KurveyGirl.com brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
Mathew Scholtz won MotoAmerica Supersport Race One Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Riding his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6, Scholtz came back from a poor start to win the first MotoAmerica Supersport race of his career by 0.269 second.
PJ Jacobsen was leading late in the race until Scholtz passed him with less than two laps to go. The New York native had to settle for the runner-up spot on his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Panigale V2.
Maxi Gerardo, the pole-sitter, led most of the race on his TopPro Racing Suzuki GSX-R750 but slipped back to third in the closing laps.
Tyler Scott was racing for a podium position until he ran off the track mid-race. Scott was able to recover and salvage a fourth-place finish on his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R750.
Blake Davis rounded out the top five finishers on his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Action Aplenty In MotoAmerica Support Class Racing At Barber
A Day Of First-Time Winners And Veteran Domination At Barber Motorsports Park
BIRMINGHAM, AL (May 18, 2024) – This is 15-year-old Logan Cunnison’s second year of racing in MotoAmerica, and May 18, 2024, is a date the Arizona-based Junior Cup rider won’t soon forgot. Not only did Cunnison earn his very first MotoAmerica pole position, but he also notched his first career podium and finished on the top step as the winner of Saturday’s Junior Cup race one in a dominant performance.
The rain stayed away on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park. Right up until the point when it didn’t. The rainstorm that was expected in the afternoon finally reared its ugly head prior to the start of the BellissiMoto Twins Cup race, but with a small delay the race started and was completed under cloudy but sunny skies. The Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race., however, was delayed until tomorrow morning with the BTR women set to race twice on Sunday.
Stock 1000 – Gillim Gets It Done
The Stock 1000 Championship finally got started with its opening round at Barber Motorsports Park and while many were thinking the race would be a thriller, it wasn’t part of Hayden Gillim’s plan.
Real Steel Motorsports Honda’s Gillim ran away and hid from the 36-rider field to win the opening round in the defense of his 2023 Stock 1000 Championship by some 11 seconds. The win was the 12th of Gillim’s Stock 1000 career, and it moved him into a tie with Andrew Lee and Corey Alexander as the winningest rider in the history of the class.
Gillim’s start wasn’t a good one and he had to fight his way to second place early before moving into the lead for good on the third lap after getting ahead of GMR/Jones Honda’s Gabriel Da Silva. Once in front, Gillim put his head down and left the others in his wake as he rode his Honda CBR1000RR-R SP to victory to give Honda its first win in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class.
Da Silva was a rather lonely runner-up, some four seconds ahead of BPR’s Bryce Prince with the Californian taking a weekend off work to try his hand at the Stock 1000 class. Bryce was in a battle with Benjamin Smith early on, but there was contact between the two with Smith coming out the worst of it as he crashed his FLO4LAW Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Visit Indiana/Tom Wood Powersports’ Nolan Lamkin finished fourth on his BMW M 1000 RR with Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates fifth, giving Honda three CBRs in the top five.
Gillim leads the championship point standings by five over Da Silva and nine over Prince.
“I knew I could do the laps consistent just from all the practice sessions,” Gillim said. “We actually kind of had some miscues and didn’t get to put any new tires on the bike during the sessions. So really most of the sessions I was just doing race stints. So, I knew I could do the lap times. We had some stuff going on with the front end and made a couple clicker changes and it was pretty well fixed. I was super happy with that. I felt from the first lap of the race that I had a little bit extra from what I had in qualifying. It’s been a good weekend. The start wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. After Road Atlanta, I was getting some really good starts, and all my practice starts, testing and everything have been good. Then that light was a little long. If you go and watch the race, you see me about fall over to the right because I was sitting with my rear foot on the rear brake. As the lights hold, I started falling over and I had to end up taking that foot off right as the light went. It threw me a little bit, but it was a good race. These guys were putting up a good fight at the beginning. I had a couple runs on Gabriel (Da Silva) those first two laps. He was doing a good job of kind of blocking the real passing zones and made me work for it. It was a fun race. I was happy to get out front and get into a good pace and get the win. This is a new team. I’ve got the same crew guys from last year, but new bikes, new trailer, new title sponsors. So, it’s great to get the first win on the Honda. See how tomorrow goes. See how the rest of the season goes.”
