Photo by Brian J. Nelson
For the majority of Saturday’s Supersport race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, it appeared as though Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz was closing in on his seventh race win of the season. But Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen had other ideas.
With just a few laps to go in the race, Scholtz was circulating about as comfortably as you can with a lead that was always just a bit under a second. But things changed in the Corkscrew when the South African encountered a lapped rider right in the middle of the track. Scholtz made his way through, but Jacobsen was suddenly locked in on his rear wheel.
On the next lap, Jacobsen made an unexpected move in turn six, a corner not known as a passing spot. From there he put his head down and gapped Scholtz, who started making mistakes while trying to close back in on the New Yorker.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis made a return to the podium with his third-place finish, his first since the Barber Motorsports round back in May.
Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis ended up forth, just a second clear of TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott’s miserable season continued as a mechanical problem knocked him out of the race before it even started. Scott is the only rider other than Scholtz and Jacobsen to win a Supersport race in 2024.
“I was sitting behind him for most of the race,” Jacobsen said. “I felt quite comfortable, but our pace I thought was very good. We were consistently doing 27.0 to 26.8. It was always one, two tenths. You’re going around Laguna, one or two tenths every lap is a lot. So, to make a small mistake or if you get backing in, or a small movement from the rear coming off the corner, let the other guy get away quickly. So, I feel like it kind of shows here a bit more at Laguna when you make a mistake because we’re so close in the lap times. So, it’s very difficult. We’re on the edge and the lap time is just consistently the same. But when that guy went down the Corkscrew, he kind of backed up (Mathew) Scholtz back to me. I feel like I was there, but then it seemed like I don’t know if he slowed down at that point because of grip issues or what, or if I went faster. I’m not really sure, but it seemed like I was able to then latch onto him again. Then I saw the whole race at turn six that he was struggling quite a bit. Now he knows for tomorrow. But it was a great overtake. The last two laps when I passed him, I felt like I just had to push. But I didn’t have too much grip, either. I feel like he was really killing me off of that turn two. So, we have to work on that as a team tonight, and also the last corner as well. Just too much spin off the bike. So, we need to go back and do our homework. They’ll do their homework. I’m sure the race pace will be even a bit faster tomorrow and even another crazy race.”
Stock 1000 – Gillim Bounces Back
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim didn’t get the start he was hoping for, but he certainly got the finish he wanted as he bounced back from a fourth-place start to take his fifth win of the Stock 1000 season.
Starting second on the grid, Gillim was fourth into turn one and he had work to do. He was helped a bit by OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe when the polesitter ran wide in turn two on the third lap. Gillim wasted little time in keeping the hammer down and he took the lead from Motorsport Exotica’s Andrew Lee shortly thereafter. From there he never looked back.
Gillim’s championship rival Uribe managed to finish second after fending off what ended up being a four-rider battle for third place early on, but it allowed Gillim to gain five more points in the title chase. The Kentuckian now leads Uribe by 11 points heading into the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park in September.
Third ended up going to BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince with his third podium of the season ending a four-race streak without finishing in the top three. Prince had struggled at the past two rounds at Brainerd International Raceway and Ridge Motorsports Park, two tracks he’d never seen, and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a welcome sight for the Californian. He was able to pass Lee late in the race to take the spot.
With Lee fourth, FLO4LAW Racing’s Benjamin Smith rounded out the top five.
“I definitely didn’t,” Gillim said of not getting the start he wanted. “This year has been great with starts. I’ve been getting really great starts. I holeshotted a few. I think I was just too antsy and wanted to try and get a good start and try and get to the front if I could. There was a little bit longer light than I was expecting it to be, so then by the time the lights started going off, I had kind of blown my wad a little bit. Gave ourselves a little bit of work. It was good. The bike, we made some changes from this morning. The bike is a lot different from what it was at the Ridge. We’re kind of back to where we were at Brainerd, setup-wise. We’ve just been chasing some chatter and haven’t been able to get away from it. It got better in the race, but we’re trying everything. Then I’m struggling with rear grip coming out of turn two, three, four. Just spinning the thing up. Struggling on dries a little bit. So, it was tough to make the passes. Luckily for me, Jayson (Uribe) ran wide the one lap into turn two and I was able to get by him. Then that lap, I got a good run out of six on Andrew and made the pass into the Corkscrew. It took them a little bit to get by Andrew and I was able to get a little bit of a gap. Then the last five laps or so, that gap came down pretty quick from me to Jayson. He made me push a lot harder than I wanted to at the end of the race, especially with having crashed a few of the last races.”
