The Championship Picture: Super Hooligans
Jasmine Noelle has secured the number one plate to wear next season in Royal Enfield’s Build. Train. Race. and Hank Vossburg has wrapped up the Twins Cup championship with one round still to go. This weekend at Circuit of the Americas, the Mission Foods Super Hooligans National Championship will decide their champion to add to that list.
Andy DiBrino comes into COTA with 168 points and a slim five-point lead in the championship over his boss at BPR Racing Yamaha, Bryce Kornbau. However, they are not alone; Gus Rodio is only 19 points back from the championship lead to make three riders that still have a chance to earn the number one plate.
Rodio is more than capable of winning both races this weekend, but he will probably need help dealing with his championship competitors this weekend in order to win the championship. Rodio can’t rely on DiBrino and Kornbau to make a mistake because the reason these riders are in this three-way fight for the title is they have been just as consistent as they have been fast. The trio have zero DNFs between them while at the same time DiBrino leads the field in wins this year with three. Kornbau and Rodio are the only other riders with more than one win this season.
With only the five points between the two BPR riders they can really focus on just beating each other, but if things start to go sideways Rodio will be ready to pounce on his Rodio Racing Ducati.
James Rispoli sits in fourth place in the standings with his second straight number one plate for Harley-Davidson just out of reach. Rispoli is 53 points behind the championship leader DiBrino with only 50 points available to be won this weekend. That doesn’t mean that Rispoli and his teammate at Saddlemen Race Development Jake Lewis won’t be able to have a say on who does win the title, however.
After a completely dominating performance in last year’s championship where an overwhelming majority of podium spots were filled by Pan Americas the bikes from Saddlemen Race Development had to add 38 pounds of lead to their bike before the end of 2025 to comply with a new higher minimum weight standard. The dialing back of the Harley-Davidsons continued before this season started with a tighter air restrictor becoming standard for those bikes as well.
The results of the tinkering really didn’t show at Daytona to open the season as the three bikes from Saddlemen Race Development swept all the available podium positions. Despite all the effort to rein the Pan Americas in, the long straights of the speedway allowed the big V-twin to stretch its legs and dominate again.
The Harleys have struggled since then because all of the rest of the circuits on the calendar are tighter by their nature and haven’t provided opportunities for the riders at Saddlemen to put the best asset of the Pan America to use. The back straight at COTA is over one kilometer long and should provide Rispoli and Lewis that opportunity.
And if Rispoli and Lewis are able to take podium positions away from the Yamaha teammates in DiBrino and Kornbau then it could be wide open as to which of the championship contenders will return next year with the number one on the front of their bike.
