By Raine Devries | 21 September 2026
Archie McDonald Wins the Inaugural FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup
Harley-Davidson just closed the book on a first season nobody will forget.
At the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, Australian Archie McDonald and Joe Rascal Racing made history. McDonald is the first-ever FIM Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup Champion — 202 points, nine clear of Spain’s Oscar Gutiérrez (193) and ten clear of teammate Eric Granado (192). Three riders. Ten points. One brand-new world championship parked next to MotoGP.
Saturday set the trap. Gutiérrez won Race 1 with authority, McDonald finished second, and James Rispoli completed the podium. Granado and Andrea Iannone both retired. McDonald stayed out of trouble, banked the points, and carried a 21-point cushion into Sunday.
Race 2 belonged to Granado. The Brazilian jumped out front and never looked back, taking his second win of the season. Gutiérrez followed him home in second. American wildcard Kyle Wyman grabbed third. McDonald crossed the line eighth — not pretty, not flashy, exactly enough.
That is championship riding. Not every title is won at the front. Some are won by bringing the motorcycle home when the math says that is all you need.
McDonald is young, fast, and now proven. Two race wins. One pole. A regular at the sharp end. He also crashed hard at Assen and still came back. Austria was the mature version: second on Saturday, safe on Sunday, first in the history books.
Then came the part that stops a room.
“This has been such an emotional season,” McDonald said. “After winning the opening race and, weeks later, seeing my brother pass away, it’s nothing I ever thought I’d experience.”
He left family in Australia to keep training. He put the grief “in a hole in the back of my mind.” And in those last laps, he said Toby was with him.
“I dedicate this completely to Toby. I love you and I miss you so much… to have him on the back of my bike with me in those last few laps was the best extra weight I could have asked for in any race.”
Gutiérrez was the show: four wins — more than anybody else — plus a pole. Crashes cost him the title. A 45-point Austrian weekend still took him to the final race. Second overall by a single point over Granado.
Granado was the metronome: two wins and a series-high four poles. Clean, precise, and perfectly matched to the Road Glide. Race 1 retirement ended his title shot. Race 2 victory was the answer.
Five different winners across the year. Every team on the podium. Four riders still in it at the last round.
A year ago in Austria, Harley-Davidson announced the championship with ambition and not much else. Now the series runs alongside MotoGP on 200-plus-horsepower Screamin’ Eagle 131R machines with Factory Racing chassis work and 62 degrees of lean.
Jeffrey Schuessler, Director of Global Racing Programs, said they built the foundation. Next: more teams, more riders, more races, new markets — and more ways for dealers, H.O.G. members, and fans to get in.
Jason Kehl, Technical Director and Team Principal for Harley-Davidson Factory Racing, went back to the shed. A few guys in Milwaukee with a dream. A century later, another garage, another dream — now a category next to the premier class on earth. Development, he said, does not stop. 2027 is already in the shop.
Final 2026 standings: Archie McDonald (AUS) 202; Oscar Gutiérrez (SPA) 193; Eric Granado (BRA) 192; Andrea Iannone (ITA) 157; Jake Lewis (USA) 117; Filippo Rovelli (ITA) 99; Travis Wyman (USA) 83; Jordi Torres (SPA) 77; Maxwell Toth (USA) 62; Dimas Ekky Pratama (INA) 60. Also in the book: Cory West, Bradley Smith, Kyle Wyman, James Rispoli, Cody Wyman, Max Flinders.
Harley baggers on a MotoGP weekend still sound like a dare. Then you watch them lean, listen to that 131, and remember the Motor Company has always been at its best when somebody in Milwaukee decides the safe version is not enough.
Biketoberfest 2026 Stays on the AMA National Gypsy Tour
If Austria was about a new championship being born, Daytona Beach is about an old one still rolling.
The 34th annual Biketoberfest rally, set for October 15–18 in the Daytona Beach area and Volusia County, will once again be part of the 2026 AMA National Gypsy Tour. That makes three years in a row the fall rally has carried the Gypsy Tour banner.
The AMA National Gypsy Tour is one of the longest-running motorcycle series in the country — more than 100 years of gathering riders who still believe the point of the machine is the people you meet on it. There are 14 events on the 2026 calendar. At each stop, AMA members can collect official Gypsy Tour pins.
Those pins — plus other AMA and American motorcycling history materials — will be handed out at the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Official Biketoberfest Welcome Center, trackside at Daytona International Speedway’s Fall Cycle Scene display area.
“There’s a reason the AMA National Gypsy Tour has lasted over a hundred years — it’s built on that same sense of freedom and camaraderie that brings riders to Daytona Beach every fall,” said AMA Director of Marketing & Communications Joy Burgess. “For three years running, Biketoberfest has brought our riders into one of the most iconic gathering places in motorcycling, and we couldn’t be prouder to have it as part of a tradition that’s carried riders together for more than a century.”
Lori Campbell Baker, Executive Director for the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the destination is glad to keep the partnership going. Biketoberfest, she noted, is a fall tradition built on scenic roads, live music, bike shows, and Florida weather that still knows how to sell a leather jacket in October.
The rally mix is classic Daytona: live music, top vendors, bike shows, motorcycle racing at the Speedway, and miles of riding on A1A, historic Main Street, and the Ormond Beach Scenic Loop.
Event details: daytonabeach.com/biketoberfest and Biketoberfest.org. Official partners include the American Motorcyclist Association, Daytona Beach Poker, the Florida Motorcycle Safety Program (Florida Department of Transportation), Rue & Ziffra, Southern Stone Communications, Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson, and Volusia Gold and Diamond.
If you are already pointing the front wheel toward Volusia in mid-October, swing by the Welcome Center and grab the Gypsy Tour pin.
That’s the latest from the two-wheel world with plenty of action on the horizon.
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~Keep the shiny side up!