King Of The Baggers at Laguna Seca
July 7 and 8 saw Rounds 7 and 8 of the 2013 King Of The Baggers season at the famous Laguna Seca Weathertech Raceway, at Monterey, California, and it was a great weekend for the Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson team and their H-D Road Glides.
It was the global attention that online video of Baggers racing down the infamous Corkscrew garnered that acted as the stimulus to turn an experimental concept into a race series in the first place and now, some three years later, the series is going from strength to strength.
The weekend of July 8 and 9 marked the mid-point of a seven-weekend, 14 race 2013 series, and Race 1 saw Hayden Gillim take advantage of defending champion Tyler O'Hara (Indian Motorcycle) and Travis Wyman (H-D Screamin' Eagle) each crashing out (separately) when running in place first and second on the final lap.
At a stroke it promoted Gillim from third to first for his first KOTB race win, with teammate James Rispoli in second and Bobby Fong (Sac Mile/SDI Racing/RSD Indian Challenger) third. O'Hara brought it home for Indian in fourth with Wyman seventh behind Jake Lewis fifth and Cory West sixth for Team Saddlemen.
Jeremy McWilliams was eighth on the second factory Indian, ahead of Kyle Wyman on the second H-D Screamin' Eagle Road Glide in ninth and Kyle Ohnsorg tenth on the second of the RSD Challengers.
In Race 2 (July 9) Kyle Wyman was imperious on his Screamin' Eagle Road Glide - leading from the start to take his fifth win of the season. That said the Vance & Hines riders 'kept him honest' all the way to the checkered flag with Rispoli second and Gillim third. That gave V&H a win and three podiums for the weekend with Harley Road Glides scoring both wins and three podiums in total - five out the six available podium spots. Only Bobby Fong on the RSD Indian Challenger stood between the Road Glides and a podium sweep.