Press Release | March 11, 2023
Saturday
Daytona 200
Thirteen years ago, a young Josh Herrin won the Daytona 200. Unfortunately, back then it was the pole sitter who was awarded the Rolex and Herrin didn’t start the race from pole. Thus, no Rolex. When it changed to the race winner getting the Rolex, Herrin started getting poles but not wins. Today he got it right, winning the 81st running of the Daytona 200, sponsored in part by Pirelli and Bridgestone, and earning his second 200 victory. And this time he got his Rolex.
The 13 years between wins for Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Herrin is the longest gap between Daytona wins in the history of the race. The previous longest timespan between wins was seven years for Eddie Lawson, who won the race in 1986 and not again until 1993.
Herrin broke through right at the last second to take his second Daytona 200 win.
Herrin was at or near the front of the lead pack for the duration of the 200 and with nine laps to go it looked like a two-rider shootout between Herrin and his Ducati Panigale V2 and the Suzuki GSX-R750 of Mission M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante. Those two had seemingly broken the spirit of the rest and there was a gap back to third-placed Josh Hayes and the Squid Hunter Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.
A lap later, however, and Escalante was on the ground in turn one and out of the race after the pair came together. That left Herrin alone at the front, but with five laps to go the red flag came out on the 52nd lap when Teagg Hobbs and Jason Waters crashed together in the International Horseshoe.
The Daytona 200 rulebook states: “For the Daytona 200, the number of laps of the second race will be the number of laps required to complete the original race distance of fifty-seven (57) laps but shall not be less than ten (10) laps.” Thus, the race would end up being 62 laps and 217.62 miles.
Herrin, meanwhile, had been penalized six spots on the grid of the restart because of his altercation with Escalante.
The 10-lap sprint after the restart featured a horde of seven riders at the front, but it was Herrin at the pointy end when it mattered as he won the drafting war to beat Hayes by .070 of a second. Attack Performance Yamaha’s Cameron Petersen was third, .140 behind, for a complete turnaround of how his day had gone with a clutch issue thwarting his progress in the early stages of the race. The clutch problem translated to Petersen being forced to pit three times, but he didn’t give up and it paid dividends at the completion of the 10-lap sprint.
The race was distilled into a 10-lap sprint after a red flag on the 52nd lap.
Fourth place went to Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, who would later protest the results believing that Petersen didn’t actually finish third. His protest was denied. Gillim had fought back after crashing with 20 laps to go and remounting.
Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing’s PJ Jacobsen finished fifth and just .439 of a second behind Herrin. Jacobsen also got new life thanks to the restart after crashing and remounting on the 31st lap.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Hobbs was sixth after his team rebuilt his crashed bike. Disrupt Racing’s Geoff May, TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick, TSE/Truelove Brothers Racing’s Matt Truelove and Farrell Performance’s Jason Farrell rounded out the top 10.
Two-time and defending Daytona 200 winner Brandon Paasch was 12th after being penalized 15 seconds at the end of the race for a pit lane speed violation. Biothermal/Blake Davis Racing’s Blake Davis suffered a similar fate and was dropped to 11th in the final standings. Both riders raced at the front of the pack in the restarted portion of the race, but their penalties were applied at the completion of the race, per the rulebook.
Herrin’s victory on the Ducati Panigale V2 was the Italian marque’s second win in the 200 with Jason DiSalvo winning on a Team Latus Ducati 848 EVO.
King of The Baggers
H-D Screamin’ Eagle’s Kyle Wyman made up for the disappointment of failing to finish the first of two Mission King Of The Baggers races on Friday with a dominating eight-second victory on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
Wyman’s factory Harley-Davidson Road Glide coasted to a stop in Friday’s first Baggers race, forcing the 2021 King Of The Baggers Champion to watch Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli score his first career victory in the opening round of the championship.
Wyman (33) took everyone to school with a dominant win on Saturday.