Supersport – Scholtz Gets His First
Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen was content to sit on the rear of TopPro Racing’s Maxi Gerardo. Lap after lap after lap. But with four to go, the New Yorker took the lead, and it seemed like it would be smooth sailing to victory for the championship points leader.
Enter Mathew Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6.
After a horrible start from the inside of row one. Scholtz was able to make some moves to end the lap in a battle for fifth. On the ninth of 18 laps, Scholtz was free and started to move forward. On the 10th lap, he went past Blake Davis to take over fourth, but he didn’t stop there.
Meanwhile, up front, Jacobsen decided to go to the lead with four laps to go. Little did he know there was more racing in store for him as Scholtz was past Gerardo and into second. And the South African wasn’t content to finish there. On the last lap, Scholtz made his move and held it to the flag, winning his first MotoAmerica Supersport race by .269 of a second over Jacobsen with Gerardo just a tick over a second behind.
Scott rode the Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki to fourth, some eight seconds behind Scholtz and just .5 of a second ahead of Davis and his N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha YZF-R6.
Equitea MV Agusta by MP13 Racing’s Roberto Tamburini was sixth, less than a second ahead of Wrench Motorcycles’ David Anthony. Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Stefano Mesa, Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis and Rahal Ducati Moto’s Corey Alexander rounded out the top 10 finishers.
After three races, Jacobson leads the championship by 16 points over Scholtz and 31 ahead of his teammate Alexander.
“When I was with (Stefano) Mesa, (Blake) Davis, a bunch of the guys, I was running like 27.3, 27.4,” Scholtz said. “I felt like I was pushing to my absolute max because I think that I was definitely flowing through a couple corners a little bit quicker, so I wasn’t able to kind of use those spots to pick up the lap time. So, once I kind of got some clear track, I started dropping time. I could see that I was catching them, but I thought that I was going to fall short. I think one lap they got screwed by the lappers into the second corner, which definitely helped me. Then I got up to third right onto Max’s (Gerardo) tail, and I just went for a crazy pass. I nearly crashed. Unfortunately, I think we touched. Then I managed to pass PJ (Jacobsen) on the second-to-last corner again, and then last lap I just put my absolute hardest lap down. I think I did a 26.8, which was one of the fastest laps for me. Overall, I’m just super happy to be sitting up top here.”
Junior Cup – Cunnison’s First
Speed Demon Racing’s Logan Cunnison became the third first-time winner in the first three Junior Cup races of the season on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park as he topped championship points leader Yandel Medina by two seconds in the 11-lap race.
Medina came out on top of a five-rider pack contesting third, the New York Safety Track Racing-backed New Yorker beating Karns Performance’s Levi Badie by .251 of a second. Wolfe Racing’s Ryan Wolfe and BARTCON Racing’s Matthew Chapin rounded out the top five.
“Just excited,” 15-year-old Cunnison said after his first win. “It’s unbelievable. It’s just too exciting.”
The 2024 season marks Cunnison’s second go in the MotoAmerica Junior Cup Championship.
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Dreher Reigns In The Rain
Floridian Avery Dreher is racing in two classes this season. He’s defending his 2023 Junior Cup Championship while also competing in the BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship aboard a TopPro Racing Aprilia. Despite a thoroughly wet track from a cloudburst over Barber Motorsports, Dreher rode a masterful race in the tricky conditions and got his first victory in MotoAmerica’s two-cylinder, middleweight race class.
Second-place went to Cassidy Heiser, the Chiefs Racing Team Yamaha rider recording his first-ever podium finish in MotoAmerica competition. Completing the podium was Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle, whose third-place result was his third podium in the past three races.
