Birmingham, AL – The fate of Westby Racing’s two-rider team went in opposite directions on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park as Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz rode his #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 to a runner-up result after finishing third on Saturday. Meanwhile, the team’s Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman had a tipover aboard his #34 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R3 on lap one of Sunday’s race, which unfortunately ended his day.
Mathew, who’s had a series of really good starts over the past few rounds, did not get off the line as quickly as he hoped on Sunday, but he fought his way forward in the early going and worked his way into second. After things settled down a bit, Mathew got passed by Jake Gagne, who then had a technical problem with his Superbike, which enabled Mathew to get back around him and secure second place behind Sunday’s race winner and championship leader Cameron Beaubier.
It was Mathew’s 10th podium of the season, which moved him to just one single championship point behind Jake Gagne in the battle for second in the MotoAmerica Superbike title chase.
Evaluating his race, Mathew said, “It was pretty good. I don’t really know what happened with the start. I got shuffled back to fourth or fifth place and I had to make a sketchy move to get up to second. I knew that Cam (Beaubier) had a really good pace. Jake (Gagne) passed me and, with his (morning) warm up time, I knew he would be quick, too. So, I didn’t really try to fight him too much. I was hoping I would go with him and try to maybe get up to Cam. But then, I saw something happen to Jake’s bike, which was unfortunate. Then I kind of put in a few decent laps. I saw that the gap back to third was actually getting bigger so I kind of started chilling out. Then I noticed that Bobby (Fong) was sort of catching me at a pretty drastic pace, so I had to stir things back up. I will definitely take the second place. I think we have our work cut out for us, but we made pretty decent steps forward today.”
Cody, who qualified 12th and on the outside of the fourth row, knew that he needed to get a good start in Sunday’s race and move forward in the pack as quickly as possible to not lose sight of the frontrunners. He went into turn five (also known as “Charlotte’s Web”) on the opening lap amongst a pack of riders who were closely bunched together, and he was struck by another rider, which put him on the ground. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, but he was unable to rejoin the race.
“I felt really good this morning and was within a second of the leaders for almost all of the session. It was the most comfortable I’ve been all year, so I was confident going into the race. Unfortunately, on the first lap, I got collected in a wreck in turn five and got hit by another rider. I’m pretty sore, but no serious injuries. It’s a real bummer because I thought we’d have had solid pace today.
“Now, on to Indianapolis. Luckily, I’ve been there in the past, and I’ve actually given riding instruction on that track configuration before. I’m really looking forward to getting to the racing capital of the world and building off the momentum from this morning.”
Next up for Westby Racing is round eight of the MotoAmerica Championship, which will take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 9 through 11.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings
- Cameron Beaubier – Yamaha – 325
- Jake Gagne – Yamaha – 222
- Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha – 221
MotoAmerica Junior Cup Standings
- Rocco Landers – Kawasaki – 335
- Samuel Lochoff – Kawasaki – 226
- Dominic Doyle – Kawasaki – 217
- Cody Wyman – Yamaha – 93
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