Westby Racing’s two-rider team came away from round six of the MotoAmerica Championship with a pair of podium results and a pair of top tens at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz raced his #11 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 to a third-place finish in Sunday’s race two as an encore to his second-place result in Saturday’s race one. He very nearly got his second runner-up result in as many days, but he was baulked by a backmarker on the final lap of the red-flag-shortened race, which enabled Jake Gagne to catch back up to Mathew and set up for a pass in the final turn before the finish line. At the stripe, Mathew missed out on second place by just .014 of a second. Mathew now trails Jake by just six points for second place in the season championship.
Mathew commented, “There were certain sections of the track that I was struggling with and where Jake (Gagne) was faster. On the final lap, I kind of got stuck behind Sam (Verderico). Jake definitely beat me. Hats off to him. But, in the back of my mind, I always kind of have that, if I didn’t catch Sam at that point. But it is what it is. I’m just very thankful to be up here on the podium after crashing in morning warmup. Well done to (race winner) Cam (Beaubier). He’s absolutely flying. I’m kind of happy that we weren’t so far back behind Cam. Just really looking forward to Barber next week. It’s definitely the strongest track for me. I know Cam and Jake both go well there too, so let’s do some more battles.”
Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman, who pilots the #34 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R3, started in the middle of the third row for Sunday’s race two, and he rode a consistent race among a pack of other riders, which has been his lot this entire season. With his competitors and him dicing back and forth, Cody enjoys the competition, but he also knows that his results depend somewhat on the luck of the draw and the timing of where he is among that pack when he crosses the finish line. His result was a good one since he finished the race in eighth place, which is exactly the position he started from on the grid.
“I’ve never felt so satisfied with an eighth-place finish as I was today, Cody said. “Yesterday, I felt pretty rough on the bike, so I was glad to be in the battle for a top-five position today. About halfway through the race, I got held up and lost touch with the group by a couple of seconds, but I was able to put my head down and run my fastest lap of the race on my own to catch back up and eventually lead the group. I ended up getting nipped at the line by a thousandth of a second, but I felt way better with the changes that we made to the bike after Saturday’s race one. We’re still not where I want to be, but we have a few more opportunities to get that podium position that I’m hoping for. Thank you to my team, family, and friends for supporting me. And, now we’ll make a quick turnaround to race again next weekend.
Next up for Westby Racing is round seven of the MotoAmerica Championship, which will take place at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 18 through 20.
MotoAmerica Superbike Standings
- Cameron Beaubier – Yamaha – 275
- Jake Gagne – Yamaha – 191
- Mathew Scholtz – Yamaha – 185
MotoAmerica Junior Cup Standings
- Rocco Landers – Kawasaki – 285
- Dominic Doyle – Kawasaki – 195
- Samuel Lochoff – Kawasaki – 194
- Cody Wyman – Yamaha – 85
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