Slicer’s Corner
I would have to say that, after the wheel was invented, it was just a matter of time before we began to have competition. But we won’t go all the way back to the Romans with their horse-drawn chariots. Instead, we will start in 1901 when Indian Motorcycles were introduced and two years later came the Harley-Davidson Motor Company in 1903. Since then, these two iconic motorcycle companies have battled for bragging rights for well over a century! From the early days of board track racing, to dirt track, and now, in recent years, to the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship, the fl ames have been rekindled as to who’s the best!
Kyle Wyman won the inaugural Mission King Of The Baggers Championship in 2021 aboard his H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide Special, and then, in 2022, Tyler O’Hara clinched the title on his Mission Foods/S&S Cycle Indian Challenger. In 2023, it was RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim aboard a Harley-Davidson Road Guide who was crowned as Mission King Of The Baggers Champion.
With constantly evolving and improving equipment and faster bikes, along with an increase in championship rounds, the 2024 season was the fiercest battle yet between America’s Big Twin brands. A newcomer to the series was Australian Troy Herfoss, who quickly adapted to the “Baggers” machines and format. Troy joined 2022 champ Tyler O’Hara on the S&S/Indian Motorcycle team, while Harley-Davidson had a host of talented riders, all setting their sights on retaining the number 1 plate for H-D. Daytona could not go any better for veteran Harley-Davidson’s pilot Kyle Wyman by striking first with back-to-back wins on the world-famous circuit.
NJMP Guest Speakers
Dr. Carl Price, Mat Mladin, Sean Dylan Kelly, Alessandro Di Mario, Sean Bice, Tom Halverson, Josh Hayes, Mathew Scholtz, Cory West and Cameron Petersen.
Cover: Troy Herfoss and the S&S/Indian Motorcycle team celebrate their Mission King Of The Baggers Championship, Hayden Gillim won the Stock 1000 title, Josh Herrin took top honors in the Steel Commander Superbike Championship and Mathew Scholtz clinched the Supersport Championship at New Jersey!
Oh, but how the season became interesting. At Road Atlanta, Troy gave the Indian team his first of seven victories, while Kyle kept pace with a win of his own in race 2. Add in the likes of 2023 KOTB Champion Hayden Gillim and his teammate Rocco Landers, who combined their efforts with five wins in the series. Meanwhile, Kyle and Troy took control of the series, with Kyle having six wins to his credit giving him a 2-point lead coming to the championship showdown in the Garden State!
What a showdown it was in race 1 with Rocco taking the win followed by Troy and Kyle, which reversed the 2-point lead in favor of Troy. Sunday’s race was essentially a winner-takeall, with Troy taking an early lead and capturing the win and the season title! The V-twin gods have spoken, and Indian takes back the number 1 plate in Mission King Of the Baggers!
With that, we thought it was only fitting to put our 2024 Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Troy Herfoss and his S&S/Indian Motorcycle team on the cover. Well-done, Troy, and congrats to everyone on the team! The score, “if you are keeping score at home,” is Indian 2 and Harley-Davidson 2. Who will take the crown in 2025? Who knows, but I’m willing to bet it will be exciting! Daytona is just around the corner.
As we close out our 2024 season, I truly hope we have provided a lasting and memorable experience for our valued VIP Superfans! Enjoy this VIP Magazine, share it with everyone you know, and I hope to see you at a MotoAmerica event in 2025!
Best Regards, Ron “Slicer”Heben
Rookie Superbike racer Sean Dylan Kelly and newly crowned BellissiMoto Twins Cup Champion Alessandro Di Mario, both sensational riders, were a joy to listen to in our VIP suite
Grand Marshal for New Jersey was none other than 7X AMA Superbike Champion and soon-to-be-inducted AMA Hall of Famer Mat Mladin.
Saturday brought clear skies for Mission King Of The Baggers racers James Rispoli, Jake Lewis, Rocco Landers, Troy Herfoss and Tyler O’Hara. As you can see, these King Of The Baggers racers all enjoy what they do.
Rocco and his #97 RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines H-D took his 2nd win of the season with Troy Herfoss and Kyle Wyman taking 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Looks like a lot of happy people on the KOTB podium!
Sunday’s VIP suite was super busy with the likes of Yamaha’s Tom Halverson kicking off the morning, then stopping in was Team Saddlemen rider and Super Hooligan Champion Cory West, 4X AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, newly crowned Supersport Champion Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and finally Attack Racing’s Cam Petersen all entertained our guests and gave away autographed hats to a few lucky VIP Superfans.
Sunday’s Steel Commander Superbike racers Cam Petersen, Bobby Fong, Brandon Paasch, Josh Herrin, JD Beach and Cameron Beaubier again welcomed our VIP Superfans to some pre-race pictures.
How cool is it to be on the grid with our MotoAmerica and Steel Commander brand ambassadors? That’s what being a VIP Superfan is all about!
