Fresh off Mathew Scholtz’s signing of a new contract to continue as the sole rider for Westby Racing in 2023 (his seventh-consecutive season with the team), the South African who now lives in Georgia got right back to his podium-finishing ways in Superbike race one at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Starting from fifth in the middle of the second row on the grid, he moved up to third on the opening lap and closely pursued Cam Petersen until lap 12 when he overtook Petersen and started pulling a gap as he moved closer to Jake Gagne at the front. Petersen was able to get past Mathew on lap 13, and the race ended up with an all-Yamaha podium at the finish line with Gagne the victor, followed by his teammate Petersen in second, and Mathew rounded out the podium in third.
“I was following Cam,” Mathew said. “I was more riding how you shouldn’t ride. I wanted to put the hammer down for three or four laps and see if I could pull a bit of a gap. Ended up losing the front in a couple corners. I think it was corner nine, I lost the front big-time. I thought I was going down. Ran out wide, and Cam passed me. There was nothing I could do from there. Overall, I’m pretty happy with today’s race. We struggled and were pretty far back on Friday, and we’ve just been slowly adding power and taking out traction control. I think we know that the softer tire starts to go with three or four laps to go. So, something to keep in mind for the second race tomorrow…if it’s dry.”
Sunday’s Superbike race two starts at 2 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 2 (FS2).
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