Push the Limit – The Story of the Harley-Davidson 2022 King of the Baggers Season
Okay, here we go. July 5th, 1998. Kyle's getting suited up for his first practice. Getting ready to rock and roll. There's his pit crew, Travis, crew chief. Helping him unload.
There they go and they're off. Come on, Kyle. How was it? Great.
Yeah? You like it? Yep. Ready to go racing? Yep! [cheering] It's amazing to come and ride with the pros here... ...Harv's Harley-Davidson, my and dad, my brothers Kyle and Cody... ...#3 Travis Wyman...Kyle Wyman center the winner... ...I'd like to thank my brothers Travis and Cody... [cheering] Kyle! Good luck, Travis! ...the winning trophy... ...these Harleys are just too much fun... [rain falling] We live in a very dangerous world of racing.
[Music] The risks that are taken are probably more than just about any other sport out there. It's the final for Mission King of the Baggers to decide this championship. This is something I've dreamed of since I was a kid idolizing the factory Harley-Davidson riders. What comes along with a factory team is the expectation that that you're there to win. You can't run that #1 unless you go win the championship. [Music] One minute. One minute to pit lane opening. One minute.
We're in a unique position that we have two brothers. They grew up together and they will sort it out their own way. We make sure that we still have a #1 plate, whoever's got it.
It raises everybody when you see both bikes are capable of winning. [Music] It all comes down to this and unfortunately the rain has certainly picked up. It's hard to see all of a sudden. This is going to be dangerous.
Oh! Five, four, three, two, one. The track is open for Baggers. Here comes Kyle Wyman. Iis it about that Harley-Davidson horsepower? Side by side they're going to turn #1.
Kyle Wyman takes Victory here. Yeah, a lot to celebrate for Kyle. Big step towards the title. We're lost Kyle Wyman, haven't we? And you can see him holding his left arm.
Coming here with a broken elbow, look at the job Kyle Wyman is doing right now. The checkered flag awaits and Kyle Wyman will be your national champion. I truly feel like the bike is just an extension of me. I'm so comfortable on it. I can put it wherever I want. I can do whatever I want with it. That's everything you search for as a rider.
[Music] I'm Kyle Wyman. We're out here at Inde Motorsports Ranch and testing the Harley-Davidson Factory Road Glide bagger for the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson team. You know, going into this year I decided to commit full-time to Harley-Davidson. We have six rounds instead of three that we had last year. Daytona or opener is a doubleheader. So, seven races, a lot more to prepare for.
There's something very special about putting the #1 on your motorcycle and showing that you are the champion of the series, you're defending your title and you've earned that right. If anybody says if you don't win it it's okay, no it's not okay, like that's everything. So, that's what we're here to do. [Music] I'm Travis Wyman. #10. Factory Harley Davidson Screamin' Eagle King of the Baggers rider. This is my first real opportunity of being on a factory team.
I mean I have to pinch myself sometimes because you know I watch videos of myself on track and I'm like man those guys are crazy and I'm like that's me, you know it's like kind of surreal. You know I don't even really know my place at times to ask for things. We just spent a half hour in there talking about, you know cutting this and moving this and changing things around to suit my riding style a little bit better and that's something I've never had really the means to do. When Travis joined in the middle of the season in 2021, Travis's job was to help Kyle win the championship.
We went into 2022 having conversation with Travis, that hey Travis your only team order was not to take out your teammate. Do as well as you possibly can, the exact same team orders that Kyle had. For as long as I can remember back, I mean, Harley's been in my life.
Growing up in a dealership my grandfather started 60 years ago and both of my parents drag raced Harley-Davidsons. Some of the earliest memories I have being pushed around the stroller at the drag strip while either my dad's in the staging line for his race or my mom is. We've been involved in racing since day one and I think that's what we were kind of born to do and it's pretty amazing to see how far it's come. It's starting to set in and I'm a Factory Harley Rider. Not fully yet but we're getting there.
Other than that? Feels like your bike? Awesome. This truly is an in-house Factory effort. The people who are under that tent spinning wrenches and working on these motorcycles they are engineers at Harley-Davidson.
We're all gearheads. We all love being in the paddock. We all have some sort of racing background. We knew we had to come out swinging, so we've got more power than we did last year. We have all the data that we collected last year which feeds into how we set up the suspension. Things that we're learning on the track we can bring back into designs and thoughts and things that we want to do in production which is really cool. All the engineers and all the tuners that's their job, figure out what it is that the rider really wants out of it and figure out how to give that to them. We're not building bikes, you know, continuing from last year.
We're stepping it up to the next level. We're trying to build more of a super bike style bagger so just trying to get everything to that next level has been a challenge for everybody. I don't know if I'll ever be fully comfortable racing a Road Glide, but we'll get as close as we can. We had some things that weren't quite running correctly, so there's so many new parts on the new race bike that there's just a lot of things we need to sort out.
