MotoAmerica 2024
Round One – Daytona
Saturday
King of the Baggers Race Two
The second and final King of the Baggers contest concluded Daytona Bike Week 2024 in style.
The Indian pairing of Tyler O’Hara and rookie teammate Troy Herfoss both escaped well to lead the horde of Harleys down the long left. Kyle Wyman then split the Indian duo to move into second place behind Herfoss, and that pair began to make a small break on the field.
Wyman took the lead off the bench, but as that duo struggled, O’Hara, Rispoli and Gillim began to catch up.
Tyler O’Hara took the lead with four laps to run and kept his nose in front on the next lap.
With two laps to go, Herfoss was back in the lead and had built a useful buffer over Wyman.
Just when it looked like Herfoss had the win secured, a small mistake allowed Wyman to close. The Harley rider then had a much better run on the bank to take the win.
Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli made it to the podium in third.
Troy Herfoss set the fastest lap of the race by two tenths of a second and took two second places from his debut weekend in the championship.
Kyle Wyman
“It was definitely a different scenario from yesterday. Actually, now that I’ve played it in my mind, I see that he has come in a deep way and you have to take the whole second curb. So, yes. That makes a lot more sense to me why. I felt the same as yesterday, except I was a lot more behind getting closer to Mach whatever, because I was just trying to make sure I could sniff the draft. I had a problem last time. I lost a quick-shifter, so I was scrambling trying to change the thing. It is not an easy bike to move, even with a quick one, so I had to gather and this is the exact time that Troia placed the head. So, he built, like, a second and a half distance, maybe more. On the last lap, I thought I was taking pieces from that one in the infield. I thought I ran a pretty good infield split, but I wasn’t sure I was going to get there, even to get a sniff of the draft. Then the next thing you know, I’m going across the land again in the same place we did yesterday. Just hoping and praying again, I’ll go first to the line. Tossed in a little juke from NASCAR 4 and tried to shake it, and it held.“
King of the Baggers Race Two Results
- Kyle Wyman – Harley
- Troy Herfoss – Indian + 0.137s
- James Rispoli – Harley +1.518s
- Tyler O’Hara – Indian + 3,200s
- Hayden Gillim – Harley +3.462s
- Kyle Ohnsorg – Indian +7.197s
- Jake Lewis – Harley +15.804s
- Cory West – Harley +16.181s
- Travis Wyman – Harley + 16,536
- Rocco Landers – Harley +17.579s
Super Hooligan Race Two Mission
The Harley-Davidson riders dusted the Indian riders from the starting line to take the top four positions early.
Troy Herfoss passed two of them to move into third, but was then dropped back to fifth one more time before the end of the opening lap as Cory West and Cody Wyman battled for the lead.
Nothing separated the top six at the half race distance and due to the unique layout of Daytona tactical games were played out, with some drivers distinctly preferring not to drive.
On the final lap, Herfoss began to move up that group, cutting his way up to third in the space of two laps, then looked to change his mind and deliberately to allow the riders to step back
It all came down to who timed his slipstream run around the banking the best which would decide the win. The top six were almost six wide at times on the bank, jinking and pushing, but when they crossed the line it was Cory West ahead of Jake Lewis while Cody Wyman made it an all Harley podium that was covered by just six cents. of a second.
The Western win is Harley’s first Pan American win.
The S&S Indian FTR 1200 pairing of Tyler O’Hara and Troy Herfoss was next to cross the line.
Between the winner and sixth place Travis Wyman there was only 0.155 of a second.
Mission Super Hooligan Race Two Results
- Cory West – Harley
- Jake Lewis – Harley +0.020s
- Cody Wyman – Harley +0.060s
- Tyler O’Hara – Indian + 0.081s
- Troy Herfoss – Indian + 0.150s
- Travis Wyman – Harley + 0.155s
- Hawk Mazzotta – Indian +16.441s
- Hayden Schultz – Harley +16.547s
- Nate Kern – BMW +16.638s
- Stefanu Mesa – Energica +17.897s
Mission Super Hooligan Points
- Cory West 41
- Troy Herfoss 36
- Tyler O’Hara 33
- Cody Wyman 29
- Jake Lewis 20 years
Supersport Daytona 200
Tom Toparis did not make the start of the Daytona 200 due to problems with the Astro Mar Suzuki that the team had been chasing all weekend, but did not solve.
