The Harley-Davidson Pan America adventure bike isn’t just an expensive parking lot decoration for doctors and lawyers and such. It’s perfectly capable of hard use, including racing, and the MoCo has proved this again with a pair of Super Hooligan wins gone to Cody Wyman and Jake Lewis.
Last weekend in Super Hooligan racing action at Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, racers on Pan America 1250s took four of six podium positions, including both race wins.
Super Hooligan racing runs alongside the MotoAmerica superbike series. The bikes are race-prepped street models like the Indian FTR naked bike series, or Harley-Davidson’s Pan America adventure bike series. In this case, the riders at Ridge Motorsports Park were on machines built off a Pan America Special.
Here’s how Harley-Davidson said the race went:
On Saturday, pouring rain created challenging racing conditions and caused the race distance to be shortened from 8 to 6 laps of the 2.47-mile, 16-turn Ridge course. On the first lap, Wyman jumped from eighth position on the starting grid to second place and took the lead on lap 2 with a pass of Team Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson rider Cory West. Wyman was leading by 1.3 seconds when the race was red flagged for a crashed bike on the track surface. West led Wyman briefly when the race was re-started, but West slid off the track in turn 3 and Wyman, in smooth control on the wet surface, sped away from the field. KWR/Harley-Davidson rider Hayden Schultz moved into second place. Wyman crossed the finish line 7.99 seconds clear of Schultz for a 1-2 finish for the KWR/Harley-Davidson team. S&S/Indian rider Tyler O’Hara finished in third place, more than 13 seconds behind Wyman.
On the next day, on a dry track:
West, Lewis, and O’Hara broke away from the field on lap 2, and Lewis got past West for the lead on lap 3. Lewis then pulled away, opening a gap of more than 4 seconds by lap 6 of the 8-lap race. A short off-track bobble on the final lap cost Lewis some time but he still beat O’Hara to the finish by 2.00 seconds. West finished third, 4.895 seconds back.
At the end of the second doubleheader in the Super Hooligan series, Wyman is now second overall, behind Tyler O’Hara (who’s currently riding an Indian).
Other racing endeavors
At this point it’s worth noting that Harley-Davidson seems keen to get their bike out in competition, as we already saw Juan Pedrero Garcia piloting a Pan America in the Africa Eco Race this year. He didn’t win, but he did finish the race on the basically-stock machine. It leaves us curious as to what else this motorcycle is capable of?