Dave, he's our import from England. When we decided to commit full-time to Harley-Davidson I really wanted to bring him along. A guy who has, you know, built bikes that have podiumed at the Isle of Man TT, podium in world superbike, British Superbike Championship. A road racing purist from England and he's here putting all of his knowledge into this Harley-Davidson Factory effort on a bagger. I like the fact that I can apply a lot what I've learned over the years into something that is totally new and totally different and something that was never designed to go near a track.
People sometimes ask, oh do you get to on the bike and that kind of thing but I'm always like no, because I can't do what I'm building justice, but these boys can. Dave and I have been working together building these bikes. I'm teaching him racing and he's teaching me Harleys.
Rather than looking at it as a Harley Road Glide that we're trying to get around the track, you have to look at it as if we have the opportunity to build a superbike with a Harley heart. When it gets tense, you do have to lighten the mood and we get, you know, some British comments thrown in here and there from Dave that we all have to try and figure out what he's even saying, so... Google Translate. Yeah, Google Translate doesn't translate English to English. My name is Hannah Wyman. Some people may recognize me as Hannah Lopa, working as a pit lane reporter for MotoAmerica.
On a weekend like a test weekend, I have a lot more freedom to be Hannah Wyman and to be a supportive race wife. I do keep my distance and I think that's just because I have so much respect for what he's doing but also I like to be nearby and I like to support him. On a race weekend we don't see each other hardly at all. I mean I do have to interview him. It is part of my job.
Kyle, this is to be a full circle moment for you. How are you feeling right now? It's pretty amazing... Outsiders looking in think it's such a funny thing and they're so amused by it but for both of us it's just business as usual. We're here to work. We have a job to do. Not racing Superbike is a big change for me.
I've been chasing that for 10 years as a team owner. To have this opportunity to be a factory rider and only a rider with no other responsibilities other than show up to work and win a championship. That's something that is so special for Kyle. That's everything I've ever wanted.
I know that if I can bring the best version of myself that we're going to be just fine. Really where my focus is is just making the best bike package possible so I have the best tool for the job [Music] Daytona is one of the fastest if not the fastest racetrack you go to the track is immense [Music] when you roll into one of those NASCAR turns in the banking and you feel the g-forces compress the whole bike down your chest is pushed down into the tank and to look forward you're looking up in the banking as you're powering through it. As a first race of the year it's a bit of an enigma. It's hard to gauge the rest of the season on the one track because it throws up strange results. There's going to be a lot more strategy with the draft and you know who's up front you know what position you want to be in to try to maximize that last run out of the chicane.
We've been working really hard with Travis and getting him his as much seat time as possible to get it exactly where he wants it. These guys being comfortable on the bike comfortable with us as a team makes a huge difference when they go out there and push these bikes you know to the limit. Yeah you know I was fastest in qualifying and this morning, got up to speed, felt good and then it was like holy crap I'm on pole and we're racing Daytona. King of the Baggers, its turned into a really interesting and competitive series, and some big names: Kyle Wyman, the defending Champion, he's got a teammate this year in his brother, Travis Wyman Jeremy McWilliams, former 250 Grand Prix race winner. Tyler O'Hara. Tyler O'Hara, he lost the championship
to Kyle Wyman, he wants to get it back I think I liked it better when you held this thing for me. Yeah? Yeah. Pretty cool place to be sitting on a bagger. So here we go, Race #1, clutches are out. Kyle Wyman with a wheel in the air. Travis Wyman to an early launch Travis misses a gear there goes a little bit wide in Turn 1. Kyle has a look over his shoulder to see if anybody was with him. He can make that. Yeah, five laps. We are on lap 3 of 8. Lap 3 of 8. Now, Kyle makes a huge mistake, so
all of a sudden Kyle has lost the lead he goes from first back down to third. You can see that Kyle's now got himself back up onto the back of Tyler O'Hara. And he will pass and work his way up to 2nd spot. A good move for Kyle Wyman. He is fully in the draft of his brother, he's caught back up, but O'Hara is within Striking Distance again.
