2023 King of the Baggers COTA Weekend

Just three points separate the top three King of the Baggers Championship contenders heading into race weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) as the series prepares for its eighth round. Leading the points as of today is Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim. Directly behind Gillim are H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman and James Rispoli (Gillim’s teammate). All three have had crazily consistent seasons, and Wyman is the only one in the top three with a DNF on his scorecard.

Gillim earned his 175-point total with two wins, two seconds, three thirds, two fourths and a fifth with his two wins coming in the second half of the championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Brainerd International Raceway.

Wyman, the 2021 Mission King Of The Baggers Champion, has the most wins of the three, but he also has a DNF. Wyman arrived at his 172 points via five wins and only one other podium finish, a third in race one at Road America. Wyman is coming off an off-for-Wyman weekend at Brainerd where he finished fourth and fifth in the two races. He also has a ninth-place finish on his points tally. Wyman knows how to win as he is the all-time wins leader in the class with 10 victories.

Wyman is tied for second with the personable James Rispoli with the Florida resident only winning one race, but with six other podium finishes. Like Wyman, Rispoli has 172 points.

With the top three all riding Harley-Davidson Road Glides, the first of the Indian Challengers is the one ridden by Bobby Fong and not defending series champion Tyler O’Hara. Fong is 45 points behind Gillim but has proven capable of winning on any given day as evidenced by his two wins thus far in 2023. (Road America and Brainerd). Fong has three other podium finishes on the year.

O’Hara is next and a disappointed fifth in the championship and is surprisingly winless on the season so far. O’Hara does have three second-place finishes and two third places, but he is seven points behind Fong and 52 behind his rival Kyle Wyman.

Mission King Of The Baggers rookie Jake Lewis sits sixth in the championship and has scored in every round but has yet to reach the podium.

The second of the two factory Indians and Harley-Davidsons have also had disappointing seasons with Jeremy McWilliams ninth and Travis Wyman 10^th, respectively.