Harley-Davidson bosses have bold plans to bring bagger racing to a wider global audience – with Britain set to welcome the class for the very first time at the Silverstone round of MotoGP world championship on August 7-9.
Round four of a six-part series called the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup, it’s the first time the heavyweight racing series has been seen outside of the USA – with a domestic King of the Baggers (KOTB) championship running since 2021, contested by both H-D and Indian Motorcycle.
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Speaking exclusively to MCN, Director of Global Racing Programs at Harley-Davidson, Jeffrey Schuessler explained how the class had potential to reach new audiences in fresh markets, with the racing also helping to attract a new audience to the Milwaukee brand.
“We’ve seen great growth and traction with King of the Baggers, which brought us to this position in partnership with MotoGP,” Schuessler said. “We see year one as a foundational year.
“Our main goals were to bring in the teams and riders, to create the ecosystem, to run a global spec series with Harley-Davidson, which was something new for our organisation.
“We want to bring more independent teams on to race in the series,” he added. “We want to bring more high quality global riders and racers to the series.
“We are six rounds, 12 races this year. We already have expansion plans for next year into eight rounds and possibly even beyond that. Certainly Southeast Asia and the Asian regions are interesting opportunities for us because we’re not racing there this year.”
The Harley boss confirmed that Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan were all under consideration, explaining: “You have to understand, from a population density standpoint, those regions have a huge community that are very passionate about motorsports. I mean, incredible attendance at all of those races and tapping into that market is something that we want to do.”
Although still in its infancy, the World Cup has already attracted riders including MotoGP race winner, Andrea Iannone. Over in the KOTB series, competitors also include Britain’s Bradley Smith – another former MotoGP rider who competes for Harley’s factory squad.
“Bradley’s been an incredible rider for us in the factory racing team,” Schuessler continued. “Who knows, we can’t confirm right now, but maybe he will be wildcarding at the Silverstone race in the World Cup.”
Harley’s involvement in bagger racing began in an employee’s garage during the Covid-19 pandemic. The bikes now used to compete in the world series are powered by a Milwaukee-Eight V-Twin 131R race-modified motor, said to produce in excess of 200bhp, and capable of around 186mph.
At their second round in Mugello, Italy, pole position was claimed by Brazil’s Eric Granado with a time of 1:56.704, which less than two seconds off the pole time in Moto3 – a 01:54.862 set by Spain’s David Almansa.
When asked if Harley would consider domestic championships in the future, similar to the XR1200 Trophy that ran alongside British Superbikes in the late noughties, Schuessler added: “I’m absolutely open to exploring that. However, our main focus right now is the factory team with King of the Baggers in North America and the World Cup with MotoGP.”
With the margins in traditional GP racing getting tighter and harder for fans to truly appreciate, race series like KOTB or World Cup are a welcome change. Watching these behemoths getting sideways and trading paint has made for some of the most exciting viewing in recent years and we welcome more of it.
Dan is a fully-trained journalist, with a Gold Standard Level 3 Diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists. He has a passion for motorcycles of all capacities, but feels at home aboard a sportsbike. He's been working for MCN in print and digital for the best part of 10 years, with regular contributions to RiDE Magazine on the side.
News Editor, trackday fan, lover of 90s sportsbikes.