And there goes Tyler O'Hara into 2nd and look it. Go, Trav. Come on. Checkered flag is out and all there is. O'Hara with a perfectly timed move. Obviously pretty disappointed. Happy to have both Harley-Davidson
Screamin' Eagle Factory bikes on the podium today, but we've got to be better. You can test and test and test but until you're chasing somebody down hard around, here it's never quite the same. I'm here with a weather report. It's raining. Dave calls it beautiful weather because he's from England and doesn't know any better, but yeah not great for racing. We did have heavy rain here this morning but it blew out of here. If they've made any changes between yesterday
and today they did not have the opportunity to get out this morning because of the inclement weather conditions. This is the first time so far today that all of these riders have gotten to see the track. Daytona is a place where it can get sketchy no matter what the conditions are, it's always a crap shoot. Mission King of the Baggers race #2 is underway. It's a great start from Tyler O'Hara with Kyle Wyman's gonna slot in right behind him. There was some confusion on the
start between Travis and Kyle swapping spots. Travis Wyman's the the one that I'm looking for back there to see if he's going to be able to catch up to these three. Kyle Wyman with a big mistake and he will lose a couple of positions just look at how much these bikes are moving around underneath these guys both going into corners and you can see them leaving big, dark marks on the track. There's Kyle Wyman. It looks like there's some smoke coming out of smoke coming from Kyle's
bike. I know that they made a gearing change on that motorcycle before the start of this race. You can see Kyle, bike has shut itself off and it's done. That is horrible for the #1 plate. Well, something's definitely going on because Travis Wyman he's not even close either today. Here is the final lap. Both the factory Harleys
having a couple little issues here in the 2nd race of the weekend. And there they go, to the line we go, checkered flag is out and it's gonna be Jeremy McWilliams who holds off Tyler O'Hara for the win. You can't afford throwaway races be it mechanical or physically as the rider. He already has his lost race for the year, he cannot afford anymore. He's in a little bit of a hole now, he's got to try to dig himself out. All I know is that we get these bikes working the way I know they can we can go out and win races. We're just getting started. I've been a little
bit frustrated this weekend with some things. We could be making it a lot tougher on the competition, but right now we're making it a little tough on ourselves. And I might be sitting here frustrated still you know after the race but come tomorrow it's a new day. You just gotta you know start
fresh and try to kick some ass. I'm not joking when I say the team hasn't taken a day off since Daytona, sun up to sundown. We're pushing the entire bike to the absolute limit and we're finding that limit and understanding what that next limit is and right now we're battling the transmissions. So, it's been the
primary focus of the team to get the transmission to a point where the riders have confidence in it going around the track, but I think if that's fixed, all the other little incremental improvements, we'll be in a great spot. We ripped apart the transmissions that we were using. We ripped apart OE Transmissions. We figured out what we could do to improve everything. It was all hands on deck and when I say all hands like everyone was involved
with whatever we could do to make this transmission better. You take your own chin and you go okay right what do we have to do to be better? And that's what we've done. [Music] [Applause] The Harley team they've been fast. Kyle's kind of set the pace. I mean they're
like five or six seconds quicker than they went last year. They came out with an entire new gearbox for us within like four weeks, which is just unreal. I mean that stuff that takes years. They knew what they had to do and they got it done. I feel just so ready, so calm, so prepared. Especially with what these guys have brought
in this Road Glide this weekend, like, as long as I don't make a big error like we're gonna be fine it's gonna be good. This year MotoAmerica added this Mission Challenge. After qualifying they'll line up and do a quick sprint race with a five thousand dollar cash purse, winner takes all. Let's see how they can fit two of these big bikes in a tight area. There's Kyle Wyman up into 2nd spot. He's got one more spot to go and he pushes too hard. Down goes Wyman and the Harley-Davidson hits the floor.
Kyle could see Tyler O'Hare trying to get away and he didn't want to let that happen. We lost the bag and a couple bits of bodywork and exhaust and a peg. And you know its in good enough shape to deal with it. We took the opportunity to fix a couple of things I've been wanting to look at. We did work late but it was worth it. He's fine there's no injuries no nothing, so draw a line under it, smash the hell out of Indian this afternoon. I got a
bad start and was impatient trying to make up that lost ground. Unfortunate that you know crashing out made me sixth on the grid for the points paying race so I really need to prioritize getting a good start. Kyle Wyman the defending champ. Can he defend here in Atlanta? I think he's still the guy to beat the #1 plate. Nice jump, yes! That's the jump! Get him! C'mon, boy! Oh! Bobby Fong goes down. Oh! So Fong down and out of this race. Now we've got this battle at the front between Rispoli and Kyle Wyman.
Come on, get out front. Kyle Wyman slides himself up underneath for Rispoli into Turn 6. Here you go. There we go. Yeah! What I'm talking about. Kyle's trying to get the thing comfortably sideways. Come on, Trav. I'm wondering what's going on with Travis, if he's had a problem. Here he goes, your national
champion will come across the line and win here at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. For Kyle it's a nice little bounce back from Daytona and the stuff that he had to deal with down there. This win's got to feel kind of like vindication today. These guys have busted their ass day and night since Daytona to get us here. You know I had to exercise some patience today. I had to remind myself that this thing's not quite there yet where I can just pancake it on the side of the tire that quick. Honestly,
I think if I didn't crash yesterday and learn that lesson I might have crashed out today. Why aren't we seeing Travis Wyman with the same lap times as Kyle? He's missing something. We uncovered some braking issues and I found myself fading back pretty early and ended up 6th, which is pretty disappointing. We ran into an issue. You hope you find it at practice, you hope you find it in testing. You don't want to find it in the
race, so that's the main thing. Thing I notice about Travis is sometimes it's not what he says it's what he doesn't say. I think we're in a good spot going forward. This is funny. I hit go home in the Garmin. Where did it say? But we've never taken this home so it doesn't know we're home is. Oh.
