After suffering mechanical DNFs while leading both Mission King Of The Baggers races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca a month ago, Hayden Gillim went home and didn’t talk to anyone. He wasn’t a happy camper.
This weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Gillim seems hell-bent on making up for the Laguna Seca disappointment with pent-up domination. On Saturday, Gillim got started on his plan of revenge with victories in both the winner-take-all Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge, and in the first of two Mission King Of The Baggers Championship races.
It was Gillim’s first victory of the season in the class on his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Road Glide, and it was well-earned as it came with never-ending pressure from behind in the form of S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss.
Gillim led every lap of the final, beating Herfoss to the finish line by just .173 of a second.
New father and runaway championship points leader Kyle Wyman was third on his Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide, just .337 of a second ahead of his teammate James Rispoli. A few seconds behind the two factory Harleys came SDI Racing’s Cameron Petersen on his Indian Challenger.
Sixth place went to Herfoss’ teammate Loris Baz with the Frenchman some four seconds ahead of Gillim’s teammate Rocco Landers. S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Tyler O’Hara, Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing’s Travis Wyman, and Lyndall Brakes/M3’s Max Flinders rounded out the top 10.
“After Laguna, I didn’t talk to anybody at Vance & Hines,” Gillim said. “I didn’t talk to anybody on the team. I didn’t talk to anybody for two and a half weeks. It was a long, long weekend. The Vance & Hines guys put in a ton of work, and we actually went testing last Saturday. It was supposed to be a two-day test, to kind of do some durability testing on the transmission, because that’s what our problem was at Laguna. And we found a whole other problem. We blew up both bikes in the span of an hour. So, they had to go back to the shop. They were there Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I think they loaded up the last load on Thursday morning to drive up here. They had to go back and refigure every motor that we had in the shop and the bikes. So, it’s been a long year. This is my first podium of the season. After last year, being pretty competitive at times, we just have struggled and we’re finally finding our footing again. This one I wasn’t going to give in very easy. I tried swapping up some lines on the back straight. I could hear him kind of gassing it a little bit sooner than I was coming out into the next left. So, I was thinking maybe he was rolling around on the outside a little bit better. It’s hard. Luckily, I had the Superbike race to feel all that out. So, I kind of knew what the lines were like. I was getting tired there at the end. He started closing up on me. I started getting tighter and tighter and tighter. My left arm was cramping going through the Keyhole and everything. I was gripping it so tight. ‘Don’t give this up, man.’ It was just a good day, good weekend. Keep this going tomorrow.”
Motovation Supersport – Jacobsen Rebounds
With Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz winning four of the past six Motovation Supersport races coming into the Mid-Ohio round, it was imperative that Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen turn the tables. On Saturday, he did just that.
Jacobsen got the jump on the field from pole position, led into turn one, and was never headed with the New Yorker doing exactly what he needed to do to close the gap to Scholtz in the Motovation Supersport Championship. He also got a little help from Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Cameron Petersen, with the South African finishing second, which pushed championship points leader Scholtz down to third.
So, after 18 laps of racing, Jacobsen went from seven points behind in the championship chase to two points ahead of Scholtz, 260-258. Blake Davis is third with 199 points.
The rider who gave Jacobsen the most to think about was Petersen, with the South African staying within striking distance for most of the race. In the closing laps, Scholtz made a charge, though, finishing just .109 of a second behind his countryman.
Scholtz’ teammate Davis won the battle for fourth over Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott by .013 of a second in a photo finish.
Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov was a lonely sixth, some nine seconds clear of BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes, who won the battle of veterans over Team Hammer’s Larry Pegram. MP13 Racing’s Aiden Sneed and Rahal Ducati Moto w/ Roller Die’s Corey Alexander rounded out the top 10.
“I’ve been getting seconds and thirds, fourths all year,” Jacobsen said. “I was getting hesitant there. I was about to call in (Ben) Spies to replace me for the remaining season because I couldn’t get a win. It’s really good to get a win, finally. The bike has been working well since we got here. I don’t know if it’s because the track has been repaved, so it’s helping us out with a bit more grip and stuff. We’ve been struggling with that all season. The bike felt really good. I felt very comfortable in the race. It was very hot out there, but I felt very consistent and comfortable all race. I feel like when Cam (Petersen) maybe pulled back the plus 1.4, 1.5, 1.2, I was able to push again and bring that back. I felt pretty confident all the way up until the end. At the end, I felt like I could have a bit of breathing room, even running the lap time I was running. So, I’m really happy with the bike. It’s been working really good. It’s good. To get a win is great for us.”
Stock 1000 – Beach Closes In
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach won his third Stock 1000 race in a row on Saturday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, with the win moving him to within a championship point of OrangeCat Racing’s Andrew Lee.
Beach took off from the start and never looked back with the two OrangeCat Racing BMWs doing their best to keep up. Jayson Uribe did the best job of it, but he couldn’t match Beach.
Lee was doing damage control in third place, and he narrowly held off BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau at the finish line. If he’d slipped to fourth, the title lead would have gone to Beach.
As it stands now, Lee leads Beach, 138-137, with Uribe third on 114 points.
“Today in Stock 1000, it was a really good race,” Beach said. “I got off to a great start. My plan was just to try to go fast as I could the first few laps to see if I could get a gap on the rest of the field and once I kind of broke away a little bit, it was just head down lap after lap. I felt really good, and it feels good to get a win like that, but we still have to race to tomorrow, so we’re gonna see what we can do and hopefully we can back this one up. I have to thank my whole team. They’ve been working so hard and the bike’s working so good. It’s been a great day but that’s why we line up and go racing and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – Tight At The Top
The Mission Super Hooligan National Championship will be decided in the season finale at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course tomorrow and it’s really anybody’s title to win after Saturday’s battle.
KWR Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli raced his Pan America to victory for the third race in a row, putting him just six points behind Saddlemen Race Development’s Cory West, who struggled to an eighth-place finish that virtually erased his championship points lead.
West’s teammate Jake Lewis finished a tick over a second behind Rispoli, and his second-place finish moved him to just five points behind West.
The final podium spot fell to Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, who was some two seconds behind Lewis and four seconds ahead of ARCH Racing’s Corey Alexander, the New Yorker riding the new bike to its best finish of its debut season.
KWR Harley-Davidson’s Travis Wyman rounded out the top five.
