If the fourth meeting of the championship MotoAmerica King of the Baggers 2025 at Laguna Seca promises little suspense regarding the overall leadership, it will be interesting to see the reaction of the Indians on the legendary Californian circuit.
In fact, after 3 meetings of motorcycles with saddlebags, Kyle Wyman (Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing) arrived in Monterey with a comfortable 56-point lead in the championship after winning four of his six races on his Road Glide. Add in the second and third places he finished in the two races he didn't win, and the New Yorker is guaranteed to leave Weathertech Raceway with the overall lead!
The question is therefore not to know " if "
closest "by how much" of points he will have to tackle the remaining 5 rounds, facing a trio of Indians led by the reigning champion Troy Herfoss (S&S/Indian Motorcycle) only 3 points ahead of our Loris Baz (S&S/Indian Motorcycle) national.
This one has just completed a long 1800-mile ride with his family on an Indian Challenger across the western USA, just to draw on the energy he will use up in the states that he will spend at Laguna Seca...
It will also be necessary to pay attention to Bradley Smith (Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing), only 6th overall due to a disqualification at Road America for exceeding the 7 rpm limit with his Road Glide, as well as a collision from Troy Herfoss, but who showed speed and aggressiveness there...
However, at the end of the first 30-minute free practice session, none of the six official drivers set the best time, Hayden Gillim enjoying this luxury on his Road Glide from the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley Davidson team.
Tyler O'Hara, the third man of the official S&S/Indian Motorcycle team, managed to squeeze in between 4 Harleys, while the two ex-MotoGP riders,
Loris Baz (S&S/Indian Motorcycle) and Bradley Smith (Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing), seemed to be acclimatizing a little more slowly to the famous hilly track.
With a mild temperature of 22°, the first qualifying session 30 minutes started with Loris Baz taking advantage of his teammate's wake Tyler O'Hara to register a first reference in 1'28.796.
The Frenchman was then overtaken by the championship leader Kyle Wyman in 1'28.328 then 1'28.057.
After 10 minutes, Hayden Gillim places a second Harley Davidson in 2nd place.
Rocco Landers achieves the 4th fastest time but his Harley Davidson stops at the side of the track, a little before the halfway point of the session. He will end up abandoning his machine and returning by bike…
After a quick visit to the box, so to speak since MotoAmerica doesn't use any, Cameron Petersen climbed back to 4th place on his private Indian from the SDI Racing team. He would eventually fall, losing the front end in the Corkscrew, his Challenger crashing into an Airfence and causing the session to be red-flagged, 2 minutes before its end. In the end, the latter would not restart.
The program continues today, with the second qualification at 20:00 p.m.
