(The smile says it all. After racing at the pro level for 23 years, Cory West finally won his first championship in 2024. Photo by Brian J. Nelson)
Paul Carruthers | November 8, 2024
Cory West couldn’t ask for much more. After racing professionally for 23 years, West finally earned that elusive first professional title when he wrapped up the 2024 Super Hooligan National Championship in the final race of the series at Circuit of The Americas in Texas.
If that wasn’t enough to make his already big smile almost permanent, just days later his wife, Patricia Fernandez-West, gave birth to the couple’s first baby, Avery. And if West needed any more proof that Patricia is a keeper, she basically pushed him out the door to get him to the final round of the MotoAmerica Championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Now he’s spending his offseason with the monkey off his back and a baby in his lap. And even if the diaper is dirty, West is indeed living his best life.
“I’ve never won a championship so it’s so good to just be able to check that box,” West said. “I’d only won a handful of races, and they were all on Super Hooligans so there was a point in time back in like 2018 when I kinda quit racing and I was a little unsatisfied that I had never won one and never really got to properly fight for a championship. It left kind of an empty hole that I couldn’t help to think about when I thought about my racing career. So, yeah, to be back racing full time and fighting for a championship, especially with as many heavy hitters as we had this year, it didn’t’ feel like a fluke. It felt real and it felt good.”
In 10 races, West finished on the podium nine times with three victories. As he said, the field was deep, and it came down to a final round battle between West and his Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson Pan America and S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s defending series champion Tyler O’Hara. When all was said and done on Sunday afternoon in Texas, West had three more points than O’Hara and was crowned as the series champion.
Now West wants more, and he found out that there’s no better job security than having that number-one plate. Thus, the big numero uno will be affixed to the Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson Pan America in 2025 as the ever-smiling rider from Arkansas will return to the family atmosphere of Saddlemen to try and defend his title.
“It seems like none of the bikes work amazing in that class, but that’s kinda what makes it cool,” West said of the Super Hooligan National Championship. “The lack of electronics is right up my alley with not having to plug into the computer after each session and digging deep into that. With these bikes you tune them by rider input, along with the mechanics, and if doesn’t work, I’ll make up the difference. Not that it was easy. We had our first-year last year with the bike and learned a lot and struggled due to the rules package, but we took our licks and took some good notes and came back this year with at least a good base setting and we just built on it.”
While he was able to secure the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship, the Mission King Of The Baggers title chase was a different story. It was a struggle, and he ended the year eighth in championship with a best finish of fifth, which he accomplished twice.
“It’s simple in the fact that we’re not doing much to the engine of the Pan America at all,” West said. “This is more like what can we do to make the ergonomics better, so it feels more like a road racer, and what can we do with the chassis to make it work better. With King Of The Baggers that’s basically a Superbike now. As a seat manufacturer, Saddlemen doesn’t have all those resources to keep digging like a Terry Vance team that has them doing engine development for however many decades. So, to have just a nice solid, dependable, water-cooled powerplant and it’s a case of you guys turn it into a racer, and you don’t really have to tune it… that was crucial for us. We have a great group of guys, and we all want to win so this was a great platform and class for us to show what we’re capable of.”
But back to that baby, Avery…
“It’s wild,” West says of having a newborn in the house. “As soon as Patricia and I knew that we were going to have a kid back in January, it really changed my whole perspective of what I wanted to accomplish this year. I think when you have something this life-changing comes up, it really opens your eyes as far as what you need to prioritize. It was like if I’m going to be spending all this time and effort going racing this year, I need to make the most of it. It definitely lit a fire inside of me to get the most out of myself and the package that I had, and it almost felt like all of the stars were aligned.
“it’s been one of those years and to win the championship and then also have my first kid the next week, it’s just incredible. It’s been quite the journey watching Patricia throughout her pregnancy, throughout the season, all the stress leading up to it… and once it’s over and then we have the baby. What a year.”
In addition to being his wife and the mother of his baby, Patricia is also the team manager at Team Saddlemen and a former racer herself. So, she gets it.
“To have a woman who understands the racing side of it, too, it makes it so much easier,” West said. “If this would have been any other woman, I probably wouldn’t have been able to go racing this year. Instead, it was a case of ‘I have a baby on the way, and I’ve got to make this happen. I need to win races and have a shot at the championship.’ “
And that he did.
Paul Carruthers | MotoAmerica | Photos: Brian J. Nelson