Been on the road for 12 weeks, so be nice to give back and refresh my memory of what my house looks like. We're going to be in Macedon, New York at Harv's Harley-Davidson, our family's dealership. We have our 60th anniversary celebration this weekend. It's nice to be home. We don't
spend too much time in any one place. Wherever we are together is home essentially. He's a workaholic, for sure, but when I can get him to take a step back and really just take a break and enjoy things we have a lot of fun together. There's not an inch of wall that's not us racing. It's cool that my mom kept all this stuff. All of our art projects we did revolved around racing. This one here's mine of Chris Carr. We each had our own bedrooms and we designed
them our own way and I decided I wanted to put every cover of CycleNews on my ceiling and wall and it's funny I ended up getting on my own two covers there. How many bowls did you guys have? This is an 8th place trophy. Wow. I know, right? It's just really cool that the the team gets to come out you know and see where we grew up, what got us all started and why this means so much for us to be Factory Harley Riders, because it's kind of all we've known since we were born. Here in Wisconsin in Harley-Davidson's backyard. This track at Road America is one that everybody loves. There's the king of the Harleys. He holds that #1 plate, Kyle Wyman. This morning
he did the new track record at a 24.2. Travis was only two tenths off. Kyle's gonna be blocking just in front. Travis does it. He was able to use a little bit of that draft from his brother. Travis Wyman jumps up to the top. [laughs] I like it. Ready to out in qualifying and Kyle said hey man how about if I run a 22.9. I was like that's nice but why don't you make it 22.8. Let's see what Kyle Wyman has. Needs to beat a 2:24.25. Stomps it.
Stomps it. Goes out and runs a 22.7 and that a...that was a fast lap. A second and a half faster than Tyler O'Hara. Yeah, I know. I know. You had to one-up me.
We've been able to keep our distance from the other guys for the entire weekend and we haven't run together at all so I think it's going to shape up to be a pretty good green/white checker here. We have a bit of a game plan if we can make it work, but we've got to be together to make the game plan work so, it really depends on the start. It's gonna be entertaining. Stay tuned. Jeremy McWilliams, he's talking about a game plan with Tyler O'Hara. It's a two-lap race. Well, I think you've just seen they didn't want to let Kyle Wyman get away and you've seen how aggressive Jeremy McWilliams was right off the start. Oh jeez, come on. So who was that that was way inside? McWilliams. I saw him coming
down into 1, just way deep. The stuff-o-matic. That is probably the biggest stuff we've ever seen in baggers. Wow. Yeah, exactly. If you can't beat him, take him out, huh? I've got a feeling Kyle Wyman's got the Red Mist right now and he's going to be super aggressive. Another
hard pass could be coming soon. No point getting angry now. Just lay it out, let it get finished, move on. The next time around they're gonna get the white flag. It's gonna be hard for him to win this. This could get interesting. Pulls the inside. I clicked off another one. Now he just has the one rider.
You see the horsepower. You see the pressure that Kyle Wyman is putting on. Come on, get him! Oh, he's there. He's gonna be there at the carousel. He's on him. He can smell Tyler O'Hara.
See, he's going to set up really wide. Tyler O'Hara's way up the inside and try to block, it's going to hurt his draft--oh! I don't know how Kyle stayed in the throttle right there look at this drag race coming up the front straight, side by side. Oh... Tyler O'Hara looked like he had lost that race. He got so squirrelly. Kyle was on the
outside, was about to be weeded in the grass. I think that was an amazing ride by Kyle Wyman. Yeah, that has a hell of an effort. That was a hell of an effort. They said they had a plan. That plan worked. Yeah I don't know if the plan was to punk Kyle or what. Yeah I'm quite sure that Kyle didn't like that plan.
Clearly I got the target on my back and I want to beat somebody clean and with respect. I'm not getting that reciprocated so if that's how it's going to be, that's how we're going to race. Is anger a good thing when you're racing? Does it help you or does it distract you? Flip a coin. It's been very difficult to start off the year with not great finishes almost like depressing, like I felt like I wasn't doing my part. I felt like those were
my really good opportunities to get a jump start on the season in front of the guys and you know give me confidence and some momentum. We're like one little happy family, me, Bri, and my dog, Buddy. I don't think I'd be able to do it without her. It'd be really really difficult to be prepared the way that I need to be I
feel like I have to mentally prepare for our days just he has to mentally prepare. I definitely think I help him emotionally after a stressful weekend. Sometimes that's like four races a weekend. That's extremely physically draining for him but it's everything that he signed up for and he wants so, you know, we're here for it. Having Buddy with us you know that's also another little good support system for him too. He travels everywhere with us. He's like our baby. We have to have him.
