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Troy Herfoss on his J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian took the win at Daytona aboard his Challenger in Saturday’s Race Two. The Australian Superbike Champion held a slight lead over teammate Rocco Landers, to take his first victory at the “World Centre of Racing.”
Landers, who suffered a mechanical in Race 1, bounced back for his first podium of the season and made Factory Indian one-two punch.
Troy Herfoss
“It’s a big honour to get a race win at Daytona. It’s definitely a special feeling crossing that stripe, in that stadium sort of atmosphere. Big, big props to Hayden, like, he was just riding incredible today and this weekend, and I feel heartbroken for him to go out like that, cause he had broken us, he had the race sewn up. But, it’s a credit to the Vance & Hines racing team, like, the Indian Challenger is just working better than I’ve ever seen, I can’t believe the amount of power it’s got. The way I was coming down, I got off that banking, it was almost scaring me sometimes. So yeah, I’m looking forward to heading into COTA for a test first and then over to Road Atlanta and get onto a sort of more traditional track and see if I can make a push at Hayden, speed wise.”
Troy Herfoss won Mission King Of The Baggers Race 2 for his first win ever at Daytona International Speedway – Image by Brian J. NelsonLanders was part of a three-rider group to cross the line just 1/10th of a second apart with the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glides of Kyle Wyman and Bradley Smith in third and fourth, respectively.
The lead group was in a race of their own as the remainder of the field was, at minimum, 14 seconds behind. James Rispoli finished in fifth followed by Tyler O’Hara on an Indian Challenger in sixth.
Teammates Jake Lewis and Cory West were seventh and eighth, with Hayden Gillim in ninth.
Gillim, who won Race 1 by over eight seconds, was leading by over two seconds again. The Kentuckian would suffer a mechanical “gremlin” with two laps to go.
Exiting the first part of the international horseshoe, Gillim threw his hand up and fell off the pace. There were no visible signs of damage to the motorcycle and, after a few turns, he was back up to speed, but he had dropped all the way to ninth, which is where he finished.
Rounding out the field in 10th was Max Flinders on his Harley-Davidson Road Glide.
The next Mission King Of The Baggers round takes place at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on April 17-19.
The Saddlemen Race Development Harley-Davidson team was part of another photo finish today in their sweep of the podium at Daytona, and all three riders were separated by just 0.06 of a second at the line.
The running order was an exact inversion of the Race 1 finishing order with Jake Lewis in first, Cory West repeating his second-place finish, and James Rispoli dropping back to the third step of the podium.
The lead group developed into a pack of five riders towards the end of the race and came across the line just 0.296 of a second apart as a squad.
Andy DiBrino brought his BPR Racing Yamaha across the line in fourth just one-tenth of a second behind the leading team. DiBrino looked solid in Race 2 and stayed attached to the lead group for the entire race, even leading a lap early on. Behind him, Rodio Racing’s Gus Rodio capped off the lead group. Rodio brough his Ducati Streetfighter V2 across the line in fifth.
Slightly behind the lead group of five was Travis Wyman in sixth, followed by Bryce Kornbau on a Yamaha MT-09 SP in seventh and Jason Waters on a Ducati Streetfighter V2 in eighth.
Rounding out the Top 10 for Race 2 were the Robertino Pietri and Hawk Mazzotta on a Yamaha MT-09 SP.
The competition in the class throughout the first two races has been phenomenal with more lead changes than one can track, and it carries the requirement for a high-resolution camera at the finish line to determine the winner.
“Today’s race was unbelievable, and this is the best Daytona round I’ve had on the hooligan, you know, to go 3-1, but especially today, it’s always better to win the second race, to leave the weekend on a high confidence wise, but the hooligan racing, you never know, it’s so unpredictable, so crazy and wild, and you just got to play your cards right and play the draft right. The Saddlemen race team, you know, locking out the podium both days, it shows how hard they’ve worked and with the rule changes of hooligan too, I mean all nine of us or however many it was in the pack today, it just shows how competitive it’s going to be this year.”
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