The Battle For The 2024 Mission King Of The Baggers Title Will Go Down To The Wire In Jersey.
With Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman and S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss winning 12 of the 16 Mission King Of The Baggers races, it’s fitting that those two will battle to the bitter end in a winner-take-all-championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 27-29.
Of course, the duo battled on Sunday afternoon at Circuit of The Americas with the two running nose to tail for the majority of the race. At the end of the five-lap sprint, it was Herfoss taking his sixth win of the season with Wyman just .445 of a second behind in second place.
The championship? There’s now just two points between the two with Wyman leading Herfoss, 315-313, with the series headed to Wyman’s home track of NJMP in two weeks.
No one else was a real factor in this one with Saturday’s Mission King Of The Baggers victor Rocco Landers riding his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to third, 3.7 seconds behind the lead duo.
Landers’ teammate Hayden Gillim rode to a gutsy fourth after undergoing surgery on a broken hand just a week or so prior to racing in Texas. Gillim was right on Landers at the finish line.
Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli rounded out the top five, some five seconds adrift of the intra-team Landers/Gillim battle.
“Today was a really good day,” Herfoss said. “Yesterday I got caught out. It was a tough race yesterday. Just having young Rocco (Landers) again. I see a lot in him. I know that he’s going to race to win every stage of the year. I sort of didn’t open fire as much as I probably could have, but in saying that, he was just so in control. I sort of knew that if I was going to make a pass, he was so dialed in it wasn’t going to do much. It wasn’t going to get me far. But today, we made a few adjustments and sort of predicted the way the track would go in that heat. I kept a good eye on the Superbike races today. The answer is yes, I was extremely comfortable. As I said on the podium, a little bit of a smart-ass comment, but I have also been super respectful all the year because I was so comfortable, I don’t go back on that. I felt like it was a puppet show, and I felt like I was in charge of it. I tried to get Kyle (Wyman) to do something he didn’t want to do, and like I knew he was too smart to try. It’s even and we’re going to the last round. Best man can win. I understand full well that it’s a track that he’s really good at. I’ve got a lot of respect for that. I can’t wait to go there and see what I can do there.”
Mathew Scholtz (11) beat Tyler Scott (70) and Blake Davis (22) to win the Supersport race on Sunday at Circuit of The Americas. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Supersport – Breathing Room For Scholtz
The 2024 Supersport Championship will go down to the final round of the season after a drama-filled weekend that began with a 25-point lead for Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz over Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen and ended with Scholtz now taking a 39-point lead to New Jersey Motorsports Park for the final two races of the championship.
Scholtz survived some intense challenges from the other riders and a near-get-off from his Yamaha to take the checkered flag by a little over two seconds ahead of Vision Wheel ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha’s Blake Davis.
But, what about Jacobsen? Well, the title contender led the race, was shuffled back in the lead pack, and ultimately looked like he’d finish on the podium until the penultimate corner on the final lap when he inexplicably went down and slid out of the race, which cost him most of the valuable points that he had gained from the results of Saturday’s race one.
“I knew I had the pace to do (fast laps) consistently, and I knew that I should be able to win,” Scholtz said. “It sucks that PJ crashed, but it really, really helps me in the championship. So, now, we go to New Jersey for the final round. Two more races, and we have the advantage. We’ll be ready.”
Tyler O’Hara (1) leads Cory West (13), Troy Herfoss (17) and the rest of the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship pack at COTA on Sunday. West emerged from the fray as the class champion. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – West Crowned!
Saddlemen Harley-Davidson’s Cory West did exactly what he needed to do to earn the 2024 Mission Super Hooligan National Championship. He finished second to championship rival Tyler O’Hara on Saturday morning at COTA, and that earned the veteran racer from Arkansas his first career AMA title.
The race was won by S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s O’Hara, but it wasn’t enough as he didn’t get the help he was hoping for. When his teammate Troy Herfoss went out with a mechanical problem, that put the onus of help on the shoulders of his other teammate, 61-year-old Jeremy McWilliams. McWilliams gave it his all but came up .167 of a second behind West in third. Even if he’d gotten the spot and West had ended the race tied with O’Hara on points, the title would have gone to West based on the tiebreaker of number of wins.
Second place on the track went to uber talent Alessandro Di Mario, who was riding a non-homologated Ducati Streetfighter V2. Di Mario was racing knowing that the bike would be disqualified, but it didn’t take away from the fact that the 15-year-old was impressive in his debut in the class.
Fourth place went to West’s teammate Jake Lewis, with the Kentuckian playing the role of wingman to perfection. The third Saddlemen Harley-Davidson teamster, Travis Wyman, finished fifth.
“It’s hard to stay cool when it’s so hot out,” West said. “Saddlemen Harley Davidson Pan America… I can’t say enough. That bike just worked awesome. It was a really stressful race. I had to finish third. I knew what TO (Tyler O’Hara) was going to do. He was going to go out and try to win it. I just kept my head down and did what I could. This is a dream come true. It’s something that you’ve always wanted when you were a kid when you start to racing, to be a champion. It’s just complete, man. It’s a check off the old bucket list. I really have to thank everybody. Dave, Amy, Chris. My beautiful wife, who is due in eight days. Jake, Taylor, Kento, Eric, Matty, Fury, Ricky, everybody. I love you guys. My family is here this weekend. I’ve got so many friends. We brought home the number-one plate, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Alessandro Di Mario came into the COTA round well behind in the championship point standings, but he left with the BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship. Photo by Brian J. Nelson
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Di Mario Takes It
The BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship came down to the final race of the season, and at the start, it looked like we were going to get the epic showdown was expected between title contenders Alessandro Di Mario and Rocco Landers, who were only separated by six points after Saturday’s race one.
Landers got the holeshot coming out of turn one on the first lap, but 15-year-old phenom Di Mario took the lead before the opening lap had been completed, and he pressed his advantage all the way to the checkered flag.
The Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering rider led every lap of the race and took the checkered flag by more than six and a half seconds.
Meanwhile, after challenging on the opening lap, Landers had a mechanical problem, which put him out of the race and unfortunately out of the championship.
For Di Mario, who is only in his second year of MotoAmerica racing and is a Twins Cup rookie, he notched his first of what may be many MotoAmerica class championships to come.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor, who celebrated his 17th birthday on Friday, finished second for his best result of the season, while Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle came home third, which was his sixth podium finish in the 2024 BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship.
Di Mario, whose cool, calm demeanor belies his young age, was asked if he felt the pressure of being in contention for his first MotoAmerica Championship.
“It was hard. It wasn’t easy at all,” Di Mario said. “Rocco (Landers) was fast all year. I came into this weekend, and I was really confident. I like the track. It was really hot, but it was a little better than yesterday. Yesterday felt a lot worse. I just went out and I knew what I could do. I just tried to do as many fast laps as possible at the start, tried to pull a little gap. When I saw the pit board with the gap, I started to manage it until the last lap. My last lap was super slow. I didn’t want to make any mistakes. I left off quite a bit. I just want to thank everybody, my whole team, Mike, Chad, Kevin, Freddy from home, Sara for the pictures. I love you. My teammate, Gus (Rodio). He’s been a great teammate all year. I just want to thank all my sponsors. Also, my brother. He’s in the Marine Corps. I think he’s watching from home. I love you. I just want to thank everybody. Dainese, HJC, all my sponsors. Thank you so much.”
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