And everyone paid the price for his disappointment as Wyman went on a tear on Saturday, leading every lap of the eight-lap race to beat Rispoli by 8.030 seconds. Third place went to Rispoli’s teammate Hayden Gillim, a day after Gillim finished second. Team Saddlemen’s Cory West finished fourth with his teammate Jake Lewis rounding out the top five.
Defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Tyler O’Hara had an off-day with the Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods-backed Californian running off in turn one and ending the race in 11th. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams was also off the pace, finishing 11th after just losing out in a battle with Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Kyle Ohnsorg.
REV’IT Twins Cup
Veteran Stefano Mesa made the most of his one-off appearance on the MP13 Racing Yamaha YZF R-7 to win Saturday’s REV’IT! Twins Cup race at Daytona International Speedway. Mesa, who was riding as a replacement for the injured Kayla Yaakov, topped Friday’s winner Gus Rodio by just .162 of a second after five laps of the Speedway.
Kayla Yaakov’s replacement, Stefano Mesa, did what everyone hoped he would by taking the Twins Cup race win.
Rodio, who won Friday’s REV’IT! Twins Cup race, was well clear of Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Jackson Blackmon.
Mesa failed to finish Friday’s race one with a mechanical problem.
Defending REV’IT! Twins Cup Champion Blake Davis finished fourth, a tick over six seconds behind Blackmon and just .358 of a second ahead of Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Team Saddlemen’s Cory West won the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, but his Harley-Davidson Pan America failed to pass technical examination and West was stripped of his victory.
West (13) was stripped of his win and the gold went to double-winner, Tyler O’Hara (1).
West’s misfortune was Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara gain, as he inherited the victory with West’s disqualification. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams finished second today, a day after finishing third in race one. O’Hara’s win was his second as he completed a perfect weekend in the class.
Grey Area Racing’s Mark Price rode his KTM to third after barely beating Vigilante Racing’s Nate Kern and his BMW to the line. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa was fifth on an Energica electric motorcycle.
Daytona 200
Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s Josh Herrin will start Saturday’s Daytona 200, sponsored in part by Pirelli and Bridgestone, from pole position after leading the 15-minute Time Attack final qualifying session with his 1:48.741. He will be joined on the front row by Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing’s PJ Jacobsen and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott.
Herrin powered to pole after only two timed laps.
In addition to a solid effort that led to a front-row starting position, Scott and his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki were victors in the second annual MotoAmerica Pit Stop Challenge that was held at the end of on-track action on Friday.
King of The Baggers
Seemingly everyone had some sort of issue to deal with in the opening round of the Mission King Of The Baggers series at Daytona International Speedway, but Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s James Rispoli dealt with his better than the rest to take his first career victory in the class.
Rispoli was running second and giving chase to early leader Kyle Wyman when he made the save of his life and somehow stayed on board his Road Glide despite a seemingly endless and viscous tank slapper on the high banks. Once he got that under control, he was keeping the pressure on Wyman when the H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide expired with five laps to go. From there it was a battle to the finish with Rispoli and his teammate Hayden Gillim joined by the second factory Harley of Travis Wyman. The two Vance & Hines riders then got a scare when Travis Wyman’s Road Glide suffered a mechanical failure on the banking. The fear of oil on the banking brought out the red flag and Rispoli had his first win in the bag with Gillim second.
Rispoli (43) rode the bucking bronco to take his first King of The Baggers win.
Defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Tyler O’Hara finished third on his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods Indian Challenger despite having to start from the back row when the team failed to get him and his teammate Jeremy McWilliams out of pit lane in time for the sighting lap.
The first of the Team Saddlemen Harley was ridden to fourth place by Cory West, who finished 13.1 seconds off the lead and well clear of McWilliams, who was just 1.4 seconds ahead of Baggers rookie and former Superbike racer Jake Lewis.
In addition to the two factory Harleys, Bobby Fong was another knocked out of the race with mechanical problems on his Sac Mile/SDI Racing/Roland Sands/Indian Challenger.
