Wyman Wins Mission King Of The Baggers Opener At Daytona

Kyle Wyman Tops Troy Herfoss In Baggers Thriller, Herfoss Takes Super Hooligan And Gus Rodio Dominates Twins Cup

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – March 9, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman won a game of cat and mouse with S&S Cycle/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss in Friday’s Mission King Of The Baggers battle at Daytona International Speedway with Wyman crossing the finish line just .018 of a second ahead of the Daytona first timer.

The win was the 13^th of Wyman’s Mission King Of The Baggers career, which extended his mark as the winningest rider in the class.

Herfoss, meanwhile, finished second not long after earning his first MotoAmerica victory in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race earlier in the day. In that one, Herfoss successfully broke away from the pursuing pack in the infield and held on to the finish line. In the Baggers race, Herfoss couldn’t get away and he led going into the chicane. At that point, Herfoss slowed his pace dramatically, forcing Wyman and his teammate James Rispoli to check up. The move almost worked with Wyman just managing to draft past the Aussie and his Indian.

Rispoli looked to have lost the draft to the first two in the closing stages, but a quick last lap brought him back to the draft. He was slowed a little on that final lap when Herfoss’s S&S Cycle/Indian Motorcycle teammate Tyler O’Hara crashed in front of him. Still, Rispoli was able to work himself into the draft on the backstraight and into the chicane where the Herfoss/Wyman battle baulked in front of him.

Rispoli was just .137 behind his teammate Wyman as the three crossed the finish line in formation. Fourth place, and less than a second behind, was RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim, the defending series champion blowing turn one late in the race to lose the draft of the top three.

Fifth place went to Gillim’s new teammate Rocco Landers with the 19-year-old making his King Of The Baggers debut.

“I’ve never really been in that kind of game exactly like that here, and I always wondered how it would go and how stressed I would be,” Wyman said. “The last two laps were pretty slow. I was just trying to sit there and wait and preserve the tire. I was worried that he was going to slow it down enough that we were going to have a four-rider group again, and anything can happen at that point. I was like, ‘just go just enough so we can at least make it a…