Mission King Of The Baggers – Wyman In Control
The Mission King Of The Baggers Championship returned to the track where the hugely popular race series began in 2021: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Saturday’s final qualifying and three-lap Challenge portended things to come as Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman earned the pole with a record lap and won the $5000 in the winner-take-all dash for cash. Wyman was having a good day. Then, it got even better. The New Yorker notched his fifth win of the year and his 25th all-time AMA/MotoAmerica victory of his career with a dominant start-to-finish performance where he was never headed.
Wyman’s win enabled him to leap-frog over championship leader Troy Herfoss and take the points lead. Herfoss crashed his S&S/Indian Motorcycle and, while he managed to get back in the race, he finished 11th.
Rounding out the podium were RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines teammates Rocco Landers and Hayden Gillim with young upstart Landers taking advantage of a late-race bobble by veteran Gillim to overtake him and finish second to Gillim’s third-place result.
“We’ve done a really nice job this week,” Wyman said. “The whole team has worked super hard to get me comfortable and keep chipping away at it. Try to start fast and continue from there. It’s been really good. I haven’t had a race like this this year, where I could get out front and control the pace like I have in years past. So, it feels really, really good to get that kind of up my sleeve for 2024. It’s definitely confidence-inspiring to go wire to wire. That’s the kind of momentum I want to carry on throughout the rest of the season and just be smart about it and have a plan and be patient. That’s where my approach is, at the moment.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – O’Hara Finally
Although it’s somewhat hard to believe, defending Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Champion Tyler O’Hara had yet to win a race in 2024 when the series rolled on to the Monterey Peninsula. But that streak was snapped on Saturday with his first victory of the season coming at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The race was wild and somewhat sloppy with five riders battling for victory with that win ultimately going to O’Hara and his S&S/Indian FTR by .206 of a second over Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Cory West after a ferocious last-lap battle.
KWR Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Schultz earned his second podium of the season with his third-place finish on his Pan America. Schultz had put a hard pass on O’Hara’s teammate Troy Herfoss in the final corner that also allowed Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson’s Jake Lewis to beat the Australian to the flag. “These short races, they kept getting shorter and shorter,” O’Hara said. “We kept going. We kept doing restarts and red flag. Trying to take care of my clutch and not fire the clutch. Just get out there and get out front and control the pace. Having a plan in these races doesn’t work. You got to just use your instinct and go for it. We got our strengths. To be honest, I feel like the bike is running awesome. It can turn on a dime. I can put it anywhere I want. I got a string of podiums. I’m scoring points. I got a lot of momentum right now. I’m really enjoying riding. I’m working with my passion and I’m enjoying it. I’ve also been working my ass off, too. My team has been working really hard as well, and they deserve this. I think we put in the effort. This one is my team. Shout out to my dad. It’s his birthday. He’s been battling the flu and some stuff, so he couldn’t make it. He’s my biggest fan. He has always believed in me and supports me. That’s a big part of racing is the support system away from the track. It’s been a while since I won. I’ve had to dig deep and work for this. These guys made a big step this year. It’s a lot of fun. Cory (West) is an awesome guy to race with. We race each other hard. We race each other clean. We’re rubbing, but rubbing is racing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I enjoy it. To get the trophy from Scott Parker (multi-time AMA Grand National Champion) is special. I named my first son after Scott Parker – Parker O’Hara. So that was the icing on the cake. Get a picture with Wayne. My whole SNS Cycle, Indian Motorcycle team, Mission Foods, everybody that supports us. Paul Langley, thank you for believing in me and giving me the opportunity five years ago when we came here on the King of the Baggers and prolonged my career. I’m really enjoying it. I’m really hungry. We had a lot of adversity this weekend in the other class. We’re just going to keep fighting. We never give up. It’s a long season. I think he was having some issues with his bike off the start. I don’t know what was going on. I saw him working on it during the red flag. His bike kind of intermittent was missing shifts or something. I kind of didn’t want to follow him really because it was intermittent. But they made a big step, and it makes it fun. Two manufacturers, three, four manufacturers going for it. The depth is there. But I think we’ve worked really hard for this, and I think we deserve it.”
