WESTBY RACING
NEWS AND UPDATES
After Finishing Second in MotoAmerica Superbike Race One At Utah Motorsports Campus, Westby Racing’s Fortunes Bite The Dust On Sunday
Grantsville, UT – June 17, 2019 –
As is sometimes the case in MotoAmerica Superbike racing, the joy that Mathew Scholtz and his Westby Racing team felt after their runner-up result in Saturday’s Superbike race one at Utah Motorsports Park was countered by disappointment when Mathew suffered a tipover in Sunday’s race two and was unable to restart what ended up as a 10-lap sprint to the checkers.
Mathew got a great start in Sunday’s race, was immediately among the lead pack, and looked to heading for a result as good, if not better, than his second-place finish on Saturday. Running in fourth at the time, he unfortunately lost the front end of his #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike in turn six and took a high-speed tumble into the gravel.
The race was red-flagged, and Mathew hitched a ride back to the pits with Kyle Wyman. Meanwhile, the crash truck brought Mathew’s bike back to the garage, and the crew immediately went to work on getting the bike ready for the restart. Unfortunately, it was too damaged to be repaired in time to make the restart, so Mathew and the team had to call it a day.
Westby Racing team manager Chuck Giacchetto summarized the up-and-down weekend by saying, “All told, the weekend was spectacular. The drive out to Utah was drama-free and perfect, very enjoyable ride out. The team worked exceptionally well Friday night till about 9:30 to get everything settled for the weekend. Right out of the box, Mathew was really fast, and a good part of that is due to the setup by the crew, which is led by our technical director Ed Sullivan. First qualifying was very good; we were happy. But, we made a change that really didn’t make the bike better for Q2, and Mathew’s P4 result wasn’t very accurate of his real pace. We think he could have qualified on the front row, at least, if we hadn’t made that change.
“Race one was fantastic. Saturday was a glorious race for us. Good feedback and good info to add to the database. The team worked very well together. I don’t think anyone should look at Mathew’s crash in Sunday’s race two as a ‘fail.” He’s disappointed enough in himself. The bike actually did not have a lot of damage to it despite the entire fuel cell coming off. We had a little bit of damage to the wiring harness and that was really the only reason we couldn’t continue. We had all the spare parts ready to go, except that the damage to the wiring harness was too much to overcome in the short timeframe before the restart.
“So, now, we’re heading to California to do some work out there before heading back home. We’ll fly back out to California and possibly get a test in with another team or two before the next round. Again, fantastic job this weekend. I’m really proud of Mathew and our crew.”
The Westby Racing team will regroup and get ready for the second half of the 2019 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, which begins with round six at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on July 12 through 14.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings
1. Toni Elias – Suzuki – 201
2. Cameron Beaubier – Yamaha – 175
3. Garrett Gerloff – Yamaha – 136
6. Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha – 100
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