King of the Baggers – Harley-Davidson’s race series for fully-equipped touring Harleys – could be coming to Europe after the company signed an agreement with Dorna, organiser of MotoGP.
Bagger racing (somebody had to say it…) first appeared in 2020 and has been a huge success in the US as part of MotoAmerica series, with the touring bike rounds acting as support races. The sight of big twin Harleys, battling it out on track, complete with fairings and panniers, is certainly a spectacle.

To publicise the agreement signed between Harley and Dorna, the Baggers made a guest appearance at Barcelona this year after the final MotoGP round of the season. It’s still not confirmed whether bagger racing will join the MotoGP schedule in Europe in 2025, but Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz, talking to Crash.net, was optimistic: “Let’s see what comes out of it. We want to move as fast as we can, but these things take a bit of time and we want to first see how much excitement there is for this…But we think there’s more opportunity globally to do that and MotoGP can be a great partner, which is why this could be a win-win for us and we want to explore that.”

At the BMF, Jim Freeman looked forward to seeing a Bagger race in the UK: “Oh yeah, I expect to see the sparks fly, in showers. Chamfer those footboards, and will sprung saddles be mandatory? This could be the best thing since Moped Mayhem. Then there’s the noise…’

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of Harley-Davidson