Despite a ninth-place finish, Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering’s Gus Rodio continues to lead the championship by 19 points over the tied duo of RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers, sixth today, and Doyle.
“I think this is for sure going to boost my confidence to try to get up there in the Twins Cup,” Dreher said. “With the unfortunate mechanical in the Junior Cup race earlier, that kind of bummed me out. But as soon as I saw the clouds start to roll in and the rain start to fall, I got a little bit excited because I’m a pretty good rain rider. I knew I just had to be smooth and finish the race on two wheels. It got a little sketchy out there towards the end. I was starting to hydroplane here and there, but I saw Alessandro go down. I knew he was pushing because I couldn’t hang with him. The rear was sliding all over the place, so I just took it easy and just tried to finish the race.”
More, from a press release issued by Rahal Ducati Moto:
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK: RACE 1
SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024 | QUALIFYING 2 & RACE 1
Today’s Race 1 ran under beautiful sunny skies for 18 laps before the checkered flag was waved on Round 3 of competition. It was PJ Jacobsen who led the Rahal Ducati Moto pack, riding his XPEL Ducati to a podium finish with a second-place finish behind Mathew Scholtz who ultimately won the race after three different lead changes.
Tomorrow hosts another chance to earn hardware as the trio takes on Race 2 of the weekend. Round 4 will go green at 2:10 p.m. CT with coverage available at MotoAmericaLivePlus.com.
PJ JACOBSEN
No. 15 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 4th
FINISHED: 2nd
CHAMPIONSHIP: 1st // 70 Pts. (no change)
NOTES: Credited with leading Laps 15 and 16 of the 18-lap race
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “Today was really positive after I messed up on Friday and the team worked great to get the bike back to racing condition for Qualifying and Time Attack. I was fighting for the win with two laps to go, and [Mathew] Scholtz came past us. I wish that I was able to get past those [lapped] riders a bit quicker, just before he passed for the lead. We just rode the best that we could today, especially coming off of Friday with that really bad crash. I just can’t thank the team enough. The Rahal Ducati Moto team has been working so well, and everybody who’s on the team has been doing a great job.”
COREY ALEXANDER
No. 23 ROLLER DIE DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 12th
FINISHED: 10th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 3rd // 39 Pts. (-1)
NOTES: Ran as high as the eighth position battling for a top-five finish
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “Today was a little bit of a tough day. We didn’t get the results we wanted in qualifying, and starting 12th definitely made it more difficult for us in the race. I felt like I got a good start with good pace for the first 10 or 12 laps, but we’re still missing something with the setup with the bike. We’re going to go back, do some homework on it, and see if we can make the necessary changes. We’ll continue making adjustments and see what happens tomorrow.”
KAYLA YAAKOV
No. 19 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 10th
FINISHED: 11th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 13 // 12 Pts. (no change)
WHAT SHE’S SAYING: “Race 1 wasn’t my best showing. We made some changes to the bike that I felt like didn’t really work out for the race, but we can go over the data for an idea of where to improve for tomorrow. We’re going to keep growing. My initial launch was great but I ended up almost colliding with another rider so I had to check up, which resulted in some riders passing me. Aside from that, it wasn’t too bad of a day. We’re going to keep improving, get a better start tomorrow, and work our way through the field.”
BEN SPIES
TEAM PRINCIPAL
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “It was a good day. PJ [Jacobsen] getting second place, especially after yesterday – it was a good rebound. Kayla [Yaakov] and Corey [Alexander] both had good races. We suffered a bit with Corey at the end of the race. He wasn’t liking how the front of the bike was feeling, which led to him moving backwards, but early on he looked really promising. We’re going to look at the data, try to make some changes, and keep that same pace he had for the whole race. Kayla rode really well also – we just have to make a couple little changes for her and try to get a better start so she can move up a few places tomorrow. All in all it was a good day, and we’ll continue our efforts tomorrow.”