Willie G stopped by today and Willie said yeah this is where we need to be out at the track. It's so cool to see him and how much he enjoys this racing and seeing what we're doing with the baggers. To see these guys move these bikes around, and to watch them corner, boy there's nothing more exciting. Don't let him fool you. He says we work together. We spend all day throwing ratchets at each other. He's telling you a fib. Give 'em hell. Make noise. Today's been interesting. The Mission King of the Baggers, they were able to ride in the
rain in warm-up for the first time ever. There's a lot of riders a little bit concerned about that they've not ridden these 700-pound bikes on rain tires before and they were wondering how it was going to react. There's a chance that it might dry out. There's a chance it might be raining and when we get close to race time, make a call. Worst thing you want is half. If it's going to rain, rain. If it's not going to rain, perfect. There's definitely spots that are...got some dry lines but there's
also places where there isn't any. 4 laps in this Mission King of the Baggers race and we're off and running. Travis Wyman now stuffs it up underneath McWilliams as they go into Turn 6. Alright, Trav. Kyle Wyman,
his brother, right behind and he's gonna go up underneath McWilliams into Turn 7. There it is, Kyle. Alright, time to play. The Harley boys are trying to go to the front. The guy up front right now that hasn't won one is Travis Wyman on the 10. He's working really hard right now. Come on, Travis. Travis Wyman goes up the inside about a lap and a half to go
[Applause] And you can see how much Travis Wyman has pulled that gap out. It's going to be alright. Here comes the #1 plate, up the inside he goes, a good move by Kyle Wyman. Yeah, come on Kyle get him. Boy that Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle Road Glide
looking so stable under braking and in the corners. Travis Wyman leading the way. Get, get, get. Here we go final time onto the front straightaway. And taking the checkered flag first is Travis Wyman. Kyle holds off Jeremy McWilliams by two tenths of a second. The two brothers on the factory Harley's, first and second.
First victory in the Bagger class for Travis Wyman, right here in Harley's backyard. Oh, this is unreal. I took such an extra long cooldown map because I couldn't stop crying and screaming in my helmet. I'm speechless. This is amazing. I I can't even believe that I won it. I don't even think this is real right now. This is incredible. All the hard work and everything I've dedicated my whole life to just came to fruition, you know, getting emotional again right now, thanks. I'm just so happy for the team. It's really driven by just passion. Was that a setup the whole time? These Baggers, what a huge growth from last year this year. This is some real,
real heat that they're bringing to the table. You know, this class is insane. Every time we get on these bikes they just develop further and further. We've worked really hard to make these things handle like they are doing, so you come here where there's no respite, it's constant on the brakes, on the gas, edge of the tire, it's better for us. It's a roller coaster of a race track. Probably the most elevation change we see with the Corkscrew and Rainey and coming down 10 to 11. Wyman just continuing to look just so one with the bike right now.
Not so bad. Yeah, I was not expecting that one yet. Travis Wyman hasn't even gone out yet. I don't think Travis likes your motorcycle. Or the crew chief or the team. [laughs] Something like that. He wants to wait.
Yeah, he is. He has sad from the beginning if we've got him a bike with no issues and that he's comfortable on he can win. Just kind of sat and waited to see what kind of times the guys were putting in. I waited until about 10 minutes left and I saw Kyle went by and did a tenth faster than what I did in Q1, so I said alright, time to go.
Travis on his first serious flyer. He's just magic on this bike. He put up three of the four fast sector times and pushes Kyle back into second in this session. We got a really good bike setting now, where he's comfortable with it, and when Travis is comfortable Travis is fast. The bike's gotten better and, you know, we won a race. I feel like I'm getting more confidence and, you know, telling the guys what I need and our communication is improving. The biggest issue right now for me is my brother. He's
right there. He's right there nipping on my heels. We've raced against each other for a lot of years in a lot of different categories but we've never really had to battle each other. Our relationship has gotten a lot better over the last year and a half where we've been able to come together under this program and work together, and I want it to continue to grow and not let it get between us. No matter what, we're brothers first. The level
that Travis is trying to ride it at, he's trying to push past his comfort level to where his brother Kyle is pushing. That takes a lot. And as a rider you have to get your brain in that focus and that confidence of what the bike can do so you can just push that very limit. You never stop looking at the bike until you can't look at her anymore when she rolls away. You know, have I done this, have I checked that, is that torqued. You have to do this. Every
round you go to is another opportunity for a failure. Pretty big Championship implications going on here, the top four riders in the championship separated by only 13 points. So points massively important here. Get a start. Get a start! Yes!
Right now we've got an Indian up front, with three Harley-Davidsons right behind them. Kyle Wyman making a bid for the lead as they go up into the Corkscrew. Now they're heading down into Rainey Corner. That was a big mistake. O'Hara up out of the seat. Get in there. That allowed Kyle to go through there. Get him, Trav. You can get him, too. The second of the Wyman Brothers goes through on O'Hara.
You can kind of see Travis Wyman is able to start to gap O'Hara. Rispoli giving it a go on his racing Harley-Davidson Road Glide. He gets it done. He gets on the gas. Yes! Yes! Kyle Wyman is coming around for a big win for him.
