Round Two Of Mission King Of The Baggers And The Stock 1000 Series Opener Set To Bring The Battles To Georgia.
It’s been almost two months since Kyle Wyman rode his Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide to victory in both Mission King Of The Baggers races in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway back in March, and the 2021 class champion is likely hoping that momentum is timeless as the class heads to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for round two, May 2-4.
For Wyman, the two wins in the Daytona opener were his fourth and fifth in a row at the Speedway, and his perfect weekend of racing has him leading the championship by a comfortable 22 points heading into Georgia.
While winning what are arguably the two biggest races of the season, Wyman knows that the seven-round, 14-race Mission King Of The Baggers Championship isn’t necessarily won at Daytona. Still, the momentum gained with a dominant Daytona performance can help set the tone for what’s to come.
S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Troy Herfoss sits second in the title chase heading into round two after an up-and-down Daytona – literally. In race one, Herfoss was attempting to claw into Wyman’s lead when the Australian crashed in turn six with five laps to go. Fortunately, Herfoss was able to remount, finish eighth, and take the eight points that may prove valuable when points are added up at the end of the season.
In race two, Herfoss and Wyman battled for the win, with Wyman and his Harley-Davidson coming out of the spat with victorious, albeit by just .056 of a second over Herfoss and his Indian.
Bradley Smith wasted little time in taking his maiden step on a MotoAmerica podium, as the Brit took advantage of Herfoss’ miscue in race one to place second behind his Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing teammate Wyman. In race two, however, Smith also had his first MotoAmerica crash. Like Herfoss the day prior, Smith was able to remount, finishing 10th to put him third in the championship with Florida in his rearview mirror.
Herfoss’ teammate Tyler O’Hara was a consistent sixth and fifth in the two races, putting him fourth heading to round two, and privateer Kyle Ohnsorg left Daytona fifth in the championship with fourth- and seventh-place finishes on his TAB Performance Racing Indian Challenger.
What of the other big guns like class newcomer and the third of the factory S&S/Indian Motorcycle teamsters Loris Baz, RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim, factory Harley rider James Rispoli, Rocco Landers, and SDI Racing’s King Of The Baggers rookie Cameron Petersen?
Landers ended up the best of that group but was off the pace with his seventh- and fifth-place finishes. Still, that was better than his teammate Gillim, who was scoreless in race one and sixth in race two.
Baz rebounded from a turn-one crash in race one to put his Indian Challenger on the podium in race two, finishing close behind Wyman and Herfoss.
Petersen, meanwhile, was third in race one but failed to score a point in race two. Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis finds himself seventh in the championship after Daytona with his fifth and eighth in the two races.
Rispoli’s Daytona was one for him to forget as he crashed out of both races and left Florida with zero points.
Stock 1000 – Here We Go!
Forty-five racers will attempt to qualify for the opening round of the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and if there’s one thing we know about the 2025 Stock 1000 series, it’s that it’s wide-open and anybody’s to win.
For starters, the rider who won seven of 10 races en route to winning last year’s Stock 1000 Championship is focusing his efforts on the MotoAmerica Superbike class. So, the 45 riders don’t have to worry about having to beat two-time class champion Hayden Gillim and his Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
But they do have to worry about the series runner-up from 2024, Orange Cat Racing’s Jason Uribe. Only three men won Stock 1000 races last year, and Uribe was one of them. He was also the only rider other than Gillim to win more than one race, as he won twice on his BMW M 1000 RR en route to finishing second in the title chase, 21 points behind Gillim.
Uribe is returning for another crack at the title with the same team but with a different teammate – two-time Stock 1000 Champion Andrew Lee. No stranger to success in Stock 1000, Lee has 11 victories in the class and the two titles on his resume.
Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates was the third rider to win a round in 2024, with the Georgian taking victory in race two at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. In addition to his lone victory, Yates had five podiums in Stock 1000 last year, and that earned him third in the title chase. Yates is also coming back for more in 2025, and the season starts with Road Atlanta, which is some 100 miles north of his Milledgeville home.
Two additional riders from last year’s top 10 in the championship are also returning to Stock 1000: fifth-ranked Bryce Kornbau and his BPR Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 M; and Kornbau’s teammate Deion Campbell, who ended up eighth in the 2024 series.
Two newcomers to the Stock 1000 class pull into Road Atlanta with big things expected from them – JD Beach and Rocco Landers.
Beach is a two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion (2015 and 2018) and is the all-time winningest rider in the category with 32 victories. The Kentuckian is also a two-time MotoAmerica Superbike race winner. Beach will race a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP out of the Real Steel Honda pit alongside Gillim, who is focusing his efforts in 2025 on the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
For Landers, Stock 1000 will be the fifth MotoAmerica class that the youngster has competed in. And he’s won in all four of them: Supersport, Twins Cup, Junior Cup and Mission King Of The Baggers. In all, Landers’ win total is 54, and his podium finishes across all classes are an impressive 87. All that has added up to him winning two Junior Cup titles and a Twins Cup Championship.
