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RSD To Enter King Of The Baggers Race With Indian Challenger

The builder’s modified entry will see Frankie Garcia at the controls.

September 25, 2020

It’s official: Roland Sand Design is modding an Indian Challenger to race in the bar-banging King of the Baggers competition next month.Roland Sands Design

Last week we reported on Tyler O’Hara’s testing of his Indian Challenger racebike as he prepared to race it in the upcoming King of the Baggers competition at Laguna Seca Raceway this October. But now it seems there’ll be another Indian-mounted competitor vying for a shot at the podium in the inaugural Drag Specialties King of the Baggers invitational—veteran racer Frankie Garcia, who’ll be piloting an Indian Challenger built and prepped by the crew at Roland Sands Design.

Horsepower of 122 and a race-tuned S&S exhaust are not a bad starting point. Are those upswept pipes for better cornering clearance?!Roland Sands Design

Sands and his crew have been crazy-busy of late; they rolled out a customized, dragstrip-ready BMW R 18 just last month, and now it looks like it’s time for another race-biased build. With this entry, RSD joins S&S Cycle as the only other team to enter an Indian Challenger against a stacked field of 12 modified Harley-Davidson baggers. RSD will be working his race-specific mods on a bike with a claimed 122 hp (we saw 103.1 hp from the stocker on the Cruiser dyno) and a race-tuned S&S exhaust, RSD race wheels shod in Dunlop supersport tires and a hydraulically adjustable Fox X RSD rear shock, which sounds like a pretty good start in the transformation from premium American bagger to a race-ready machine that’ll be pushing its limits at historic Laguna Seca.

In addition to stripping bodywork and tweaking the engine, RSD will be extensively modifying the riding position to best fit Garcia—hopefully without a battery underneath him.Roland Sands Design

At the helm will be one Frankie Garcia, a name that should be familiar to anyone following the Hooligan race scene; the vet racer has competed as a member of the Indian Motorcycle-RSD Super Hooligan team and is no stranger to RSD’s knack for transforming stock bikes into high-performance racing machines. Garcia’s also pretty damn comfortable on almost any track environment, having competed in flat track, supermoto, motocross, and roadracing. For his part, Garcia’s stoked on the event, saying, “I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time on a stock Challenger, and believe me, this bike wants to go fast and handles like a bike half its size. It’s the perfect platform for something as radical as knee-dragging baggers at Laguna Seca.”

Tyer O’Hara with S&S is piloting the other Indian entry in the KOTB competition.Indian Motorcycle

'Course, Roland seems to be jazzed too; “There’s something both absurd and awesome about racing baggers at Laguna Seca, and it’s exactly the type of craziness we live for here at RSD,” Sands said. “Hats off to the gang at MotoAmerica and Drag Specialties for bringing this event to life.”

The King of the Baggers event will be part of the MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest at Monterey on October 23-25. The inaugural race will join the premier MotoAmerica Superbike, Supersport, Liqui Moly Junior Cup, Stock 1000, Twins Cup, and Heritage Cup racing.

For more information and ticketing for the Drag Specialties King of the Baggers, visit motoamerica.com.