Rispoli Wins Mission King Of The Baggers Opener At Daytona

Gus Rodio Takes First REV’IT! Twins Cup Win, O’Hara Wins Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Race

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – March 11, 2023 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Seemingly everyone had some sort of issue to deal with in the opening round of the Mission King Of The Baggers series at Daytona International Speedway, but Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli dealt with his better than the rest to take his first career victory in the class.

Rispoli was running second and giving chase to early leader Kyle Wyman when he made the save of his life and somehow stayed on board his Road Glide despite a seemingly endless and viscous tank slapper on the high banks. Once he got that under control, he was keeping the pressure on Wyman when the H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide expired with five laps to go. From there it was a battle to the finish with Rispoli and his teammate Hayden Gillim joined by the second factory Harley of Travis Wyman. The two Vance & Hines riders then got a scare when Travis Wyman’s Road Glide suffered a mechanical failure on the banking. The fear of oil on the banking brought out the red flag and Rispoli had his first win in the bag with Gillim second.

Defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Tyler O’Hara finished third on his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods Indian Challenger despite having to start from the back row when the team failed to get him and his teammate Jeremy McWilliams out of pit lane in time for the sighting lap.

The first of the Team Saddlemen Harley was ridden to fourth place by Cory West, who finished 13.1 seconds off the lead and well clear of McWilliams, who was just 1.4 seconds ahead of Baggers rookie and former Superbike racer Jake Lewis.

In addition to the two factory Harleys, Bobby Fong was another knocked out of the race with mechanical problems on his Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian Challenger.

REV’IT! Twins Cup – All Rodio

MotoAmerica races at Daytona International Speedway are normally decided by less than a second. Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Racing’s Gus Rodio decided to flip that as he rode to his first career victory in the REV’IT! Twins Cup class by an unheard of 8.538 seconds.

Rodio was initially embroiled in a battle at the front with four others, though that was broken up when Dominic Doyle crashed and took Ben Gloddy with him. It also hindered Jackson Blackmon’s progress as he had to take evasive action to avoid the carnage. That…