I’m not sure who is more pumped, Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati’s Loris Baz in earning his 1st Steel Commander Superbike win of the season or our VIP Superfans celebrating with top series champions Josh Herrin and Cameron Beaubier, as well as Supersport rider David Anthony (also Bobby Fong’s team owner). What a season it was. Congrats to all three riders.
Duly Noted...
Random notes, comments, statistics, musings, and bits of trivia from the MotoAmerica Superbikes at New Jersey:
Once More With Feeling
Josh Herrin and a lot of other people think, instead of Herrin winning the 2013 AMA Pro Racing SuperBike Championship, it was more a case of his teammate Josh Hayes losing it. A series of questionable jumpstart violations levied on Hayes that season negated several race wins where he crossed the finish line first, but the time penalties he was given moved him back in the finishing order. As a result, Hayes’ young, upstart teammate Herrin, in only his second year of SuperBike competition, won the 2013 title by 15 points over Hayes.
That was then, and this is now. There are no asterisks or “yeah, buts” about Herrin’s 2024 Steel Commander Superbike Championship. The man absolutely deserves his due. He conducted a dominant Superbike campaign that saw him win six races, reach the podium 13 times, and there was only one race all season long in which he didn’t score points. He beat Championship runner-up and five-time MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Cameron Beaubier by 55 points. That’s the equivalent points advantage of more than two race wins.
Speaking of that 2013 AMA Pro Racing SuperBike Championship, which was 11 years ago, on Saturday at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Herrin set a record for the longest span of time between Superbike titles. With his 2024 title-clinching Steel Commander Superbike race win on Saturday, he tied MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey with his 16th Superbike victory. Also notable is that he is now just one Superbike win behind Nicky Hayden.
Turn It Up To “11”
So, 2013 was the year that Josh Herrin won his last AMA Superbike Championship, and it was also a big year for his Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati teammate Loris Baz. Baz won Sunday’s Steel Commander Superbike race two at New Jersey, and the last time the Frenchman won a Superbike race was at Silverstone in, you guessed it, 2013. The 11-year drought is officially over for both Herrin and Baz.
The Magnificent Seven
Gone are the days when Josh Hayes or Cameron Beaubier or Jake Gagne won almost all the Superbike races. In 2024, MotoAmerica’s 10th season, there was more parity in the series’ premier class of road racing than ever before. A total of seven different riders won races this season, and that obviously speaks volumes about a well-balanced race series, not to mention an exciting one.
Heart Wrenching
It was so sad to hear that Wrench Motorcycles will no longer be competing in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship. They were truly the “Little Race Team That Could,” and did. Their rider Bobby Fong reached the podium eight times this past season, and he also notched two race wins when he did the double at Brainerd International Raceway. Those successes contributed mightily to Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., winning the 2024 MotoAmerica Manufacturer’s Championship. The Wrench Motorcycles crew members are a great bunch of people, and some of the technical innovations the team came up with were the stuff of pure genius. Their innovative swingarm and fuel cell were just a couple of the many things that contributed to Fong’s and the team’s success. It remains to be seen where Fong, David Anthony, Robbie Petersen, and the rest of the band of brothers and sisters will end up, but we will keep a keen eye on things during the off-season.
One Lap To Rule Them All
We came into New Jersey Motorsports Park bristling with anticipation that a bunch of lap records would be set on the newly repaved Thunderbolt Raceway. Well, Mother Nature had other plans, and the off-and-on rain conspired against fast laps. But, despite the weather, the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship had a new lap record set. In Saturday’s race two, S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss did a 1:23.686 on lap 6 of the 9-lap contest for
Two Superbike Championships for Eraldo Ferracci (left) 30 years apart and two Superbike Championships for Josh Herrin (right) 11 years apart.
Herrin (standing on footpegs) and Loriz Baz celebrate Superbike success again after 11 years.
We’re going to really miss the “Little Race Team That Could.”
a new KOTB lap record and also a new race lap record in the class. As for the other four race classes, we will just have to wait till next year and hope that dry weather yields more record-breaking laps.
Beast Mode
There’s no other way to put it. Hayden Gillim is an absolute Beast. First of all, there was Stock 1000 Qualifying 1, which was conducted on a damp track on Friday afternoon. With time running out in the session, Gillim noticed that a dry line—a very narrow dry line—was forming on the racetrack. And, with Qualifying 2 scheduled for the next morning with more rain in the forecast, Gillim decided the time was now to lay down a fast lap. He called for slicks to be put on his Real Steel Motorsports Honda CBR1000RR-R SP, and not a single crew member thought it was a good idea, including his crew chief Mark Junge and Gillim’s own grandfather.
Gillim left the pits with his Honda literbike shod in Dunlop slicks, got in an outlap, then put the hammer down and proceeded to earn the provisional pole by more than a second and a half just before the checkered flag was flown on the session. Gillim’s grandfather had to replace the batteries in his pacemaker after the session. And, as Gillim predicted, Saturday morning’s Qualifying 2 session did not yield any faster lap times, so Gillim’s lap from Friday’s Qualifying 1 stood, and he secured pole position for the final two races of the 2024 Stock 1000 Championship.
