Gillim clinches King of the Baggers title at NJMP

2023 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship
Round Nine – New Jersey Motorsports Park

Images by Brian J. Nelson

King of the Baggers Race One

Hayden Gillim was the one to watch at the Mission King Of The Baggers season finale with the Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson-backed Kentuckian earning a rain-sodden victory on Saturday to take a seven-point lead into the season finale to run on Sunday.

Gilim’s teammate James Rispoli kept his hopes alive by finishing second to Gillim, but the New Yorker doesn’t control his own destiny. Gillim, however, does. If he wins tomorrow and Gillim finishes second, the title will go to Gillim.

Sadly, the third contender for the title – H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman – had a horrible day and fell out of championship contention after a warm-up lap crash and a non-finish.

Although Kyle Wyman’s crash put a big damper on it, his teammate and brother Travis earned his first podium of the season after riding the second H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide Special to third place behind the two Vance & Hines Harleys.

Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Kyle Ohnsorg and Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian’s Bobby Fong rounded out the top five.

Hayden Gillim

“Coming into the weekend, I was just happy no matter how the weekend ended up I would be top three,” Gillim said. “Now, after today, unfortunately with Kyle (Wyman) going out, it’s made it where now I can’t get lower than second. So, I’m enjoying it. It seemed like a foggy race, like it was just kind of happening. It just worked out. It was a weird one. I didn’t really think about it much until after the race was over. The last two weekends… last Sunday I had a little baby girl and the Sunday before that I won the Stock 1000 Championship. So, I’m really hoping that we can just have a good day tomorrow and keep my nose clean. Hopefully, get another race win and bring this championship home, too.”

King of the Baggers Race One Results

King of the Baggers Race Two

With just two season championships left to be decided on the final day of the 2023 MotoAmerica season, ironically, the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship ended in a similar fashion to how the REV’IT! Twins Cup Championship ended.

Only seven points separated Vance & Hines Mission Harley-Davidson teammates Hayden Gillim and James Rispoli going into Sunday’s race two at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

But the showdown never really materialized because Rispoli ran off the track while leading early in the race on the wet-but-drying track. Although Rispoli didn’t crash, the off-track excursion put him well back in the pack and he ended up seventh.

That essentially handed the title to Gillim, but he still had to race, and he ultimately finished second to H-D Screamin’ Eagle rider Kyle Wyman who won the race after having a miserable weekend to that point that was lowlighted by his crash in Saturday’s race one that eliminated any chance of him winning the championship.

Third place went to M3/Revolution Performance Indian Challenger rider Max Flinders whose popularity as a crowd and paddock favorite was underscored by the raucous celebration he received on the podium after the race. For Flinders, it was his first career MotoAmerica podium.

Kyle Wyman

“I was just like everybody, watching the weather today, trying to figure out what was going to happen,” Wyman said. “I almost put slicks on for that. It probably would have been tricky. This place is just so treacherous. Finally, they’re going to repave this place after this weekend so we can put this place as it exists in the past, which is great. I’m sure it’s going to be an incredible venue. It’s a great venue, but it will be an incredible venue when it gets repaved and all that. I tried to get a good start. I made sure I squeezed the lever in turn one with those wet spots. You just make a little mistake… I was really focused on that. It was a shame to see James go off like that. He was pushing. He wanted it. He was actually building a little bit of a gap in the first half of that first lap. I was wondering if I was going to be able to go with him. I just didn’t make any mistakes. Kept it clean. We did last year. We were out of the championship. We finished with a win, just to send the message. It’s obvious that we’re here. It really stings coming up short two years in a row when we’ve won the most races both years. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I’m proud of my year. I’m proud of the race wins. I’m proud of the team. What Harley-Davidson and this whole team has done from a development standpoint that also trickles down to these guys and how they’re performing. Hayden and James just refused to have a bad day this year. It seemed like every time they had issues, it was in a challenge or practice or whatever. It’s really tough to win a championship against guys that are that solid. Pretty cool story with Hayden these last few weeks. He’s a good guy. He deserves all that’s coming to him, and the championship included. I’m also pumped for Max. Congratulations on your first podium.”

King of the Baggers Race Two Results

King of the Baggers Standings