After their synchronized crashing in Mission King Of The Baggers on Saturday, the protagonists in the class were back at it on Sunday and this time H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman made amends by winning the second of the two races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on a sunny Sunday on the Monterey Peninsula.
Mission King Of The Baggers – Wyman Bounces Back
Mission King Of The Baggers (KOTB) is a one make versus one make championship: Harley-Davidson versus Indian Motorcycles. But on Sunday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, “The Motor Company” as they colloquially refer to Harley-Davidson, swept the podium in KOTB race two.
H-D Screamin’ Eagle factory rider Kyle Wyman got the victory, and he was hounded by Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli, who got balked by a lapped rider on the final run to the checkers, and it thwarted his last-turn effort. Finishing third was Rispoli’s teammate Hayden Gillim, who won Saturday’s race one.
“Today, I tried to pull the trigger the last few laps,” Wyman said. “I thought I had a bit of a gap, but we caught a lapper in turn 11 on the last lap. It feels good to get a win today. We all want to win. We all have, maybe, a little bit different approach in trying to do it. Today, fortunately, I was able to do it my way, which is control the pace and try to manage and see if I can dig a little deeper in the end.”
REV’IT! Twins Cup – Rodio Answers
REV’IT! Twins Cup race two was a tale of two teammates, and it was the best of times for one of them and the worst of times for the other. Race one winner Rocco Landers was at the front aboard his Robem Engineering Aprilia and looked to be headed for another victory, but he made a mistake and crashed out unhurt, which handed the lead to Gus Rodio who is sponsored by Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering but is technically on the same team as Landers.
For Rodio, who hadn’t won since Daytona, he gladly took the win and also took over the championship lead by just three points over defending class champ Blake Davis. Speaking of Davis, he finished third in Sunday’s REV’IT! Twins Cup race two aboard his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R7.
“I got a really good start and then I ran wide in turn five,” Rodio said. “That corner seems to get me every time I come here. That’s where I threw the lead away last year in the Junior Cup. So, once I ran wide, I knew to just stand it up and try and get back on the track because that green, you keep the lean angle and that’s how I crashed last year. Got back on the track. Was surprised to only have fallen back to third. I knew I had to get around Blake and then just put the pressure on Rocco. He’s my teammate and I know his plan. I just tried to keep the pressure there. I don’t think that’s why he crashed. I think there was a lot going on in that corner with the yellow flag and a rider that had just gone down. So, there’s no telling what happened there. It definitely helped to be right on him and kind of like a cat and mouse. He would stretch it in a sector, and I’d close it in a sector. I’m really happy with the race. Disappointed that he went down. Hopefully he’s all right.
“When I hopped on the Aprilia at Daytona, I just really felt like one with the bike. It reminds me a lot of my supermoto, and I love that thing a lot. The last couple rounds, I just didn’t feel very connected with the bike. I came here and right off the bat it feels like my bike again and I feel like I’m one with the machine. I just had a lot of fun this weekend and it seems the results come with that. So, I’m just going to keep having fun and keep chipping away.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – McWilliams Again
The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship had two feature races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and venerable Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams did the double by winning both races. On Sunday, he battled again with his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods teammate and defending class champ Tyler O’Hara, taking the checkered flag by just a little more than one-and-a-half seconds over O’Hara.
Thus far in the championship, O’Hara has won three races and McWilliams has won two, but the pair are now in a deadlock for the title with 106 points apiece. Meanwhile, DiBrino Racing KTM rider Andy DiBrino, who finished third in Sunday’s race to round out the podium, is just 16 points behind in the point standings.
“We’ve been fastest in every session (this weekend),” McWilliams said. “I think maybe that was a lap record on the last lap. I could just see plus zero, plus zero. I could see the back markers were approaching. The problem is here that you get a trip-up with the back markers, as I believe happened to him maybe going onto the last lap. It’s so tight at the Corkscrew that you get tripped up and unfortunately your lap just goes away. So, I did need to be at the front so I could try to control the back markers. That was the plan. Even if I got passed, whether it was Andy or my teammate, I had to be able to get back past again as soon as possible. I wasn’t fast everywhere. I wasn’t as strong in some parts of the track as Tyler, and I kind of knew that. Which would make it very difficult to make a pass again because I think Tyler could have gapped me quite easily. Then I would have had to fight really hard to get back at him. But I needed the points and I needed to do this for our guys that are working so hard. They didn’t get back last night until 12:00 or something yesterday evening, and they’re up at 5:00 every morning. They’re not getting any time to relax and it’s hard on them, so we’ve got to repay that with the best results we can give them. We’ve got the hardest-working team and we’ve got a factory behind us.”