The Californian will be armed with a RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki GSX-R1000R in his attempt to win a fourth MotoAmerica Championship.
Oh, and Landers is just 20 years old.
In addition to the new riders in the class, there is also a new manufacturer and rider combination, with Cory Ventura set to make his, and Aprilia’s, debut in the Stock 1000 class at Road Atlanta on the RSV4 1100 Factory for new team PS2 Racing.
Motovation Supersport – The Heat Is On
Just one point separates rivals Mathew Scholtz and PJ Jacobsen at the top of the Motovation Supersport series point standings after one round and two races of the 2025 season at Barber Motorsports Park.
Bring on Road Atlanta.
Defending class champion Scholtz gave the brand-new Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R9 a fantastic debut with a victory in round one at Barber Motorsports Park three weeks ago, with the South African riding the R9 to victory in its first MotoAmerica outing. The following day, in the pouring rain, Scholtz crashed, remounted, and still put the bike on the podium with his third-place finish.
Scholtz has seen this movie before, as he crashed out of the lead in the first of two Superbike races at Barber in 2021, yet remounted to finish second.
Jacobsen and his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Panigale V2 had a steady start to his season with two second-place finishes in the two Barber races. That puts the New Yorker just a single point behind Scholtz, as it already looks as though these two will battle week in and week out as they did a season ago.
However, Barber also showed that they may not have it all their way.
Fifty-year-old Josh Hayes showed his prowess in the rain with an impressive victory in Sunday’s downpour in Alabama. Armed with the new YZF-R9 from under the BPR Racing awning, Hayes’ win came after his 10th-place finish on Saturday in the dry. Hayes believes he will be a factor in the championship, and who would be brave enough to disagree with him based on the fact that he’s a four-time AMA Superbike Champion with 89 victories across all classes? Hayes arrives in Georgia with a 10-point deficit to Scholtz.
Scholtz’s teammate Blake Davis was consistently fast at Barber, with the 19-year-old third and fourth in the two races, placing him fourth in the title chase, just two points adrift of Hayes and 12 points from the lead after one round.
Fifth place is jointly held by Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Yaakov earned her 20 points with a fifth and a seventh, and Scott has 20 points based on his fourth- and ninth-place finishes.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – West And The Rest
It took a while for Cory West to win an AMA Championship, so it’s natural that he’s in no rush to give that up.
Defending Mission Super Hooligan National Champion West arrives for round two of the series at Road Atlanta leading the point standings after the two races at Daytona International Speedway back in March.
West won race one and finished second in race two on his Saddlemen Race Development Harley-Davidson Pan America, and those results gave him a slim, one-point lead over his teammate Travis Wyman, 41-40. The third Saddlemen teamster, Jake Lewis, is third in the championship, nine points behind West, after winning race two at Daytona.
Class rookie James Rispoli is fourth in the championship standings heading to Road Atlanta after his third- and fifth-place finishes on his KWR Harley-Davidson Pan America at Daytona. Rispoli’s teammate Cody Wyman rounds out the top five heading into Road Atlanta.
Strack Racing’s Hawk Mazzotta is the highest-placed non-Harley-Davidson in the championship, with the Californian seventh in the standings on his Yamaha MT-09.
Pre-Road Atlanta Notes…
PJ Jacobsen won both Supersport races at Road Atlanta in 2024, beating Blake Davis by just .103 of a second, with Mathew Scholtz just .407 of a second adrift in a thrilling race one. In race two, Jacobsen again took victory. This one was easier, as he crossed the line 2.7 seconds ahead of Corey Alexander with Jake Lewis rounding out the podium.
Australian Troy Herfoss swept both of the Mission King Of The Baggers races last year. Herfoss topped Kyle Wyman and Hayden Gillim in race one, prior to besting Tyler O’Hara and Max Flinders in the rain-sodden race two.
Of the 45 Stock 1000 entries, BMW and Yamaha are tied with the most representation, with both manufacturers having 14 entries apiece. Honda is next with eight entries, followed by Suzuki (4), Kawasaki (3), Ducati (1) and Aprilia (1).
Five different manufacturers are competing for the 2025 Motovation Supersport crown, with Suzuki leading the way in the number of entries with 11 GSX-R750s. Yamaha (six YZF-R9s and three YZF-R6s) and Ducati both have nine entries each, while Kawasaki and MV Agusta have two and one entries, respectively.
The Motovation Supersport class features an international flavor, with riders from six countries represented – USA, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain.
The 45-riders-strong entry list for Stock 1000 at Road Atlanta features riders from five different countries – USA, Colombia, Germany, Argentina, and Great Britain.
The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship round in Georgia has attracted 46 entries on nine different brands of motorcycles – Harley-Davidson, BMW, KTM, Yamaha, ARCH, Indian, Triumph, Ducati, and Suzuki.
When Stock 1000 takes to the track for the first of its practice sessions on Friday, it will be 740 days since the class last competed at Road Atlanta in 2023.
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