June 28, 2020 – 

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In motorcycle road racing, riders feel more comfortable at certain racetracks, and motorcycles perform better at certain racetracks. Such is the case with the riders and motorcycles of Westby Racing.

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Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz will be the first to tell you that, while he loves most everything about Road America—especially the fans—it is a track that has vexed him ever since he started racing in America in 2016. He’s had some very good results, like his second-place finish in Superbike race one last month. He’s also had his share of tipovers at Road America. On Sunday, Mathew finished fourth, one position better than the fifth he recorded on Saturday, to complete a decent weekend at “America’s National Park of Speed.” But, for him and the team, they hoped for better results.

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Starting from fourth on the grid, Mathew battled with Kyle Wyman and Toni Elias. While going through Road America’s chicane on lap eight, Mathew saw an opportunity to pass Elias on the inside, and he made his move. The slight opening closed quickly, however, and Mathew’s and Toni’s bikes touched, which caused Toni to crash. Mathew continued on while Toni got back aboard his bike and re-joined the race.

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Mathew said, “For Sunday’s race, we put in the old motor that we had from the previous round because the new motor wasn’t pulling as well out of the corners, and it was making the engine-braking a little bit worse, so we went back to what we knew worked well for us. Sunday morning warmup was pretty difficult because we only had 15 minutes with used tires, but the motor change definitely felt better to me. In the race, I didn’t get the best start, but it was alright. I got in behind Toni and Kyle and, even though I made one or two mistakes in the first couple of laps, I closed the gap to them. Toni’s and Kyle’s bikes are a little bit quicker than mine, but I made a move on Toni in the chicane. It was unfortunately one of those things. He was committed, and I had already committed to the pass. We touched and he crashed, which I obviously didn’t mean to happen. I tried to catch Kyle with a couple of laps to go, but there just wasn’t enough time for me. I think what happened to Toni was a racing incident, and I apologize for that. I didn’t want to touch him. The team knows where we went wrong with the other engine and where we need to focus on making the bike better. We’re just really looking forward to racing at Road Atlanta in a month’s time. With me being a bigger guy, it really suits my riding style a lot better. The team has been working really hard, and it’s just very unfortunate how this weekend went because we were expecting better things. The next couple of tracks, for us, should be pretty good.”