Herfoss hits back at Mid-Ohio KOTB

After a photo-finish on Saturday, the defending champ takes the Sunday win to jump to second in the championship

Troy Herfoss was back with a vengeance at Mid-Ohio, delivering relentless, clinical rides to take second place in race 1 and the Race 2 victory, securing overall round win honours and keeping his title hopes well and truly alive.

After the heartbreak of Laguna Seca, Hayden Gillim arrived at Mid-Ohio looking like a rider on a mission. On Saturday he swept the Mission King of the Baggers Challenge and then converted that momentum into his first KOTB race win of the year, fending off relentless pressure from Troy Herfoss. Gillim led every lap on the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson and hit the stripe just 0.173s ahead of the S&S/Indian Motorcycle rider. Championship leader Kyle Wyman brought the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide home third, narrowly ahead of teammate James Rispoli, with SDI Racing’s Cameron Petersen a few seconds back in fifth. Loris Baz was sixth, followed by Rocco Landers, Tyler O’Hara, Travis Wyman, and Max Flinders, with Cory West a DNS.

It was a cathartic win for Gillim, who admitted he went quiet after the Laguna DNFs and that his crew spent day and night rebuilding motors and testing just to get back to this point.

Sunday brought even more drama. Gillim started Race 2 just hours after a violent morning warm-up crash that sent his Harley tumbling; the team rebuilt the bike in time for the grid. Off the start, Herfoss grabbed the holeshot with Gillim in tow, but chaos erupted behind when Travis Wyman and Rocco Landers tangled and went down—both riders up and okay, but ultimately DNFs.

At the front, Gillim and Herfoss traded punches, each trying to control the run onto Mid-Ohio’s long back straight. Kyle Wyman methodically cleared traffic—first Baz, then set off after the lead duo—while Tyler O’Hara latched onto the chase. The pivotal moment came when Gillim pushed the limit in the braking zone, skittered off and dirt-tracked his Harley through the gravel before rejoining—an outrageous save that kept him in the points but out of the podium fight.

Herfoss managed the closing laps to perfection, taking a composed victory by roughly half a second over Kyle Wyman, with O’Hara securing a strong third. Petersen finished fourth, followed by Rispoli, with Gillim recovering to sixth after his off. Baz was seventh and West eighth; Landers, Travis Wyman, and Flinders did not finish.

Kyle Wyman leaves Mid-Ohio still firmly in control of the championship, while Herfoss’ strong weekend vault him into second place above teammate Loris Baz. With 4 races remaining, Wyman can take back the championship trophy for Harley Davidson at the next Circuit of The Americas round on September 12 – 14.

Hayden Gillim – Race 1 Winner
“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.”

Troy Herfoss – Race 2 Winner
“The race played out exactly how I thought it would,” Herfoss said. “It was either the second-to-last lap or the last lap he came past me. I feel like I closed the door enough where he wouldn’t put it in there, and he did. We didn’t touch. It was scary, but I knew that if he did that, I would be closer. I was getting dropped. The final turn and turn one, I was closing in down on the brakes in through that sector. So, I was like, ‘okay, if he passes me here, I can put a move on him in the back straight.’ Of course, he went for it. I knew when I went around the outside of him, he would let the brakes off. So, I let the brakes off early and made sure he had to go inside to the track. He actually didn’t even realize yesterday. He mentioned something in the press conference about having big trouble here this weekend. I was always nearly crashing. When I came back in the morning, I was checking tires and working out if there was an issue there. Then yesterday he mentioned in the press conference that the next time he got… he would end up crashing. Sure enough, went right down the hill. Turn seven, I think. Then he was going to be too close. So then last lap I was celebrating. We know how lucky we are. I’m really excited. It’s never over until it’s over. I will say probably the worst weekend he’s (Wyman) had since I’ve been in this championship. So, we’ll keep the pressure on. Keep trying to enjoy racing and winning races.”

2025 Mission King Of The Baggers Mid-Ohio Race 1

2025 Mission King Of The Baggers Mid-Ohio Race 2

2025 King of the Baggers Standings