WESTBY RACING
NEWS AND UPDATES
Mathew Scholtz Comes From Behind To Finish As Runner-Up In Saturday’s MotoAmerica Superbike Race At Utah Motorsports Campus
Grantsville, UT – June 16, 2019 –
Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz proved in Saturday’s MotoAmerica Superbike race at Utah Motorsports Park that, when comparing the importance of a strong start versus a strong finish, the latter is definitely preferable, especially when it nets a second-place result smack-dab in the middle of a pair of factory Superbike riders.
Aboard his privateer #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1, Mathew qualified fourth on the starting grid and lined up on the inside of the second row. He got off to a decent start, but found himself at the tail end of the lead pack. The South African, who now lives in Georgia, struggled a bit in the early part of the 23-lap race, then put his head down and made some courageous and skilled maneuvers to move himself towards the front and past three of the factory riders until he was trailing 2017 MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Toni Elias in the lead. Elias’ gap at the front proved to be just a little too much for Mathew to overcome, but he and the team were delighted to finish second on the day.
“This track is really, really tight and to make passes here, you’re against some pretty big guys. All the guys are exceptional riders. I’m looking forward to the second race, but right now, I’m so, so happy to be back up here on the podium. I kind of felt like it was never going to happen. This year, there are so many fast guys. You look at the practice sheets and there are six or seven guys who are all capable of finishing on the podium. I’m just really happy. We love the new Marelli electronics system. Last year, I kind of thought, once we got this new system, we would just be there. It would just be easy to go and race with these guys, but it turns out that’s not the case. The last couple of rounds, we’ve been struggling, and we finally feel like we found a decent setup. So happy to be back up here. The first couple of laps, I didn’t feel good. I was running wide, tucking the front, but after the halfway point, it seemed like it dropped off and I really started picking up my pace.”
Superbike Race 2 is set to go green at Utah Motorsports Campus on Sunday at 3:00 PM Mountain Time.
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