Who’s Ready For An All-Out War In Battle For Mission King Of The Baggers Supremacy?
Will It Be Harley’s Kyle Wyman Or Indian’s Troy Herfoss As The Title Chase Goes To The Wire At New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 27-29?
There’s nothing better than a championship fight going to the final round. In boxing and motorcycle racing. And that’s exactly what we have in the Mission King Of The Baggers series as rival heavyweights racing for rival manufacturers will go to the start line in race one at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Saturday separated by just two points. Can you say winner-take-all? Times two.
With the championship likely not to be clinched after the first of two races on Saturday at NJMP, we’re almost guaranteed that this brawl will go the distance – the full nine rounds and 18 races.
Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman is atop the standings by those precious two points heading to what is his home track in Millville. Wyman has logged six wins on the year and 12 total podiums to S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss and his six wins and 13 total podiums.
The difference between the two is in the non-podium finishes. Wyman’s worst result is an eighth-place finish in race two at Brainerd International Raceway. Herfoss, meanwhile, crashed and remounted to finish 11th in race one at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Even though Wyman has a zillion laps around NJMP to Herfoss’ zero laps, the Australian has proven to be a quick study as his rookie season has been full of racetracks he’s never seen before. The fact that the notoriously bumpy NJMP has been resurfaced could help equalize things as local knowledge of the bumps is usually more important than knowledge of the grip. And the bumps are reportedly gone.
Wyman and Herfoss have owned the series as evidenced by their 100-point lead over defending series champion Hayden Gillim and his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. Gillim has three race wins on his scorecard, but “only” five total podiums. The Kentuckian would like nothing better than to insert himself into the battle and come away with a win or two in the finale.
Tyler O’Hara is 15 points behind Gillim and could prove to be a factor in helping his teammate Herfoss win the title, though the same could be said for Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli, who sits sixth and just four points behind Gillim’s teammate Rocco Landers, who rides the momentum of winning his first-career Mission King Of The Baggers race at COTA two weeks ago.
In winning race one at COTA, Landers became the fourth different winner in the class, joining Wyman (six wins), Herfoss (six wins), and Gillim (3 wins). The win was 19-year-old Landers’ 53rd MotoAmerica victory and he’s now won races in four different classes – Mission King Of The Baggers, Supersport, BellissiMoto Twins Cup, and Junior Cup.
Supersport – Scholtz On The Verge
Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz hasn’t won the number-one plate in the Supersport Championship yet, but he’s got a firm grasp on it as he heads to NJMP with a 39-point advantage over Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen, who will need to keep that total under 25 points in race one or his shot at the title will be gone before the lights go out in race two.
Scholtz has gotten this far via eight wins and 14 total podiums in 16 races. Jacobsen is in the fight because of his six wins and 12 total podiums. The difference is in the crashes. Scholtz crashed out of race one at Circuit of The Americas two weeks ago and that was his only blunder. Jacobsen has crashed out of two races, the first he got an assist from Scholtz, the second was in race two at COTA with no one to blame but himself.
So here we are. The pair that controlled the championship from day one goes into the final round separated by 39 points. One is in a comfortable position, the other needs a miracle.
The battle for third in the title chase is a close one with Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis leading N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis by 12 points with Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott a further eight points adrift.
Lewis and Scott each have a victory this season with Davis yet to win a Supersport race. Lewis got to where he is with consistency that has seen him score points in every single round. No one else in the top 10 can make that claim.
The second season of the revised Supersport “Next Generation” rules continues to show parity as four different manufacturers are in the top 10 in the championship and three of those – Yamaha, Ducati and Suzuki – have won races.
Stock 1000 – Gillim Vs. Uribe
There hasn’t been a Stock 1000 race since July 12 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. In the meantime, Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim has been racing to try and defend his Mission King Of The Baggers Championship while racing his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP in select Superbike races. Heck, he’s even suffered an injured hand that required surgery in the time since he last did battle in Stock 1000.
Gillim will go up against OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe in the series finale with the two just seven points apart. Unless Uribe has been club racing since July, he hasn’t even laid eyes on his BMW M 1000 RR in almost four months.
Those two have won all the races bar one with Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates winning race two at Laguna Seca. Hayden leads the way with five wins to Uribe’s two victories. Gillim, however, crashed out of race two at Brainerd International Raceway and that’s how Uribe, who has scored points in every race, is this close.
Yates is third, 39 points behind Gillim and eight points clear of FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith with BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince just six points adrift of Smith.
Junior Cup – The Last Dance
Sunday’s race two of the Junior Cup class will mark the end of the series as the MotoAmerica Talent Cup takes over in 2025.
That means that Matthew Chapin will be the last Junior Cup Champion as the BARTCON Racing-backed rider from Maryland wrapped up the title at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August.
Chapin will start the series finale as the favorite, based on his six wins in 10 starts and an unbeatable 62-point lead over his nearest competition, New York Safety Track Racing’s Yandel Medina.
Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Gunnison sits third in the title chase headed to NJMP, 19 points behind Medina and 19 ahead of Fernandez Racing’s Jayden Fernandez. The only real championship battle is the one for fourth with Fernandez, BARTCON Racing’s Eli Block, Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe, BPM’s Isaac Woodworth, Karns Performance Racing’s Levin Badie and Bad Boys Racing’s Ella Dreher all separated by just 14 points.
Pre-NJMP Support Class Notes…
Tyler Scott and Josh Hayes split wins in the Supersport class at New Jersey Motorsports Park in last year’s season finale. Scott topped Anthony Mazziotto and Kayla Yaakov in race one with Hayes beating Mazziotto and Jake Lewis in race two.
Fortunately for Xavi Forés, the Spaniard had already wrapped up the Supersport Championship by the time the series got to NJMP. In the two races, Forés scored just seven points. Left without a ride for 2024, Forés has been filling in for injured riders. This weekend in New Jersey, he will be riding the injured Jake Gagne’s Attack Performance/Progressive/Yamaha Racing YZF-R1 in the Steel Commander Superbike races.
Last year’s Mission King Of The Baggers finale at NJMP was a drama-filled couple of races with Hayden Gillimcoming out of it all with the series championship via his first- and second-place finishes. Gillim won race one over James Rispoli and Travis Wyman with Kyle Wyman taking victory in race two over Gillim and Max Flinders. Kyle Wyman lost any hope of the title when he crashed his Harley-Davidson on the warm-up lap prior to the start of Saturday’s race one.
Avery Dreher was another who was fortunate to not need the points from the series finale to earn him the Junior Cup Championship. Dreher had a miserable weekend and scored just a single point, but he’d already wrapped up the title. Eli Block won both races, besting Jayden Fernandez and Logan Monk in race one before topping Levin Badie and Yandel Medina in race two.
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