From unpopular MotoE... to Baggers no one is interested in? The new development no one talks about

At the end of March, alongside MotoGP, the new Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup will kick off. The riders’ names are still unknown... Except for three: here’s what we know.

With the calendar and format already announced, as of today there are four teams and only three confirmed riders, two of whom were presented yesterday along with their team. The formation of the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup is proceeding very slowly, set to launch this year alongside the MotoGP World Championship for six rounds. The new championship for bagger bikes has not garnered many favorable comments outside the USA; in fact, there’s very little talk about this 2026 novelty, which essentially takes over the slot occupied from 2019 to 2025 by the now-defunct MotoE. It doesn’t help that we’re almost in mid-February, with rather sparse communication for what should be a development to watch...

The Indonesian team Niti Racing even held its presentation. Anak Elang Harley-Davidson, the Milwaukee brand’s dealership in Jakarta, hosted the event both to unveil the two racing Harley-Davidson Road Glides and to officially introduce the two riders chosen to compete in the new World Cup. Two names already seen in the World Championship paddock: 26-year-old Spaniard Oscar Gutierrez has been one of the protagonists of MotoE over the past two years, and he boasts a few races in Moto2 as well as in production-derived series, both in Superbike and Supersport. Thirty-three-year-old Dimas Ekky Pratama, the team’s “home” rider, contested a full season in the Moto2 World Championship in 2019: he didn’t score points, noting that it was a year marked by an injury that sidelined him for a full four months.

Both have also competed in the Moto2 European Championship of JuniorGP/MotoJunior, the series from which the third rider we know of so far comes. The Australian team Joe Rascal Racing had in fact already announced at the end of 2025 its first (so far only) rider, Archie McDonald, a 19-year-old prospect from Jindera (New South Wales, Australia): five-time national flat track champion, reigning ASBK Supersport runner-up, fresh off three seasons in the European Stock Championship, in which he collected a total of two poles and three podiums, including one win. Now he too faces a brand-new challenge, namely aboard a Bagger. For the moment these are the known names; we’ll see if soon we’ll learn who the other protagonists are in a championship that will officially see the light on track at the end of March.