The following is from BARTCON Racing…
Newly crowned MotoAmerica Junior Cup Champion Matthew Chapin will compete on a BARTCON Racing Suzuki GSX-8R powered by Team Hammer in the two Twins Cup races at Circuit of The Americas on September 15 throught 16. Team Hammer built the bike and will provide technical support to BARTCON Racing.
Chapin sealed the 2024 Junior Cup Championship one round early by winning both races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 17 through 18. The 16-year-old will return to Junior Cup for the MotoAmerica season finale at his home track, New Jersey Motorsports Park, on September 28 through 29.
BARTCON Racing team owner Colin Barton initially planned to concentrate on his NYC construction business in 2024 but decided to continue to run his race team after rider Eli Block took back-to-back Junior Cup wins at the final event of the 2023 MotoAmerica season. Barton then decided to add young Junior Cup racer Matthew Chapin after consulting with BARTCON Racing crew chief Mike Skowronek and after meeting Matthew and his father Phil, who is a former road racer.
Barton said, “Mike with no hesitation informed me that not only was Matty a talented rider but also came from good stock in the sense of his upbringing, personal character, and basic discipline, which is very important to both me and Mike. The kicker was that Matty was already racing a Kawasaki Ninja 400 fielded by Mike’s company, TripleStrong Racing.
“I fully intended to minimize my involvement at the track for the season, so after meeting for the first time collectively at the Daytona 200, we formatted a scenario that the team was basically handed off to Eli Block’s father Eric, Matty’s father Phil, and of course Mike Skowronek who like myself always has his hands full running his performance shop TripleStrong Racing out of Bath, Pennsylvania.
“The 2024 season started at Road Atlanta where Matty won the first race and Eli took third in the second race. Matty then won both races at Road America with Eli second in the first race. At Brainerd, Matty won the first race and finished second in the second race. The penultimate round was at Mid-Ohio and all we wanted Matty to do to was get points and stay in the championship hunt for the finale at New Jersey. But it appears everyone forgot to tell the kid, who checked out and won the first race with Eli finishing third. Matty then won the second race, clinching the MotoAmerica Junior Cup National Championship!
“So it gives me great pleasure to announce that BARTCON Racing will be fielding a Suzuki GSX-8R powered by Team Hammer for the final two Twins Cup races at COTA, where we are confident that Matty will put on a good show for all our fans and supporters. And I am grateful to Team Hammer and Chris and John Ulrich who listened to my proposal and agreed to work with me on this project. Over the years, they’ve been instrumental in advancing many up-and-coming young riders, and I am happy that they agreed to help me give Matty this great opportunity to display more of his natural talent.”
Told about the plan for him to race at COTA, Matthew said, “I am beyond excited for this opportunity to race the Team Hammer-built GSX-8R at COTA, and I can’t thank Colin, John, and Chris enough for making it happen so close to the next round. I raced at COTA two years ago when I competed in the North America Talent Cup, and I am really looking forward to riding there again as the track is amazing. It’s going to be fun!”
