Race 2, Silverstone: Archie McDonald won the Bagger World Cup, Smith 5th.

To round off race day at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, fans were treated to the second round of the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup, which was also the eighth race of the season. The prospects for a British victory looked good: former MotoGP rider Bradley Smith, who was competing this weekend on a wildcard, had won the first race on Saturday.

Pole position on Saturday, however, went to someone else – the young Australian Archie McDonald, ahead of Oscar Gutierrez and Bradley Smith.

Oscar Gutierrez initially took the lead at the start of the second race, overtaking McDonald. Just a few corners later, the pole-sitter reclaimed the lead. Granado also got off to a good start and moved up from fifth to fourth. Andrea Iannone made up two places from eighth on the grid. The race came to an early end for Dimas Ekky Pratama, who sent his heavy racing Harley into the gravel trap.

After the first lap, the Bagger riders crossed the finish line in the following order: McDonald, Gutierrez, Granado, Smith and Torres. Shortly afterwards, Smith and Torres swapped positions, and Granado also found a way past Gutierrez. For the previous day’s winner, Smith, however, things went further down the field, as Iannone also overtook him. At the end of the second lap, Jordi Torres took a tumble, but in doing so threw the chasing pack off their stride.

At the start of the third lap, Granado suffered a heavy slide. McDonald seized the opportunity and pulled away by around half a second. Behind Granado, a gap of about a second had already opened up, which the chasing pack first had to close. Meanwhile, Bradley Smith was locked in a thrilling battle with Gutierrez for fifth place.

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Foto: Gold and Goose

The standings at the halfway point of the race: Archie McDonald was in the lead, followed by Eric Granado, who had managed to close the gap again. Jordi Torres followed some way behind in third place, with Andrea Iannone, Bradley Smith and Gutierrez lining up behind him.

Granado closed the gap on the Australian with a series of fast laps and was right on his tail for the final two laps. In the chasing pack, Torres pulled away and cruised to a comfortable third place, whilst the battle continued behind him. However, the order of the top three remained unchanged: Granado made a mistake and lost direct contact with the leaders.

Archie McDonald thus secured his second win of the season ahead of Granado. Jordi Torres completed the podium, which was entirely dominated by Joe Rascal Racing. In the battle for fourth place, Oscar Gutierrez got the better of Bradley Smith. Rounding out the top ten were Andrea Iannone, Maxwel Toth, Jake Lewis, Travis Wyman and Filippo Rovelli.

In the overall standings, Eric Granado leads the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup with 147 points. Archie McDonald is just five points behind him. The only rider still in contention with the two Joe Rascal Racing riders is Oscar Gutierrez of Niti Racing, on 128 points. The next race weekend takes place in three weeks’ time at MotoLand Aragon.