Only two points separate the top two in the 2024 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship as the series heads to Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, June 28-30, for round five. And those two are the two most experienced racers in the field – PJ Jacobsen and Mathew Scholtz.
The Supersport class will be one of four support classes racing this weekend with Stock 1000, Mission Super Hooligan National Championship and Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. in addition to the two Steel Commander Superbike races.
Supersport – A Battle Of Veterans
Although it seems odd referring to Rahal Ducati Moto’s Jacobsen and Strack Racing’s Scholtz as veterans, they are. At least based on experience and not necessarily age.
Jacobsen, 30, and Scholtz, 32, have been at the game a long time and were both racing in the Superbike class a year ago. It’s hard to imagine one of them not winning this championship as they have combined to win seven of the eight races held so far as the series holds its fifth round this weekend in Washington.
Although Jacobsen leads the title chase by two points, Scholtz has won the most races – four to three – over Jacobsen. The difference in the point standings is in the non-podium finishes. Scholtz has one – a fourth – while Jacobsen has stood on the podium in all eight races.
The only other rider to win a race in 2024 is Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott, but he has three non-finishes to go with his win and he’s mired back in fifth in the point standings.
Third in the championship is held by a third veteran – Jake Lewis. The Altus Motorsports-backed Kentuckian has earned points in every round, including two podium finishes. Thanks to the pace of the two ahead of him, however, he is 86 points behind.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis is fourth in the series standings, seven behind Lewis and 93 behind Jacobsen.
Stock 1000 – The Gillim Runaway Train
Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim looked to be headed to his fourth Stock 1000 win of the season two weeks ago at Brainerd when it all went wrong. Gillim crashed out of the lead and with that went any hope of a perfect season for the defending Stock 1000 Champion. Up to that point, Gillim looked like a shoo-in to at least take victory number four.
Gillim later admitted he wanted to see just how fast he could go at a circuit that he’s fond of. He wanted to see how his times would match up against the Superbikes. In retrospect, he said it was a silly thing to be doing.
Even with that miscue, Gillim holds down a 16-point lead on OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe with Uribe taking advantage of Gillim’s error to win his first-career MotoAmerica race on Sunday at Brainerd. The win marked Uribe’s first podium of the season and it vaulted him to second in the point standings.
The man he passed was BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince with the Californian failing to match his two-podium start to the season at Barber. Still, Prince has finished all four races and that puts him three points clear of fifth-placed Benjamin Smith and his FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – The Hooligans Are Back
March is a long time ago and Daytona is a distant memory, but the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship makes its return this weekend at Ridge Motorsports Park after a near-five-month hiatus.
With just the two races at Daytona in the books, it’s Saddlemen Racing/Harley-Davidson’s Cory West who sits atop the championship standings by five points over S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss by five points and Herfoss’s teammate Tyler O’Hara by eight points.
Indian FTR1200-mounted Herfoss and Harley-Davidson Pan America-mounted West came out of Daytona with a victory apiece in the two races.
With the top six covered by 21 points, there are still plenty of chances to move up the leaderboard and that’s exactly what KWR/Harley-Davidson’s Cody Wyman, Saddlemen Racing/Harley-Davidson’s Jake Lewis and Roland Sands Design’s Hawk Mazzotta are aiming for from their fourth, fifth and sixth spots in the title chase.
Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. – Three Give Chase
With Mikayla Moore opting to sit out race one of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. at Road America after suffering some bumps and bruises in her Twins Cup practice crash, everybody else in the class was given a glimmer of hope.
That lasted for a race. After Cassie Creer won race one in Moore’s absence, Moore struck back with a win in race two that gives her three victories in the first four races of the 2024 season.
But thanks to her sitting out race one, there are three racers within 12 points of Moore in the title chase. Emma Betters and Camille Conrad are tied for second, 10 points adrift, with Creer holding down fourth and 12 points behind Moore.
Aubrey Credaroli is fifth in the standings and working to make up for a non-finish in the first race of the season at Barber.
Pre-Ridge Support Notes…
Xavi Forés swept both of the Supersport races at Ridge Motorsports Park last year en route to the Spaniard ultimately winning the championship. Forés beat Josh Hayes and Teagg Hobbs in race one with Tyler Scott and Hobbs finishing second and third, respectively, in race two.
In Mission Super Hooligan National Championship action a year ago, Tyler O’Hara won both races on the track but was later disqualified after race two for an illegal handlebar modification. O’Hara’s teammate Jeremy McWilliams was second in both races but was also DQ’d from race two. The pair’s DQ gifted the win to Andy DiBrino with Mark Price second and Bobby Fong third. DiBrino was third in Saturday’s race one.
Mikayla Moore came away from Ridge with a clean sweep of the two Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race battles. Moore topped Kayleigh Buyck in both races with Sonya Lloyd scoring a pair of third-place finishes.
