Troy Herfoss wins KOTB $5000 dash for cash on Friday at COTA

King of the Baggers at COTA
Friday Report

After two hectic laps that featured plenty of bag banging, S&S Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss earned his first-ever Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge victory when he pulled clear of the melee behind him to win the three-lap dash for cash on Friday at COTA.

Troy Herfoss (17) leads Hayden Gillim (1), Bobby Fong (50) and Kyle Wyman (33) en route to winning the Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge on Friday at Circuit of The Americas. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

Herfoss was in the mix from the start and took full advantage after putting in a block pass at the start of the final lap before going on to gap the pack by 2.836 seconds on the final lap after putting in a 2m15.447.

To put that time into perspective, Jorge Martin set a new all-time outright lap record at COTA later that afternoon at 2m01.397. The quickest Moto2 time on Friday was 2m08.359, and the fastest Moto3 lap was 2m15.173. The American Superbike lap record is 2m08.1.

SDI/Roland Sands Racing/Indian Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong ended up second with a last-lap pass on RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim.

Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman ended up fourth, .222 of a second behind Gillim and was the last man standing as the other two starters in the six-rider race failed to finish.

To the victor goes the spoils. Or in this case, a giant $5000 cheque from Mission Foods to Troy Herfoss. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

Pole-sitter Tyler O’Hara led off the start but put his hand up as he negotiated the esses to let the others know he had a problem that would take him out of the race.

Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s James Rispoli, meanwhile, was out of the Challenge before it even started as a mechanical put him on the sidelines right off the start.

Only 15 minutes or so earlier, O’Hara showed in Q2 that he would be a force to be reckoned with as he shattered Wyman’s lap record of 2:15.461 with his 2:15.029. Wyman was a hair (.056 of a second) slower with his 2:15.085 and that was .491 of a second faster than Herfoss and his 2:15.576.

Wyman’s team-mate Rispoli ended up fourth fastest with Fong fifth, Gillim sixth and RydFast Racing’s Kyle Ohnsorg seventh. RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers, Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Travis Wyman and Mad Monkey Motorsports’ Max Flinders rounded out the top 10 qualifiers for Saturday’s two races