“This is an American battle between Indian and Harley-Davidson, make no mistake about it…”
The words of the commentator presiding over the opening round of possibly wackiest (professional) race series anywhere in the world as Indian Motorcycles and Harley-Davidson renewed their battle on track for the opening round of the King of the Baggers series at Road Atlanta.
Following on from a keenly followed one-off outing at Laguna Seca last year that pit a field of Indian Challenger and Harley-Davidson Road Glides against one another on an unusual battleground, both manufacturers have now committed to a limited season on the MotoAmerica programme.
We say ‘limited’ because with only eight entrants (six by the time the race started) you have to wonder how much longevity such a format has, but to their credit both Indian and Harley-Davidson have sunk in enough resources to ensure it has fairly fierce battle up front between its leading entrants, Tyler O’Hara (Indian) and Kyle Wyman (H-D).
While the commentary - which can be listened to in the embedded highlights video below - does perhaps err a little too close to a prepared ‘remember who pays you’ script of the motorcycles being ‘nimble’ for their size, while some of the more sweeping bends are taken understandably gingerly, the beasts do show some pretty impressive torque to flatten the undulations of the Road Atlanta circuit.
Indeed, they certainly get a bit loose under braking when the weight shifts and, as O’Hara shows at the beginning, they are partial to a bit of bunny-hopping from a standstill.
So what the race may lack in numbers it makes up for with some entertaining cat-and-mouse up front. We won’t spoil the result and while as a purist you may feel compelled to flick over to Superbikes on the ‘related’ feed, let’s just say there are worse ways to spend 5mins of your time on a Wednesday afternoon.