As if that wasn’t Beastly enough of Gillim, he kicked it up another notch in Saturday’s Stock 1000 race one. On the penultimate lap and with Gillim in the lead, he ran a little wide in turn 12. Hitting the rumble strips and the rainwater pooled in those strips, the back-end of his Honda started to come around, followed by an epic tankslapper that would have caused a lesser Beast to crash. Gillim, however, motored on.
The moment enabled OrangeCat Racing Jayson Uribe to overtake Gillim, but on the final lap, Beast-mode Gillim made almost the same move while overtaking Uribe going into turn 12. Again, he ran slightly wide and kicked up some more rainwater pooled in the rumble strips. This time, however, Gillim’s Honda knew who was boss and didn’t protest. Gillim took the checkered flag, and moved even closer to clinching the season title, which he did on Sunday after Stock 1000 race two.
“Hayden was a Beast on this Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, even with his injured hand, and it really highlighted the performance of this package,” commented Junge. “On the next to the last lap in Saturday’s race, he had a major tankslapper coming onto the front straight that measured at 2.8 G’s and had 18 oscillations on the data. Gillim recovered and made a winning pass in the final corner. He is an amazing rider.”
Faster Than A Speeding Thunderbolt
Despite the rain at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the MotoAmerica riders still managed to record some very fast trap speeds. Five race classes competed at NJMP, and below are the riders who achieved the highest trap speeds in their respective classes. Once again, Tytlers Cycle Racing‘s JD Beach topped them all aboard his BMW M 1000 RR Superbike:
Steel Commander Superbike:
JD Beach: 175.4 miles per hour (Race 1, Lap 2 of 8)
Stock 1000:
Jayson Uribe: 169.4 miles per hour (Race 2, Lap 4 of 14)
Mission King Of The Baggers:
Troy Herfoss 157.6 miles per hour (Race 1, Lap 9 of 9)
Supersport:
Blake Davis: 157.1 miles per hour (Race 2, Lap 5 of 19)
Junior Cup:
Ryan Wolfe: 124.6 miles per hour (Race 2, Lap 2 of 13)
Ella Dreher: 124.6 miles per hour (Race 2, Lap 3 of 13)
The Sticker Of Fate
Australian Troy Corser won the 1994 AMA Superbike Championship on a Fast By Ferracci Ducati 888, and the bright-red machine was on site at New Jersey Motorsports Park to watch its “little brother,” the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R, power Josh Herrin to victory and the 2024 MotoAmerica Steel Commander Superbike Championship.
If you believe in fate, or numerology, or karma, then here’s one for you. The tech inspection sticker that the AMA put on Corser’s Ducati 30 years ago was still in place on the left side of the bike’s trellis frame, right under the fuel tank. And that tech sticker’s number? 2024
On The Mend
Best wishes go out to a couple of Supersport riders who will soon undertake medical procedures to rectify their racing injuries. Rahal Ducati Moto‘s Kayla Yaakov will have surgery to repair a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in her left knee, which she suffered a few years ago in Junior Cup. And Altus Motorsports‘ Jaret Nassaney will have surgery to repair his fractured clavicle and separated shoulder that he suffered as the result of a crash over the weekend at NJMP. Get well soon, Kayla and Jaret
Never Underestimate The Power Of The Swarts
And, finally, we say good-bye and good luck to David Swarts, who finished up 24 years with Roadracing World on Sunday night at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Swarts is going to work as a Marketing and Communications Manager for well-known racer and entrepreneur Larry Pegram. The job is a hybrid position where Swarts will assist Pegram and his daughter Riley as they pursue their dream as car racers on their father-and-daughter IMSA team. Also, Pegram is Owner and CEO of Pure Ohio Wellness, one of Ohio’s fastest-growing businesses, and Swarts will assist him in that endeavor, as well.
All photos by Brian J. Nelson.
This is a collage of the who’s-who in the paddock. Let’s start with Mr. Eraldo Ferracci always welcoming and speaking to our VIP Superfans, and he loves to get in the pictures. Former AMA, GP and World Superbike Champion John Kocinski was on hand to support the Ducati efforts.
Getting to watch a few laps next to the front straightway or taking a tour of the TV compound are certainly primetime VIP Superfan experiences.
Can you say ELEVEN? That’s the combined AMA Superbike championships won by Mat and Josh. We were in good company!
Yamaha’s Tom Halverson accepts the Manufacturers Championship trophy from MotoAmerica’s Chuck Aksland.
MotoAmerica’s Hannah and Jo kept us all informed with their fabulous “pit reporting.”
Thank you to all our loyal patrons, and please check out our past MotoAmerica VIP Superfan magazines!
Take a look at our 2025 MotoAmerica schedule on the next page and start making plans now to join us for one of our VIP Experiences.
Super Turn 5 fans are truly the best fans that MA has. Good work, boys! Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Cameron Beaubier always attracts a crowd of fans.
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