King of the Baggers NJMP Finale 2026: Wyman Wins the Last Race, Gillim Ends His Championship Year on the Podium
The 2026 Mission King of the Baggers season is over. Rain hammered New Jersey Motorsports Park, Troy Herfoss won Saturday's wet race, Kyle Wyman took Sunday's finale, and champion Hayden Gillim closed his title season with a podium and the Challenge cash.
The title was already decided when the King of the Baggers grid rolled into New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J. on September 25-27. Hayden Gillim had clinched the 2026 Mission King of the Baggers championship for the Vance & Hines Factory Indian team at Circuit of the Americas two weeks earlier. What was left was a weather-battered finale, two races, and the last word of the season between Indian and Harley-Davidson.
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A Finale Built for the Weather Report
The final round of the MotoAmerica season at NJMP was a fight against the sky as much as between manufacturers. Rain hit the Saturday programme hard, and by Sunday the schedule was being trimmed: MotoAmerica put on-track action on hold as the weather moved through, the three-lap Mission Challenge sprint was cancelled outright, and the Twins and Talent Cup races scheduled for Sunday were called off too.
Because the Challenge sprint couldn't run, MotoAmerica awarded its $5,000 prize to the rider leading Sunday's race at the three-lap mark. That rider was Hayden Gillim, so the new champion closed his year by collecting the Challenge cash anyway.
Saturday in the Rain: Herfoss Wins
Saturday's Mission King of the Baggers race ran in wet conditions, and Troy Herfoss handled them best. The Factory Indian rider took the win, adding another victory to a 2026 season in which he spent the year near the top of the standings and entered the finale fighting for second place in the championship, three points behind Bradley Smith.
A wet NJMP is a genuinely hard place to race a race-prepared bagger. These are big, heavy motorcycles with a lot of power, and standing water turns every corner exit into a judgment call. Winning in those conditions is no fluke.
Sunday's Race: Wyman's Last Word
Sunday's finale went to Harley-Davidson. Kyle Wyman, on the Harley-Davidson x Dynojet Factory Racing Road Glide, won the last King of the Baggers race of 2026, with his teammate Bradley Smith second. The champion, Hayden Gillim, finished third on the J&P Cycles/Motul/Vance & Hines Factory Indian entry, followed by James Rispoli (Big Diehl x Harley-Davidson Factory Racing) and Max Flinders (M3/Tobacco Road Harley-Davidson).
It's a fitting last image of the season: Harley's most decorated racer winning the final race, and Indian's new champion standing on the podium with the number one plate already secured.
The Champion's Season in Numbers
Gillim's 2026 championship was built across the whole calendar, from the season opener at Daytona through the summer rounds at Road Atlanta, Road America, Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio, to the clinch at COTA on September 13. Heading into the New Jersey finale, Gillim sat on 251 championship points with the title already mathematically secure, with Harley's Bradley Smith second on 197 and Herfoss three points further back.
The exact final points totals will be confirmed in MotoAmerica's official season standings, but the story doesn't change: Gillim turned the consistency that made him a fan favourite into a championship with a round to spare, on a motorcycle that gives up nothing to Harley's factory program on race day.
What This Season Means for Indian
If you ride an Indian, this was a good year to watch the brand race. The Vance & Hines-run Factory Indian program put a rider on the champion's podium, won races in the wet and the dry, and spent the season trading blows with Harley-Davidson's best. The race bikes share their lineage with the Challenger line, and every Sunday win trickles into what the engineering team learns about handling, cooling, and power delivery.
For a touring rider like me, the interesting part isn't the hardware directly, but the proof of concept: these big American V-twin touring motorcycles can genuinely race, and the two brands building them are pushing each other harder every season. That rivalry is exactly why the bagger class is the most watchable racing in MotoAmerica right now.
