Harley-Davidson to Attend Test With MotoGP in Barcelona
Bagger racing is going global
The 2024 MotoGP season will wrap up this weekend in Barcelona, with testing for the 2025 season expected to begin on Tuesday. In between, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will see a rather unexpected manufacturer conducting its own test: Harley-Davidson.
Chief Executive Officer Jochen Zeitz will be holding a press conference alongside representatives from Dorna and MotoGP at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Nov. 18 to discuss Harley-Davidson’s future aspirations for international racing. No, The Motor Company isn’t going to be debuting a MotoGP racer.
At least, we don’t think that’s what will happen. The more likely goal is to announce preliminary plans to bring bagger racing to the global stage.
“Racing is a core pillar of the Harley-Davidson brand, showcasing our commitment to performance and innovation,” says Jochen Zeitz, Chairman, President, and CEO of Harley-Davidson. “Partnering with Dorna/MotoGP, we aim to expand our racing footprint globally, fueling the passions of our customers and fans. This MotoGP test is a pivotal first step in realizing these ambitions and demonstrating our dedication to racing excellence.”
The Harley-Davidson Factory Racing rider Kyle Wyman, as well as former Grand Prix Racers John Hopkins, Marco Melandri, and Simon Crafer will also be there to run demonstration laps on a race-spec Road Glide.
“Harley-Davidson is an iconic brand, and we are always interested in ways to partner with them to attract more fans to MotoGP, the most exciting sport on Earth,” says Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports.
This isn’t the first confluence of MotoGP and bagger racing. The King of the Baggers held a round in support of the Grand Prix of the Americas in April. Race fans got to see baggers competing a three lap challenge on the Friday at Circuit of the Americas, plus two six-lap races on the Saturday, with the MotoGP sprint race in between.
What’s interesting about next week’s press conference is that Harley-Davidson is working with Dorna and MotoGP alone. There was no mention by name in the press release of King of the Baggers or MotoAmerica (or a certain other manufacturer that’s also heavily invested in bagger racing).
No, the announcement was very focused on “the future global aspirations of Harley-Davidson racing” alone. This suggests some sort of spec racing series running in support of select MotoGP rounds.
It’s also interesting that Harley-Davidson is working with MotoGP on this and not Dorna’s production-based World Superbike Championship. Of course, MotoGP has a much more international reach, whereas WSBK is contained to Europe, plus a lone foray to Australia.
We’ll find out more after the press conference on Nov. 18.
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Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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Bagger racing is cool and all, but wouldn't Adventure Bike racing allow more manufacturers to participate? A tricked out Pan America would be pretty fast, I imagine.
Bagger racing?
LiveWire batteries for Moto E?
ADV Supermoto?
MotoGP Sportster?
There's literally no bad possibilities, here!