Photo by Brian J. Nelson
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen and Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz seem destined to battle every single race for the 2024 Supersport Championship, and that battle continued at Brainerd International Raceway on Sunday.
Scholtz won on Saturday with Jacobsen second and the South African won again on Sunday, again, with Jacobsen second. With his two victories here, Scholtz now has four wins on the season. The exact same number of wins as Jacobsen has in 2024.
With four rounds and eight races of the championship in the rear-view mirror, the pair are separated by just two measly points with Jacobsen on top, 171-169.
The top-two men in the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship were the top-two men on Saturday at BIR and they were the top-two men on Sunday, with the same result.
Jacobsen, who was racing in front of team owner Graham Rahal for the first time, managed to get to the back of Scholtz in the early laps before the South African gapped him slightly. With a handful of laps remaining, Jacobsen couldn’t do anything but settle for second, 4.4 seconds behind Scholtz at the finish line.
Behind those two was a great battle for third with the two Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzukis of Tyler Scott and Teagg Hobbs vs. Rahal Ducati Moto’s Corey Alexander. That battle went to the bitter end with Alexander making the pass on Scott on the last lap and beating him to the flag by just .023 of a second. It was Alexander’s comeback ride from the hip injury he suffered at Barber Motorsports Park four weeks ago.
Hobbs was right behind them, .343 of a second behind the duo, and fifth across the finish line.
“Yesterday we felt great,” Scholtz said. “Made a couple changes for the practice this morning. We went backwards, and then we went to yesterday’s settings for this race. It was just strange that I was only kind of stuck in the high 33s whereas yesterday I could do 33.3, 33.4 and didn’t feel like I was riding at the absolute limit. Today, if I tried to push more, I was running wide, missing the corners, tucking the front. So, I just have to go back and look at the data and figure out what I was doing differently. Definitely the first couple laps I thought that I would be gapping them, and PJ (Jacobsen) kept me honest. He definitely picked it up. I know that he’s coming. It’s good to see Corey (Alexander) up here, one of the two taller guys. So, that’s cool. Overall, happy to be taking the double. The team have been working really, really well, and just thank you to all the guys that have been supporting me. HJC, 4SR leathers, Alpinestars, the Strack Racing Company, everyone that makes this possible for me. Thank you.”
Stock 1000 – Uribe Gets His First
When Real Steel Motorsports’ Hayden Gillim crashed his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP on the second lap in Sunday’s Stock 1000 race, the door was open for the rest of the pack to make hay while the sun shone. Gillim had won his third Stock 1000 race of the season on Saturday and not many thought he could be beaten at BIR. But it all went wrong for the defending champion with his crash.
The rider who took the most advantage of Gillim’s miscue was OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe, who won his first Stock 1000 race and his first of any kind in the MotoAmerica Championship.
Jones’ Honda’s Ashton Yates took over at the front after Gillim’s crash and managed to open a bit of a gap over the chasing pack. Uribe and FLO4LAW’ Racing’s Benjamin Smith, however, had their eyes wide open knowing that with Gillim out, this was anybody’s race.
The pair chipped away on and eventually caught up to Yates. On the final lap, Uribe snatched the lead in turn three, protected the inside for the rest of the lap and scored his first career win in his return to the MotoAmerica paddock.
Yates held on for second, just .144 of a second behind Uribe and .368 ahead of Smith, who finished on the podium for a second-straight race. It was also Yates’ second podium finish of the weekend.
BPR Racing’s Bryce Prince was 1.6 seconds behind Smith and well clear of Team Brazil’s Danilo Lewis, who rounded out the top five.
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – A Clean Sweep For Landers
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers played a little bump and run with his rival Alessandro Di Mario on the opening lap of the BellissiMoto Twins Cup race on Sunday, knocking Di Mario wide with the Italian-turned Kentuckian losing several places in the process. But he wasn’t done yet.
Rodio Racing – Powered By Robem Engineering’s Di Mario caught back up to Landers, breaking the Twins Cup lap record in the process. Di Mario latched on to make it a battle to the finish with the Di Mario/Landers duo going back and forth. Their battle at the front allowed Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor to get back in touch with the lead trio for the final laps with the 16-year-old latching on to the end.
