Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz had an up-and-down weekend at Road America.
The following is from Westby Racing…
On Sunday at Road America, the fate of Westby Racing’s two riders went in opposite directions. Junior Cup rider Cody Wyman improved on his seventh-place result on Saturday with a fourth-place finish on Sunday, while Superbike rider Mathew Scholtz, who was runner-up on Saturday, got caught up in a racing incident on Sunday, unfortunately went down, and was unable to finish the race.
After being hampered by a technical issue on Saturday, Cody had a much better race on Sunday. Starting from the front row of the grid, he had a race-long battle with a group of anywhere from six to eight riders for the majority of the seven-lap event. In the end, he was in position to land on the podium with a third-place result, but he got nipped at the finish line and had to settle for fourth on the day.
“I am proud of what I did today on the bike,” Cody said. “We had a small mishap yesterday, and it felt really good to have a solid run on the Yamaha today. I was P6 in the morning warmup, but I did my best lap by far, and I felt the most comfortable all weekend. In the race, it was a good battle, and I felt really strong on the brakes. We were there at the end to get a good draft and get a solid run to the line.
“Thanks so much to my crew chief Bob Wyman and the team for making the right adjustments and giving me a great bike. I’m looking forward to coming back to Road America at the end of June, and to a racetrack filled with fans. See you then!”
Mathew’s second-place result in Saturday’s Superbike race one raised his and the team’s hopes that the outcome of Sunday’s Superbike race two would be the same or possibly even one position better.
But, on lap seven, while going into turn five, the front wheel on another rider’s bike came together with the rear wheel on Mathew’s #11 Yamaha YZF-R1, which sent both riders and their bikes tumbling off the race surface. Mathew, who fractured his clavicle a few months ago, was bruised and battered, and he’s considering having his collarbone re-checked to ensure it wasn’t damaged. One thing that was damaged was his pride because the crash wasn’t his fault. But, it was a racing incident, and he and the Westby Racing team will regroup and prepare for round two of the Championship.
Mathew commented, “We made a couple of changes on Saturday night for Sunday’s race, and in Sunday morning warmup, we were pretty positive that they were going to move us forward. We knew that we had a pretty solid race pace. The pace was really fast for the first couple of laps, which was really good because we could see that we were able to do those laptimes. I was feeling really good and I managed to get past (Bobby) Fong and (Jake) Gagne, and I think we could have gapped them. Unfortunately, Bobby outbraked himself coming down into five, got into the back of me, and we both crashed, which was really unfortunate. These things happen, I guess. The whole team was gutted with what happened, but looking at the positives, the bike is working really, really well. We’ll just keep our heads down, work hard and look forward to coming back at the end of June.”
Next up for Westby Racing is round two of the MotoAmerica Championship, which will be an encore event right back at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, on June 26 through 28.