It seemed like for Kyle Wyman he just needed to have a clear track in front of him to be able to run the pace and run the lines that he wanted to. Kyle Wyman coming on to the front straightaway with a nice gap. He has a look over his shoulder and he's got nothing but checkered flag in front of him and will take the win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. And coming to the line Travis, then it's Rispoli.
So it's Wyman, Wyman, Rispoli. An all Harley-Davidson podium. How important was this victory for you in terms of the championship moving forward into these last couple rounds? Yeah, obviously really important, especially because we got three Harleys here on the podium. It's pretty special and yeah, come on, let's hear it. Vance & Hines put together a beautiful package. You know we may be a satellite, but we're still a Harley and we still locked it out. So, we're stoked, man. Woo! That's the good one, right there.
Here we are, Mission King of the Baggers. These big, big motorcycles ripping around Brainerd International Raceway in a championship that is close as you like it. Our chances are looking really good now, you know, Travis and I are tied in points, one point behind Tyler O'Hara, 2 races left. If it comes down to it where we're at Jersey and I've got a win to win the title. I feel good about my chances. Kyle Wyman was
quickest yesterday and Tyler O'Hara was a little bit off, but this morning Tyler went out put a good lap in and he's on the provisional pole. We'll have to see if one of these boys can knock him off. You can tell the way he's riding, he's super comfortable. Getting ready here for this three lap absolute dash.
Kyle looks like he has his head down. I think he's a little disappointed he didn't get that pole position. Oh there goes O'Hara. That was O'Hara. Boy that gives Kyle a huge lead now. The thing is he's not gonna know this on his pit board.
Kyle goes down! Oh! Kyle Wyman. Ooh, who's that? Oh no, that's Kyle. Oh no! [expletive] He just went down. All the bagger riders talk about how far over the limit you can be on these things and we've literally said it's like impossible to high side them. I guess not.
You alright? Yeah. It's going to be a little sore. That was a pretty good one I just need to be more aggressive in the beginning to get by some of these guys. Trying to look and see what's salvageable. Exhaust is done. Yeah, it was a pretty good tumble. I've got Scotty going to build forks right now. I'll drop folks out, drop everything out of it.
Yeah, he'll check 'em out but we'll just replace him anyways and he can look through... Yeah. We have a severe weather update for our viewers today. We've got red clouds coming this way. I can confirm that it is in fact raining in Brainerd, Minnesota.
It's beginning to hail. It's not ideal because we've essentially rebuilt the bike. In an Ideal world you'd want to send him out for a couple of laps, make sure everything's running right and everything's perfect. Travis was on his Stock 1000 bike and ended up crashing on the last lap right in front of us. You know, and he only had 10 minutes before the start of our race, so he was banged up and anytime you crash a racing motorcycle it gets in your head a little bit. Yeah.
2 minutes. We all saw it happen it was right there and so that was kind of like a now what moment. You know, is it even going to be okay to ride? I don't even have time to change out of my crash suit. I've got dirt in my mouth. It's like, man, what do I got to do to get my head straight? You've got 10 seconds, let's go. Get going, get going. You've got 10. 5! Get going!
We got out. Barely. This Championship we talked about it it is so tight. Every lap makes a difference now. That's it. That's a start. Kyle's making himself a little susceptible right now it almost looks to me like Wyman's got a problem. Oh no, so the #1 plate who's second in points-- oh and there's a bike down in the background.
He just was gradually going backwards and then he pulled up. What in the living [expletive]? I saw that somebody crashed. I had fluid all over my left handlebar around my clutch. Unfortunately we missed a small portion of repair and that small portion resulted in pressure building up inside the engine and oil coming out of the clutch cable. It looked bad. It was bad. I'm not going to make any excuses. As soon as we saw it, we were able to fix it. Due to Kyle's bike being the cause of the red flag, MotoAmerica made the decision to disqualify him. We appealed that decision and it went all the way to the time for the rescheduled race before they actually made a decision.
There are a variety of penalties they could hand out. The not letting you line up is a pretty big one. No chance to score points. We haven't heard would he go to the back or just original grid position since it's a restart? Yeah, we haven't heard that either. I know. Waiting for a final ruling and it didn't come until
we were out on hot pit so we were getting ready like as though we were racing because that's what we had planned for. For them to give Kyle that death penalty on the championship for the year for something that the team made a mistake for, wasn't Kyle's mistake, it's disappointing and it's hard to take, but one little thing can change the course of your entire season and it did. They are not going to let the defending champion line up, so this is a major major swing. The penalty for us not to be able to actually start the race was pretty harsh I thought but also understandable from their perspective. It is inexcusable for a factory race team to put fluid on the racetrack. I hate it for all of us, the team. I hate it for the fans. It's a huge bummer. It's not one individual. It's our collective mistake.
