WESTBY RACING
NEWS AND UPDATES
Mathew Scholtz Rides The #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike To A Fifth-Place Finish At PittRace
Wampum, PA – August 24, 2019 –
The latter half of this 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike season has been a roller-coaster ride for Westby Racing, with adversity seemingly coming from every direction. But, thankfully, come race-time, Mathew Scholtz and his team have the talent to overcome that adversity and produce solid results when it counts the most. The race weekend so far at Pittsburgh International Race Complex has been a perfect example of that scenario.
After completing a Friday qualifying practice session with the rear brake on the #11 Westby Racing Yamaha R1 Superbike inexplicably smoking due to a technical issue, Mathew and the team regrouped on Friday only to have their Superpole session cut short by a completely different technical issue that was unrelated to the rear brake.
As a result, Mathew had to start Saturday afternoon’s race in ninth and on the inside of the third row. Despite the less-than-ideal grid position, he got a decent jump off the line, took advantage of the attrition when a couple of riders crashed, and ultimately crossed the finish line in fifth.
A top-five result was certainly not as good as what the Westby Racing team had hoped for but, given the circumstances leading up to the actual race, finishing fifth gives them hope for an even better result in Sunday’s race two.
“It’s been a little bit tougher than we thought it would be here in Pittsburgh, and we’re a little bit further off the pace than we’d like, but I think that we’ve made the bike better, and we’ve been a little bit quicker in every session. Unfortunately, we had a malfunction with the bike in Superpole, and I had to start the race back in ninth, which is the worst starting position I’ve had in a very long time. On the first couple of laps, I was sort of getting a feel for the bike since we didn’t get any laps in Superpole. I managed to pass a couple of guys pretty early in the race, and a couple of other guys went down, so I finished fifth, which I’m pretty happy about considering how things went on Friday and also this morning. Tomorrow is definitely a new day for us, and we have a few things we want to try in the morning warmup, which we’re very confident will improve our laptimes. We’re hoping for a much better result tomorrow.”
Superbike Race 2 goes green at PittRace on Sunday at 3 PM Eastern Time.
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