Elkhart Lake, WI - June 5, 2017 – It’s been exactly a year since South African SuperGP Champion Mathew Scholtz first rode America. The 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit at Road America was the first track on which Mathew raced, and this past weekend was his first return trip to “America’s National Park of Speed.” Racing for the second time made all the difference in the world.

 

On Saturday, Mathew raced his #11 Yamalube/Westby Racing/Yamaha YZF-R1 to a third-place finish in MotoAmerica’s Superstock 1000 class, and then he followed up that podium result with a race win on Sunday, which was his second victory and seventh podium finish out of eight races so far this season.

 

His stellar weekend in the magical land of cheese, brats, and ultra-enthusiastic motorcycle-racing fans also moved Mathew into first place in the 2017 MotoAmerica Championship points standings.

 

“Before the weekend, I was really looking forward to coming back to Road America, Mathew said. “This is where my ‘American Adventure’ first began for me last year. It’s a huge help to have been to a track before, for obvious reasons, and I’m very, very happy to have gotten a win on my first return visit to Wisconsin. I got on the podium in Saturday’s race with a third-place finish, but I wasn’t satisfied with that result. Sunday’s win was just a fantastic feeling for Tryg (Westby), the whole team, and definitely for me.”

 

Sunday’s race initially didn’t look like it was going to yield a good result. On the very first lap, Mathew was, unfortunately, caught up by another rider’s crashed motorcycle, and he couldn’t avoid contact. He and another rider went down, along with the rider who initially crashed, so MotoAmerica officials red-flagged the race.

 

When asked about the incident, Mathew commented, “I’m perfectly fine. I never actually saw what happened because it was all so quick. I’m really fortunate that I wasn’t hurt and that the bike wasn’t seriously damaged. I was able to ride it back to the pits, and my team checked it over and did a couple of repairs. Everything was fine for the restart. The race went well after that. Even the second red flag [which ended the race a couple of laps early] didn’t affect me. I had a good gap in the lead, and I was getting oil on the windscreen and my helmet visor from the [leaking] bike in front of me [that caused the second red flag], so I’m actually glad that they stopped it.”

 

The next MotoAmerica race weekend for Mathew and the Yamalube/Westby Racing team will be on June 23-25 at the Championship of Utah in Tooele, UT.

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For more updates on Yamalube/Westby Racing, including news, photos, and videos visit “Westby Racing” on your favorite social media site.

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