With round one of the 2020 MotoAmerica season set to take place at Road America next weekend, the Westby Racing team wrapped up their preseason testing program with a visit to Talladega Gran Prix Raceway (“Little Tally”) in Alabama on Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Both of the team’s riders--#11 Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz and #34 Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman--were on track at Little Tally, and they were able to do a considerable number of laps to full shake down their Yamaha motorcycles, test some new Dunlop tires, and get themselves and their crew into full-on motorcycle road racing mode.
According to Mathew, “I’ve been off the bike for quite a long while, since I missed the Dunlop Official Preseason Test at Barber Motorsports Park in March after breaking my collarbone just before that event. We were fortunate to have Josh Hayes working with the boys at that test to sort the bike out, so big thanks to him for filling in for me. This past Saturday, the boys had the bike on the dyno checking everything out, so we’d be ready to go at this test. We arrived Monday morning at Little Tally, and I hopped on the bike and immediately felt comfortable, which surprised me because I hadn’t been on a Superbike in so, so long. We started off a little slow, but we got down to some decent laptimes quickly and worked on our consistency with all the tires we tested. Monday was a start, but we knew on Tuesday that we were really going to get down to business testing some suspension pieces and some electronics settings. The boys made some changes overnight, and on Tuesday, we were able to drop our laptimes right away. We worked on making the bike easier to ride with all the tires options we had. In the process, we actually ran the quickest time we’ve ever done at this track. We were a lot faster than last year, and not just on a brand-new tire but also on a tire that had 30 or so laps on it. So, that gives us a lot of confidence heading into the first round at Road America next week. It’s been a difficult time during COVID-19, not knowing when we were actually going to be able to race. I’ve been training hard, but when you don’t have a firm deadline, you kind of feel a little lost. But I feel stronger now. Thank you to the Westby Racing team for continuing to believe in me. It was great to get right back into the swing of things. Also, a massive thank you to everyone at MotoAmerica for their hard work in getting us back to racing. We’re going to be one of the first national championships in the entire world to be racing, and I know that the fans are looking forward to it. I am hoping that we’ll give them something to cheer for with the Westby Racing Superbike running up front.”
Ready to begin his first full season with Westby Racing, Cody also got some solid seat time aboard his Yamaha YZF-R3 at Little Tally and was able to run some quick laptimes in preparation for the upcoming Junior Cup Championship. He said, “It was great to be able to test for two days of beautiful weather at Talladega. We did a ton of laps, and I am really happy with the progression each time out. More than anything, it was awesome just to be back with the guys. I can’t wait to get out to Road America and look to be battling for podium positions. Time to finally get the 2020 season going!”
The team will travel to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, next week for the aforementioned round one of the 2020 MotoAmerica Championship, which takes place at Road America on May 29-31.
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