Mission King Of The Baggers, BellissiMoto Twins Cup And Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Classes Join The Daytona 200.
MotoAmerica, North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series, has announced a total of 143 entries for the three classes that kick off the 2024 MotoAmerica Championship at Daytona International Speedway, March 7-9.
The 82nd running of the Daytona 200 will feature 67 riders with 28 of those from outside the United States. The race can also boast of three past Daytona 200 winners (Josh Herrin, Brandon Paasch and Danny Eslick) on the 2024 entry list.
But the Daytona 200 isn’t the only race happening at the Speedway as the Mission King Of The Baggers, BellissiMoto Twins Cup and Mission Super Hooligan National Championship will also be in action on the high banks at the “World Center Of Racing” for what will be the start of their championship seasons.
The entry list for Mission King Of The Baggers is 16-riders strong, and it features defending class champion Hayden Gillim aboard his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson as he battles against rivals Kyle Wyman and James Rispoli who represent Harley-Davidson Factory Racing.
The other American Big Twin motorcycle company, Indian Motorcycle, are represented by Tyler O’Hara, who is teamed up this year with fellow S&S/Indian Challenger rider Troy Herfoss, a three-time Australian Superbike Champion who will be making his Daytona debut.
And speaking of riders from other countries, the pride of Andorra, a MotoGP podium finisher, as well as a World Supersport and World Superbike multi-time race winner, Rubén Xaus is all-in on his Feuling Parts Harley-Davidson.
He’ll have to face Bobby Fong, who is back aboard his SDI/Roland Sands Racing/Indian Challenger. Then there’s the three-rider Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson team with Cory West, Jake Lewis, and Travis Wyman.
And let us not leave out the surprise signing of the off-season with Hayden Gillim’s teammate Rocco Landers also aboard a RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.
Mad Monkey Motorsports’ Max Flinders is hopeful of duplicating or improving on his podium result from the last KOTB race in New Jersey in 2023 and Trask Performance is fielding Shane Narbonne.
Indian insider (he’s an engineer) Kyle Ohnsorg is back aboard a Challenger after a podium-reaching performance at COTA last year. Flat tracker Jesse Janisch is bringing his sideways-sliding style to the Suburban Motors H-D/Slyfox/Trask Performance team. And they will all be joined by Danny Eslick, the four-time Daytona 200 winner who will be aboard his Nowaskey Extreme Performance Harley.
Meanwhile, 25riders have entered the BellissiMoto Twins Cup series opener with two races around the 3.51-mile, 12-turn Daytona road course.
Defending Twins Cup Champion Blake Davis will start the season as the favorite on his Yamaha YZF-R7, but he will face a considerable challenge from both Aprilia and Suzuki-mounted riders.
The Suzuki attack is led by Team Hammer’s Rossi Moor on the new Suzuki GSX-8R with Vance & Hines also fielding Rocco Landers on a GSX-8R.
Aprilia, meanwhile, will be well represented by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio, who will be teamed up with Italian Alessandro Di Mario and wild-card New Hampshirite Ben Gloddy, who is returning to the team for at least one round (and maybe more?). And, speaking of Italy, new team TopPro Racing has brought in Romeo Chiavini to pilot an Aprilia. Those four will be joined by eight more Ape-riders ready to go “660” on the field of 25.
Along with Davis in the Yamaha YZF-R7 camp are former class champion Kaleb DeKeyrel, South African Dominic Doyle, and his Giaccmoto Racing Yamaha teammate Sonya Lloyd, who raced in last year’s Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. program, and British-racer-living-in-Canada Jack Roach returns to MotoAmerica after a hiatus of a couple of years.
Thirty-five riders have entered the series opener for the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship with that class featuring 12 different manufacturers doing battle.
Making its debut at Daytona is the Yamaha MT-09 SP, a three-cylinder motorcycle that will be piloted by three different riders, including Italian-born, Switzerland-residing FIM Endurance World Championship-winning rider Niccolò Canepa.
Defending class champion Tyler O’Hara is back aboard his S&S/Indian FTR1200, Andy DiBrino returns aboard his Competition Werkes/Gray Area/KTM 890 DUKE R, and Stefano Mesa will once again be aboard his Tytlers Cycle Energica Eva Ribelle RS electric bike. Plus, there are seven Harley-Davidson Pan Americas, a couple of BMW R nineTs, two Ducatis, a pair of Suzuki SV1000s, an Aprilia Tuono, a Buell XB12XT, and even a Victory Vegas in the mix.
