King of the Baggers rev limit raised for H-D home circuit showdown as Herfoss shoots for title lead
Troy Herfoss, sitting second overall just one point behind teammate Hayden Gillim, will have an extra challenge to face at the upcoming Round Three of the King of the Baggers series at Road America, Wisconsin.
MotoAmerica has announced a 200rpm increase for Harley-Davidson’s Road Glides in what it says is an attempt to “balance” the performance of these air-cooled V-twins against the liquid-cooled Indian Challengers that Herfoss and his factory team race.
The change comes after just two rounds of the Baggers championship and just in time for the round taking place on 29-31 May at H-D’s home track just outside Milwaukee.
The 131cu in (2146.71cc) Road Glides can now rev to 7200rpm while the 112cu in (1835.35cc) Challengers remain at 7700rpm.
“Race results are studied, lap times are pored over, top speeds are carefully tracked, and new technical innovations are always being looked at with an eye towards improving the state of our sport and the close, exciting racing that we bring to fans,” officials said when announcing the rule change.
The decision sparked immediate pushback from both fans and seasoned observers with many saying it blatantly favoured H-D and there wasn’t a similar decision made for Indian when H-D was dominant in previous seasons.
H-D’s defending champion Kyle Wyman is languishing seventh on the points table.
AMA Hall of Famer, long-term former tuner and team owner Bill Werner commented: “How to achieve parity is always the issue when you run different displacements together. Results is not the way – too many variables – rather engineering formulas that make sense.”
The factory Indian team sits way ahead of H-D after the recent Road Atlanta round. Gillim has 82 points and Herfoss 81 with H-D’s Bradley Smith on 55 but Indian’s Rocco Landers is close behind on 53. Indian’s Tyler O’Hara and H-D’s James Rispoli are locked on 42 points with Wyman on 41.
Gillim started from pole and an all-Indian front row in the first race at the Road Atlanta round. He beat Herfoss by just 0.167sec after a race-long duel. Smith finished 3.526sec behind. It was the third consecutive one-two finish for Indian.
Second place gave Herfoss the series points lead but his third placing in the second race meant Gillim took a narrow series lead. Landers finished second to give Indian a podium sweep with Smith fourth.
Last year Herfoss and Wyman won the two races at Road America but Herfoss’s title defence was blighted by a very controversial disqualification.
