MotoAmerica 2024
Round One – Daytona
Friday
It was a game of cat and mouse in the contest for victory in the opening King of the Baggers race at Daytona overnight.
The Harley duo of Kyle Wyman and James Rispoli playing a tactical game alongside the Indian pairing of Troy Herfoss and Tyler O’Hara. None of them wanted to lead out of the chicane heading onto the banking in the closing laps, as they would then be drafted on by once up on the banking.
Herfoss tried to slow the contest down and force his fellow combatants to come by, but Kyle Wyman timed his run to perfection, taking victory by two-hundredths of a second.
Tyler O’Hara crashed while in the leading group but regrouped to cross the line as the final finisher in tenth.
In the earlier two-lap challenge race, O’Hara led Herfoss home for an Indian 1-2 ahead of Hayden Gillim.
Troy Herfoss beat team-mate Tyler O’Hara to victory in the opening Mission Super Hooligan race.
O’Hara, who started from the pole, crossed the finish line just under half a second after Herfoss, with Harley-Davidson’s Cory West rounding out the podium in third.
Troy Herfoss
“First of all, thanks for having me. It’s an honour to be here in this championship. I’ve been trying for a long time to come to the States again and road race. It’s a real treat to be out here racing with you guys. It’s easy to learn a track when you’re comfortable on a motorbike, but you can’t buy that experience of riding around the banks of Daytona. In the race, I worked on seeing how much of a gap I would need to get to the finish line. By the sound of it, a lot of stuff went my way with the fight in the background. I watched all the videos last year, and it was Tyler (O’Hara) and Jeremy (McWilliams) a lot of the time. This year, I’m like, ‘Where are all these other guys coming from?’ A lot of guys have stepped up this year, and it looks like everyone’s teams have put in a big effort. Maybe that helped me in the end. It was exciting for us. I can’t explain how happy I am to be here, to be able to compete at the front of the race in America.”
Richie Escalante topped Supersport Qualifying for the Daytona 200 ahead of team-mate Tyler Scott while Xavi Fores rounds out the front row.
Tom Toparis has struggled with some electrical issues that have made the bike cut out at times but battled on to qualify 23rd without a quick-shifter or blipper, one position ahead of countryman David Anthony. 66 motorcycles contested the qualifying sessions.
However Tyler Scott will start Saturday’s Daytona 200 from pole position after topping Friday’s Time Attack Supersport session.
In the season-opening BellissiMoto Twins Cup race Aprilia rider Gus Rodio put in a dominant performance. Rodio, who also won the first Twins Cup race at Daytona last year and was runner-up in last year’s Twins Cup final standings, took the chequered flag on Friday at Daytona with a gap of nearly 12 seconds over second-place finisher Dominic Doyle.
King of the Baggers Race One Results
- Kyle Wyman – Harley
- Troy Herfoss – Indian +0.018s
- James Rispoli – Harley +0.137s
- Hayden Gillim – Harley +0.837s
- Rocco Landers – Harley +5.950s
- Kyle Ohnsorg – Indian +8.094s
- Bobby Fong – Indian +19.010s
- Travis Wyman – Harley +21.243s
- Max Flinders – Indian +44.445s
- Tyler O’Hara – Indian +50.727s
King of the Baggers Challenge
- Tyler O’Hara – Indian
- Troy Herfoss – Indian +0.385s
- Hayden Gillim – Harley +0.708s
Mission Super Hooligan Race One Results
- Troy Herfoss – Indian
- Tyler O’Hara – Indian +0.491s
- Cory West – Harley +1.013s
- Cody Wyman – Harley +1.073s
- Hawk Mazzotta – Indian +11.273s
- Tyler Duffy – KTM +27.729s
- Hunter Dunham – Ducati +29.294s
- Jordan Eubanks – KTM +29.306s
- Dillon Wall – Harley +32.581s
- Rich Foster – Harley +32.689s
- Andrew Berkley – KTM +38.686s
- AJ Peaslee – KTM +41.293s
- Kole King – Triumph +41.416s
- Mitchel Stein – Yamaha +51.050s
- Paul Canala – BMW +51.064s
Supersport Qualifying
- Richie Escalante 1m47.833s
- Tyler Scott 1m48.045s
- Xavi Fores 1m48.655s
- Bobby Fong 1m48.765s
- Josh Herrin 1m48.826s
- Stefano Mesa 1m48.957s
- Brandon Paasch 1m49.213s
- Richard Cooper 1m49.234s
- Hayden Gillim 1mn49.301s
- Peter Hickman 1m49.358s
- Josh Hayes 1m49.382s
- Blake Davis 1m49.427s
- Max Gerardo 1m49.580
- Marvin Fritz 1m49.597s
- Danny Eslick 1m49.876s