REV’IT! Twins Cup – All Rodio
MotoAmerica races at Daytona International Speedway are normally decided by less than a second. Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Racing’s Gus Rodio decided to flip that as he rode to his first career victory in the REV’IT! Twins Cup class by an unheard of 8.538 seconds.
Rodio was initially embroiled in a battle at the front with four others, though that was broken up when Dominic Doyle crashed and took Ben Gloddy with him. It also hindered Jackson Blackmon’s progress as he had to take evasive action to avoid the carnage. That left Rodio to battle with defending REV’IT! Twins Cup Champion Blake Davis.
Gus Rodio (96) pulled the sledgehammer on the Twins Cup field for the first win of 2023 at Daytona.
Trackday Winner/Blackmon Racing’s Blackmon, in his first race back after a long rehabilitation of a badly broken ankle, didn’t give up and he was rewarded with an eventual second place after he caught and passed the reeling Davis, who would end up fourth. Blackmon was hounded to the finish line by Cycle Tech’s Hayden Schultz, but he barely beat Schultz to the line by just .060 of a second.
Fifth place went to Ed Sullivan, the Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing rider whose real job is crew chief for Mathew Scholtz’s Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
If getting Daytona’d isn’t a verb, it ought to be. The definition would be: Daytona’d (verb) to lead the entire race only to be beaten by a fraction of a second on the draft run from the final chicane at to the finish line on the tri-oval of Daytona International Speedway.
Fong (50) led right until the last second as O’Hara (1) timed his run to the flag to perfection.
Many have suffered the fate of being Daytona’d and on Friday it was Bobby Fong’s turn. Fong and his Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle-backed FTR1200 led 99.9 percent of the six-lap Mission Super Hooligan National Championship race at the Speedway, but it was the .1 percent that hurt as Tyler O’Hara beat him to the line by .064 of a second on his Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods-sponsored FTR1200.
O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams completed the podium in third, the Northern Irelander 1.2 seconds behind O’Hara and .144 of a second ahead of Cory West and the Team Saddlemen Harley-Davidson Pan America.
Fong’s teammate Kyle Ohnsorg finished a lonely fifth.
Thursday
Daytona 200
The first day of qualifying for Saturday’s Daytona 200, sponsored in part by Pirelli and Bridgestone, got rolling on a sunny Thursday at Daytona International Speedway with Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC’s MotoAmerica Supersport Champion Josh Herrin earning provisional pole position, with pole to be decided in tomorrow’s Supersport Time Attack.
Herrin’s best was a 1:49.043, which was a second faster than the 1:50.088 that earned him pole position a year ago. While last year only one rider broke into the 1:49s during qualifying, so far there are six riders in the 49s.
Herrin bought the number one pace with the fastest time on Thursday.
Second best to Herrin is Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim, the Kentuckian .409 of a second adrift of Herrin and just .007 of a second ahead of Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante.
Two-time and defending Daytona 200 Champion Brandon Paasch was fourth with his 1:49.477 on the TOBC Racing Triumph and Squad Hunter Racing’s Josh Hayes rounded out the top five. Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing’s PJ Jacobsen, who led the morning session, ended the day sixth and was the final rider to crack into the 1:49s with his 1:49.805.
“The morning session I was a little stressed out because we had an issue with some of the quick-change stuff on the front-end, so we lost about half the session removing something in the front,” Herrin said. “In the beginning of the second session I just wanted to work on riding by myself, but when I came in, I was a bit down because the rest of the pack was about .7 seconds quicker than me. But I knew I did the lap by myself but still, when you see the time on the screens, you just get fired up because you want to be in the front. After that I got a draft off Xavi (his teammate Xavi Fores). I used him for the draft at the beginning of the lap so he could get a tow on the flyer. It helped me get that time. I’m really happy, the bike’s feeling really good and I’m looking forward to the opportunity of getting another win.”