At the flag, it was Landers by .585 of a second with Di Mario just .324 of a second behind in third. The podium was identical to Saturday’s race, but the pace on Sunday was much faster.
Di Mario’s teammate Gus Rodio was some 15 seconds adrift in fourth, but well ahead of Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle.
“I kind of got it a little bit deep and if I had snatched the brakes I would have gone down,” Landers said of his contact with Di Mario. “I assumed he might see me and kind of get out of the way at that point, but the kid is a fighter. Made me work for that one way harder than any race this season so far. But it’s cool to race these guys. They’re always super-fast. Rossi and I kind of got to get our elbows out there a little bit, especially Rossi, though he’s a little bit down on power. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find some things for COTA. Got to give a huge shout out to my uncle Ken. He’s in the hospital right now. He was watching the race. My thoughts go out to him currently. But it was a good race for me. I had a lot of fun.”
Mission King Of The Baggers – Gillim Again
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines’ Hayden Gillim crashed out of the lead in Stock 1000 on Sunday in a race he was heavily favored to win. He didn’t let that happen in the second of two Mission King Of The Baggers races as he backed up Saturday’s win with another victory on Sunday and a points haul of 50 over the course of the weekend.
The race was one of attrition with the two men at the top of the points table also suffering miserable races and finishing last and second-to-last (seventh and eighth). Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman was the first to have an issue as his bike faltered at the start, and Wyman basically was forced to cruise around for the duration to get some championship points. He earned eight points.
S&S/Indian Motorcycles’ Troy Herfoss was looking like he would bring home a boatload of points in comparison to his championship rival, but he crashed out of second place, remounted and finished seventh.
Herfoss’s teammate Tyler O’Hara cruised to a second-place finish, 6.5 seconds behind Gillim and some 10 seconds clear of third-placed James Rispoli on the second Harley-Davidson Factory Racing Road Glide.
Saddlemen/Harley-Davidson teammates Jake Lewis and Cory West rounded out the top-five finishers.
“I was a little nervous after crashing in the Stock race earlier,” Gillim said. “I didn’t want to repeat that. But, no, I was pushing as much as I felt comfortable. I knew if I could get into the corners pretty good and get out of them pretty good, it would be hard to pass. Everybody stepped it up from yesterday. If you could look at this morning, I was third and I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t go any faster, but everybody else did. It’s an awesome weekend after Road America. Road America was a rough one. The whole start of the season has been really, really rough. Wearing the number-one plate I thought would be a little bit easier going into the season than what it has been. I’m just really happy for myself, for the team. Just looking forward to getting to Laguna on these. Last year we had really good pace there. Me and James (Rispoli) were rolling really good on the Vance & Hines bikes. Laguna is going to be a tight one. Everybody goes fast there, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. Just keep it on two wheels right now. I’m beat up right now a little bit – knees, elbows, everything. I’m just wanting to stay on two wheels right now.”
Junior Cup – Badie Gets It Done
The Junior Cup race was red-flagged and moved to the end of the day after three riders crashed together in the ultra-fast turn one. After a few hours of downtime, the race was restarted and ultimately red-flagged again, then called with Karns Performance’s Levi Badie taking the win, his first of the year and the third of his Junior Cup career. Badie is the fourth different winner in Junior Cup in 2024.
BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin was second, half a second behind Badie with another half a second back to first-time podium finisher Isaac Woodworth and his BPM Kawasaki Ninja 400.
Bad Boys Racing’s siblings Avery and Ella Dreher were fourth and fifth, respectively, and on the same second as Badie.
“Started off pretty good,” Badie said. “It was a really big battle. I enjoyed the race a lot. Just trying to get my way up to the front. It’s hard sometimes. There were some few different limited passing spots, so it’s always like you want to do it fair. You don’t want to push people off the track and stuff. So, I pushed my way back to the front. When I got up front, I was like, ‘put the pin down and just try to go. See what every lap gives.’ You saw Isaac (Woodworth) pass me on the straightaway up to the last lap. Trying to just have a good battle and have fun. It’s sad to see that somebody crashed. It’s always sad. But I’m very happy. Thank you to everyone. I’m very grateful.”
