with this one, right, in the race?
Kyle Wyman:
I don’t think so. Mine was starting to just peel apart between the two compounds. Between the thin gauge and the regular gauge thickness. But we’re not seeing big problems. I think right now, more of the concern is towards the front end of the motorcycle, but for me personally I’m not seeing that problem, so I feel very, very fortunate.