Among the 57 starters, there was quite a dropout rate, with Peter Hickman, Josh Hayes, Richard Cooper, Xavi Fores and David Anthony failing to complete the 57 laps of the 3.51-mile Daytona International Speedway.
Josh Herrin took his third Daytona 200 win in dominant fashion aboard the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati.
This year’s bad luck award went to Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante, who spent most of the afternoon trying to catch Herrin and had second place in the bag until he ran out of gas in the last time. Fortunately, Escalante at least managed to make it to the finish line, but he lost three positions in the process and crossed the line a resounding fifth.
For all practical purposes, the race was won during the first of two pit stops on the 17th lap when Herrin and Escalante ran out for fuel and tires at the same time. While Herrin’s stop was lightning fast, Escalante’s was the opposite.
Escalante did not give up and came within five seconds of Herrin after the second pit stop, but he was not going to escape in his pursuit before he just ran out of gas. His misfortune moved teammate and pole-sitter Tyler Scott to second, 45.660 seconds behind Herrin. It also propelled Vesrah Racing’s Hayden Gillim to third place for his first career Daytona 200 podium in what was his third attempt.
The final rider to pass an Escalante was Wrench Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong, one of those who took a turn at the front of the pack before the 200. Fong also incurred a three-second pit-lane violation penalty. Things got worse for Fong after the race when he was DQ’d for having an oversized fuel tank. As a result, Fong’s DQ moved Escalante to fourth place.
YART’s Karel Hanika and teammate Marvin Fritz were fifth and sixth, respectively, with the Czech and German finishing around 11 seconds apart as they lead the large international contingent in their first 200 years.
Two-time Daytona 200 winner Brandon Paasch was seventh in the third Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki, with the New Jerseyan just .115 of a second behind Fritz.
Boulder Motor Sports’ Stefano Mesa rode the team’s Ducati Panigale V2 to eighth, with Team BATTLAX’s three-time Canadian Superbike Champion Ben Young ninth and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Teagg Hobbs rounding out the top 10.
2024 Supersport Daytona 200 Results
- Josh Herrin – Ducati
- Tyler Scott – Suzuki +45,660
- Hayden Gillim – Suzuki +54.637
- Richie Escalante – Suzuki +63.197s
- Karel Hanika – Yamaha + 86.213s
- Marvin Fritz – Yamaha + 97.755s
- Brandon Paasch – Suzuki +97.870s
- Stefano Massa – Ducati +1 lap
- Ben Young – Suzuki + 1 lap
- Teagg Hobbs – Suzuki + 1 lap
- Kayla Yaakov – Ducati +1 lap
- Matt Truelove – Suzuki + 1 lap
- PJ Jacobsen – Ducati +1 lap
- Danny Eslick – Triumph + 1 lap
- Corey Alexander – Ducati +1 lap
- Diego Perez – Yamaha + 2 laps
- Carl Soltisz – Suzuki +2 laps
- Blake Davis – Yamaha + 2 laps
- Danilo Lewis – Yamaha + 2 laps
- Trevor Daley – Suzuki +3 laps
- Shane Maggs – Yamaha + 3 laps
- Jason Waters – Kawasaki + 3 laps
- Taylor Knapp – Triumph +4 laps
- Alan Phillips – Kawasaki + 4 laps
- Matthew Simpson – Yamaha +4 laps
Twins Cup
After taking the win in the first Twins Cup race last year, Gus Rodio went one better and did the double this year, winning Friday’s first BellissiMoto Twins Cup race and ending his Daytona event with a victory in Saturday’s second race on his Aprilia. Rodio won each of the two races by more than 11 seconds.
On Saturday, second place went to Rocco Landers aboard the new Suzuki GSX-8R.
Finishing third was Rodio’s teammate Alessandro Di Mario, the 15-year-old who recorded the second MotoAmerica podium result of his young career.