We all have a hand in everything that happens. Will the weather hold off until the end of this race? Temperatures have dropped significantly, the wind is picking up and I'm feeling a little sprinkle here and there. For the Harley team, the onus is going to be on Travis Wyman. I feel bad for him, you know, he's got the #1 plate for a reason he should be out here fighting to keep it and I was pretty emotional about it prior to the race.
2 minutes. 2 minutes to pit lane opening. 2 minutes. The track is open. For Travis it's been a long road of growth to try to match me to not feel like he's playing second fiddle. Revs are up and we are away. Today, he was alone in a sea of Indians and he had to show up and do his job and he [expletive] did his job.
Get him, Trav. Get him. Oh yeah! Go! Travis Wyman, without his teammate in this race, trying to reel him in as he has a look over his shoulder and he sees nothing but Tyler O'Hara. Get him! That's really the battle for the championship, isn't it, between those two right now. So, Travis Wyman's got to do everything
he can to keep going and try to stay ahead of O'Hara. Oh, Jeremy McWilliams is down. Get ready for some rain. Red flag is out because of rain falling on the racetrack.
I think maybe with only two laps to go they called this race and Bobby Fong is the winner. Yes, it is. Thank you. It is. It is. 2nd place today goes to H-D Screamin' Eagle's Travis Wyman, now with the championship points lead. [Applause] First of all I'm gonna say it's a damn shame my brother Kyle's not out here. It's unfortunate
to see his championship hunt go out the window like that so, I owe it all to him to even be standing up here, so to come away with the points lead is pretty incredible. The race...the race for me, I felt strong... Hey, we're here for it. Championship day. The gloves come off. If you're O'Hara or if you're Travis Wyman, you win the race, it doesn't matter what else anyone else has done. They control their own destiny.
I feel comfortable on the bike, most comfortable I've ever felt. Jersey's a good track for me, too, so I'm excited to see what we can do. I mean, I know Tyler's strong and it'll come down to the wire I imagine. I've probably thought about every possible scenario that could happen so far, but then thinking back to all the races I've come from behind Tyler and beat him in every race that I've had at the bike working to spec.
Travis is riding so much more aggressively and confidently. He deserves to be here. He deserves to have this chance at the championship and as a team we're going to do everything we can to to finish the job we started. We had a bit of a break. I'm not sure whether that did me any good. The fact that me and Kyle knew we could win it makes it worse. It was a human error. The only way to get over it is to go, okay, put it in its place and use that as your fuel for the following year.
Go! Today, I was like, you know, I just need to have more fun. I just need to go enjoy it. This is the last time we're gonna race these things until March, like, just stop being a sourpuss and just go enjoy it. Really gonna be fun to watch this unfold throughout qualifying and then into the racing.
He caught it. Kyle out there immediately putting in a 25.6, even though he had that moment. That's a hot lap around this place. What are they? They're 5 seconds off superbike times. Are these guys qualifying for the superbike race right now? Watch Travis Wyman, comes across, looking for a time of 25 and he does it. .090 over his brother Kyle. Looking good if you're Travis Wyman
and he was confident. O'Hara going back out of here. Can he close that gap in lap times to the Harleys. They've got some work to do here. I'm not gonna lead you around the racetrack. They both sat up and looked back. Just wasting each other's time, so just let them go and then went back out. They're waiting for Travis.
Yeah. It seems like it. Looks like maybe something let go on Tyler's bike, he's got his hand in the air. That's not a good situation for Tyler. Tyler just had mechanical, so he won't be around. Yeah, yeah, right. A little JRA.
Really? That's a different...different approach for you. Uh oh, Travis is on a flyer. Settle down, kid. We already have it clear.
Travis Wyman trying to beat a 1:25.93. We'll see if he can do it. Yes, a 1:25.4, so he found a half a second, but look at bro just behind. Kyle. Finding some love in that first sector. Yeah, he is. That's quick. we may see a 24 out of a bagger here today. Oh, Kyle just went purple again. He is smoking the record right now. Is this gonna be
the fastest lap ever here in NJMP on a bagger? Purple again. 24.5! A 1:24.55, he has done it. That's making a statement. That is a huge statement for Harley-Davidson here today. That is a smoking fast lap. Just gonna go ride around. Not gonna throw a lap down. Yeah, have fun.
24.5. Really? [expletive] yeah. Now put a little jingle in your pocket. Alright, here we go. It's a three lap sprint to the finish. The Harley's already showing their speed putting a little bit of gap between themselves and Bobby Fong on the Indian Challenger.
Taking the victory, Kyle Wyman. Yes! Nice race. Kyle's celebrating that win today 5,000 bucks. I don't think three laps in a race have quite meant so much for a long, long time. It was another opportunity to show everybody exactly what we're capable of and the times that we can put down.
