Archie McDonald stars in Bagger World Cup opener at COTA

2 weeks ago 10

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FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup

Round One – COTA

Archie McDonald topped the first-ever official practice session for the new FIM Bagger World Cup early in the week but was gazumped for pole on Friday by 29-year-old Eric Granado. The Australian teenager got the better of the Brazilian on Saturday to announce his presence on the world stage in the best possible way.

McDonald crossed the line second in Sunday’s follow-up race before a penalty demoted him to third in the final classification. Even so, McDonald left Austin with 41 points, eight clear of Oscar Gutierrez and Jake Lewis, with Eric Granado a further three points behind on 30.

Bagger World Cup Race One

Italian Filippo Rovelli had also started from the front row, but the inaugural opening FIM Bagger World Cup bout quickly became a two-rider affair as Joe Rascal team-mates McDonald and Granado broke away from the field.

While both McDonald and Granado reeled off 2m12s, with respective bests of 2m12.605 and 2m12.699, the rest of the field struggled to crank out even a single 2m14s lap.

The Joe Rascal pair just clicked off lap after lap under the American King of the Baggers lap record.

Granado hounded McDonald from close astern throughout the opening, but Archie looked in perfect control. That was until Archie’s rear tyre came unstuck in dramatic fashion with just over two laps to go, which opened the door for Granado to take the lead for the first time.

McDonald recovered well to hound Granado, and the Brazilian then made a costly mistake, losing the front and going down halfway through the penultimate lap.

Archie now had a ten-second lead over American Jake Lewis with only eight kilometres to run. The teenager backed it off a little on the final lap but still took the chequered flag just under nine seconds clear of Lewis. Rovelli rounded out the podium a few bike lengths further back.

As Archie had led the majority of the race, he never benefitted from a slipstream and thus recorded the race’s slowest top speed of 261 km/h.

If Archie had not already made the established American Bagger pecking order sit up and take notice with his performances at the test and in qualifying, his name was now on everyone’s lips, with more than a few quite glad he isn’t racing in the American King of the Baggers Series this year!

Bagger World Cup Race One Results


Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Archie MCDONALD	HAR	15m36.244
2	Jake LEWIS	HAR	+8.759
3	Filippo ROVELLI	HAR	+9.655
4	Cory WEST	HAR	+13.428
5	Travis WYMAN	HAR	+15.605
6	Eric GRANADO	HAR	+17.726
7	Cody WYMAN	HAR	+18.737
8	Oscar GUTIERREZ	HAR	+1m54.605
Not classified
	Dimas EKKY PRATAMA	HAR

Bagger World Cup Race Two

Sunday’s bout looked like a case of rinse and repeat, with McDonald again getting a perfect launch as Granado and the rest of the pack gave chase in cooler morning conditions.

This time Oscar Gutierrez managed to join the Joe Rascal pair in the 2m12s, and the now 26-year-old ex-Red Bull Rookie went on to lower the race lap record on lap five to join the Joe Rascal pairing up front. The Spaniard’s 2m12.348s is less than five seconds off the MotoAmerica Superbike race lap record. It was faster than the quickest Moto3 lap on Sunday, less than six seconds off racing winning pace in Moto2, and ten seconds off MotoGP race winner Marco Bezzecchi’s quickest lap on Sunday. That’s not bad going for a 280 kilogram bike pushing over 220 Nm and 200 horsepower through a tall 200/70-17 Dunlop KR108. Poor tyre… No wonder the races were only seven laps long, and even then, it was still a tale of tyre management.

Gutierrez took second place from Granado halfway through the contest and immediately started to hound McDonald. The Spaniard took the lead from McDonald with three laps to run to set up a great three-way tussle over the final 15 kilometres of the race. But Granado couldn’t run with McDonald and Gutierrez, and it came down to a two-man fight for victory.

Archie McDonald was then given a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits, but the youngster failed to heed it and battled Gutierrez all the way to the flag. McDonald put a great move up the inside at the final turn on Gutierrez, however, the Spaniard got the better drive out to take the victory on track by a nose. A great bounce back from Gutierrez after a technical problem held him back on Saturday.

McDonald was given a three-second penalty for not serving the long lap penalty. That addition saw him relegated to third place by a fraction, as he crossed the stripe 2.90 seconds ahead of Granado.

Despite the penalty, McDonald still left COTA with 41 points and a nine-point lead in the championship over Gutierrez and Jake Lewis. Across the two races, McDonald led 10 of the weekend’s 14 laps, won the first race in decisive style, and was beaten on the road in the second by only Gutierrez, and that margin was only by 0.030s. That’s some debut…

Bagger World Cup Race Two Results


Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	O. Gutierrez	Har	15m30.573
2	E. Granado	Har	+3.020
3	A. McDonald	Har	+3.030
4	J. Lewis	Har	+12.183
5	F. Rovelli	Har	+15.739
6	C. West	Har	+23.710
7	D. E. Pratama	Har	+37.938
NC	T. Wyman	Har	1 Lap
DNS	C. Wyman	Har	–

Bagger World Cup Standings


Pos	Rider	Nat	R1	R2	Points
1	MCDONALD A.	AUS	25	16	41
2	GUTIERREZ O.	SPA	8	25	33
3	LEWIS J.	USA	20	13	33
4	GRANADO E.	BRA	10	20	30
5	ROVELLI F.	ITA	16	11	27
6	WEST C.	USA	13	10	23
7	WYMAN T.	USA	11	–	11
8	WYMAN C.	USA	9	–	9
9	EKKY PRATAMA D.	INA	–	9	9

Bagger World Cup Friday Combined Practice

Pos

Rider

Bike

Time/Gap

1	A McDonald	Har	2m13.043
2	O Gutierrez	Har	+0.471
3	E Granado	Har	+0.703
4	D Pratama	Har	+1.615
5	T Wyman	Har	+1.840
6	J Lewis	Har	+2.228
7	C Wyman	Har	+2.541
8	C West	Har	+2.711
9	F Rovelli	Har	+2.768

Bagger World Cup Qualifying Results


Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	E Granado	Har	2m12.387
2	A McDonald	Har	+0.417
3	O Gutierrez	Har	+1.323
4	J Lewis	Har	+2.140
5	T Wyman	Har	+2.791
6	C West	Har	+2.882
7	D Ekky Pratama	Har	+2.953
8	C Wyman	Har	+3.703
9	F Rovelli	Har	+4.064

About the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup

The Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup will be the world’s first global racing series dedicated exclusively to high-performance Harley-Davidson bagger motorcycles, competing as a premier support championship on select MotoGP weekends across North America and Europe.

Bagger World Cup race bikes are built on Harley-Davidson’s Grand American Touring platform, transformed by Harley-Davidson Factory Racing into purpose-built competition machines.

Each race-prepared Harley-Davidson Road Glide features:

A Milwaukee-Eight V-Twin 131R race-modified motor
Purpose-built chassis, suspension, braking, and electronics packages
Extensive weight reduction and aerodynamic development
Performance levels exceeding 200 horsepower, with top speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph)

Bagger World Cup Technical Regulations Here