2023 Daytona 200 Results—Thursday Q1
- Josh Herrin (Ducati) 1:49.043
- Hayden Gillim (Suzuki) 1:49.452
- Richie Escalante (Suzuki) 1:49.459
- Brandon Paasch (Triumph) 1:49.477
- Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:49.737
- PJ Jacobsen (Yamaha) 1:49.805
- Tyler Scott (Suzuki) 1:50.124
- Sheridan Morais (Yamaha) 1:50.253
- Xavi Fores (Ducati) 1:50.283
- Teagg Hobbs (Suzuki) 1:50.404
King of The Baggers
Harley-Davidson drew first blood on day one of Mission King Of The Baggers action at Daytona International Speedway with a lockout of the provisional front row. At the top of the Harley heap was 2021 class champion Kyle Wyman on the H-D Screamin’ Eagle Road Glide with the New Yorker lapping at 1:52.956 – a whopping 2.2 seconds faster than brother Travis’ pole time from last year’s race.
While it was Kyle Wyman’s factory Harley at the top, it was Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim putting his Vance & Hines/Mission/Harley-Davidson Road Glide into second, just .042 of a second behind the factory bike. Gillim’s teammate James Rispoli, meanwhile, put his V&H Harley third on the provisional front row.
It was all Harley-Davidson on day one of the King of The Baggers at Daytona with a front-row lockout.
The first of the Indians was the Indian Motorcycle/Progressive/Mission Foods Indian Challenger ridden by defending Mission King Of The Baggers Champion Tyler O’Hara. O’Hara’s best was a 1:53.615 – .659 of a second off Kyle Wyman’s best. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams was fifth with his 1:53.907.
REV’IT! Twins Cup
Defending REV’IT! Twins Cup Champion Blake Davis earned provisional pole in the class on Thursday, riding his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R7 to a 1:56.029. That put him just .056 of a second ahead of Stefano Mesa, the Floridian having his first day on Kayla Yaakov’s MP13 Racing Yamaha YZF-R7. Yaakov suffered a leg injury while testing earlier in the week and will miss the two Daytona races while hoping to be fit for round two at Road Atlanta in six weeks.
Filling the provisional front row was Team Iso’s Dominic Doyle – just .076 behind Davis. Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Racing’s Gus Rodio was fourth fastest with Cycle Tech Racing’s Hayden Schultz rounding out the top five.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship
Roland Sands Design/Indian Motorcycle’s Bobby Fong didn’t have a good day in Mission King Of The Baggers qualifying as mechanical issues thwarted his sessions, but he made up for it in Mission Super Hooligan National Championship qualifying.
Fong led the way in the final session of the day, lapping at 1:55.430 on his Indian FTR1200. Fong, however, ended the session in front but on foot as he had another issue that left him walking back to the paddock.
Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Mission Foods’ Tyler O’Hara was second with his teammate Jeremy McWilliams third. Team Saddlemen’s Cory West was fourth on his Harley-Davidson Pan America with DiBrino Racing KTM’s Andy DiBrino fifth.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Q1
- Bobby Fong (Indian) 1:55.430
- Tyler O’Hara (Indian) 1:55.508
- Jeremy McWilliams (Indian) 1:55.693
- Cory West (Harley-Davidson) 1:56.813
- Andy DiBrino (KTM) 1:57.416
Mission King Of The Baggers Q1
- Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson) 1:52.956
- Hayden Gillim (Harley-Davidson) 1:52.998
- James Rispoli (Harley-Davidson) 1:53.110
- Tyler O’Hara (Indian) 1:53.615
- Jeremy McWilliams (Indian) 1:53.907
REV’IT! Twins Cup Q1
- Blake Davis (Yamaha) 1:55.973
- Stefano Mesa (Yamaha) 1:56.029
- Dominic Doyle (Yamaha) 1:56.049
- Gus Rodio (Aprilia) 1:56.664
- Hayden Schultz (Yamaha) 1:57.105
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