Looks like you at least want to go out making a mark this weekend. We're making the Harley-Davidson fans happy today! [Applause] Pole at a 24.5...on a Harley-Davidson Road Glide. That is insane Obviously I want to be champion. You know, we're racers, man, we've got big egos. We always feel like we want to be the one to beat, but can't always be about me.
This is what's meant for me right now because it's not my time, it's Travis's time. I'm super proud of him and he's everybody as good as anyone out there. You know, we want to get this championship for Travis you know he's earned it. Alright, teammates and brothers, looking fast Kyle Wyman. Those Harleys have been unbelievably fast, what the Wyman Brothers have been able to do, but that was in the dry. We're keeping an eye on the skies and keeping an eye on the radar and we'll be prepared to go with whatever direction. We've spent hours into
the night last night planning a wet setup. You know, I feel like we could get away in the dry, the two of us, and and bring home that title, but it's unfortunate that it's going to come down to this anything goes, all bets are off, maybe rain race type of deal. Fingers crossed for dry. We'll smoke 'em if it's dry. If you can keep that contact patch with the ground with the wet rain tire, they're good. they're amazing, but the minute you get a situation
where you're going through puddles and you're aquaplaning, it's all over. This place will put you on the ground before you even know what you did wrong. I think that's the best situation. As we were trying to figure out what the conditions were going to be like it got pretty hectic closer to race time because it started to dry out. The track was totally dry so we were like, which way do we go with the suspension? Will you grab me the right side dry shock out of that box? Alright Scotty, I'm ready for you. Then the last like three or four laps of the superbike race it started raining again.
It all comes down to this and unfortunately the rain has certainly picked up since the last race that we saw. We're pretty much out time. Five minutes. Five minutes to pit lane opening for Baggers.
One minute. One minute to pit lane opening. One minute. Feels good he said? Yep. Rain is falling and that really is going to make things interesting. Yeah, as if we needed any more pressure for these riders. Travis Wyman leads this Championship 106 to Tyler O'Hara 103.
Tyler O'Hara has been waiting for this to happen. The rain is here. Kyle's going to be fast. Travis is going to be fast. How much do you push it if you're the 2 Harley guys? 7 laps scheduled for Mission King of the Baggers for the national championship. Does the number one plate move to Travis Wyman or Tyler O'Hara? It's time to get racing. Clutches are out. Here we go. Wheels are spinning on the line. It's going to be Kyle Wyman leading the way in.
Travis Wyman, he's got to try to bridge this gap to the 1st and 2nd place riders at the moment. He's just gonna sit there and watch a little bit, figure out what he can do. It was a big gap to makeup. Yeah but it's a good place to be when it's wet you can see what you can and can't do. Oh! [expletive] Travis just fell down out of this race right now and that thing was gone in an instant.
Unbelievable. The championship points leader with the #1 plate so close is down and out of this race. Good luck, Travis. For me my brother, racing for Harley-Davidson now, it's storybook. I mean, like, I wish my grandpa was still around to see us.
It's kind of like a dream. And I think it's only the beginning. Oh my god. Go! Come on, Travis! He was going to have to pass him. I mean, he went down fighting for it.
I am impressed. Wet grass picking up a 600-pound bagger. You do the squats you've never done before. True. He's not a big fella. His quad's gonna be burning tomorrow, yeah. Kyle Wyman's got one focus only and that is to bring this #1 plate home for the final race of the season and stand on top of the box for Harley-Davidson.
And Wyman will take the win and win the battle but the war goes to Tyler O'Hara. It's a hell of a season. You know, we always say in racing it's you know you get these high highs and these low lows and we managed to do them all at the same time. You know, a great victory for Kyle and just a crushing blow for Travis, but that's the way racing goes sometimes. It's obviously tough, you know. We all expected to come out here winning and definitely would have if it was dry. It's the first crash I've had all season and its the one that counted but
I made sure to get it back up and get rolling. Rode as hard as I could. Left it all out there. We'll come back stronger next year. Dude, I would have been stranded out there.
I saw the parts scattered in Turn 10, so I figured it must have been him and I was bummed for him. You know, I'm proud of him for pushing and rather crash trying than not take that risk. Having rain in New Jersey is never any fun and I don't ever want to do that again so, three wins on the year, let's keep it going next year.
Congratulations today's race winner, Kyle Wyman. We have come such a long way in such a short amount of time that I'm happy to see how quickly the smiles came back, because we won this year. To run over there, pick up a 620-pound bike and finish the race...that's a champion. After everything that happened at Brainerd, to come out and put that ride in, that was a championship ride.
Thank you. Take a long time to get home but I need you back at work for next year on Monday. I feel good about the season we put together, I just I wish it could have meant more today, you know, to win that race, and be able to retain the #1 plate. And I'm gonna be hungry as ever to take it back next year. We have unfinished business. We have the best package out there and the best couple of riders in this series to go out and bring the #1 plate back.
I'm gonna keep bringing the heat. It's business as usual and by business as usual I mean, like, I'm [expletive] coming.
2023-03-09 13:10
