The ever-evolving Roland Sands Super Hooligans class rolled into Daytona with aggression. The familiar heavy hitters returned to the series, with the addition of veteran racer Bobby Fong and a few more privateer teams to extend the field.
The Indian Motorcycles factory seems to have made significant strides in bike development and were immediately up front, as the FTR1200’s quickly began running faster laps times than the year prior.
Andy DiBrino has been busy in the off-season, looking to defend his 2022 Daytona victory and push towards the overall championship battle. His KTM 890 Duke R was looking good and showed great speed. The number 62 from Oregon qualified 5th, 2 seconds off the fastest lap of the session.
Although Bobby Fong is the newcomer to the Super Hooligans, he found his footing quickly and topped the qualifying session with a fast lap of 1:54.18.
The Progressive Insurance/Mission Foods Indian racing team riders Tyler O’Hara and Jeremy McWilliams were able to get front row grid positions after qualifying 2nd and 3rd respectively.
As the first race of the weekend, the 6 lap Super Hooligans race had all eyes on it.
Bobby Fong had a great start, holding off Tyler O’Hara as the race progressed. Team Saddlemen Harley Davidson’s Cory West had a great launch from the second row and was running a strong third ahead of Jeremy McWilliams. However, the former MotoGP racer of McWilliams popped by West with two laps to go and would grab the final podium position.
Up front, Bobby Fong continued to lead the way, with Tyler O’Hara trying to keep him within reach. O’Hara ran a smart final lap, got an excellent drive out of the final chicane and played the draft perfectly to just squeeze by Fong for the victory.
Ryan Yearwood is the motorsports correspondent for SoBros Network as well as the pioneer and visionary behind SoBros Outdoors. Follow on Twitter: @OutdoorSoBro.
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