Precision Track Days brings you the results of this weekend’s events.
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Mathew Scholtz has one hand on the 2024 MotoAmerica Supersport Championship trophy after he won Race Two Sunday at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and his only title rival experienced some bad luck.
Scholtz, riding his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 on Dunlop control tires, fought his way to the front and was able to win the 11-lap race by two seconds.
Tyler Scott led at points on his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R750, but he had to settle for second place in the scorching hot conditions.
N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha rider Blake Davis backed up his podium performance in Race One with a third place, 0.4 second behind Scott, in Race Two.
Corey Alexander came back from a slow start to claim fourth on his Rahal Ducati Moto w/Roller Die + Forming Panigale V2.
Race One winner Jake Lewis didn’t have the winning pace in Race Two and the best he could do was fifth, right behind Alexander, on his Altus Motorsports Suzuki.
The big news in Race Two, however, was the crash of Scholtz’s Championship rival PJ Jacobsen. Jacobsen was running third on his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Panigale V2, right behind Scott, on the final lap when he lost the front and fell two corners from the finish.
Jacobsen was able to pick up his Ducati and return to the race, but he crossed the line 19th and out of the points. As a result, Scholtz’s lead in the Championship point standings went from 14 to 39 points with two races and 50 possible points remining.
More, from a press release issued by MotoAmerica:
Two Points Separate Wyman From Herfoss With NJMP Finale To Come
The Battle For The 2024 Mission King Of The Baggers Title Will Go Down To The Wire In Jersey
AUSTIN, TX (September 15, 2024) – With Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s Kyle Wyman and S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Troy Herfoss winning 12 of the 16 Mission King Of The Baggers races, it’s fitting that those two will battle to the bitter end in a winner-take-all-championship at New Jersey Motorsports Park, September 27-29.
Of course, the duo battled on Sunday afternoon at Circuit of The Americas with the two running nose to tail for the majority of the race. At the end of the five-lap sprint, it was Herfoss taking his sixth win of the season with Wyman just .445 of a second behind in second place.
The championship? There’s now just two points between the two with Wyman leading Herfoss, 315-313, with the series headed to Wyman’s home track of NJMP in two weeks.
No one else was a real factor in this one with Saturday’s Mission King Of The Baggers victor Rocco Landers riding his RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to third, 3.7 seconds behind the lead duo.
Landers’ teammate Hayden Gillim rode to a gutsy fourth after undergoing surgery on a broken hand just a week or so prior to racing in Texas. Gillim was right on Landers at the finish line.
Wyman’s teammate James Rispoli rounded out the top five, some five seconds adrift of the intra-team Landers/Gillim battle.
“Today was a really good day,” Herfoss said. “Yesterday I got caught out. It was a tough race yesterday. Just having young Rocco (Landers) again. I see a lot in him. I know that he’s going to race to win every stage of the year. I sort of didn’t open fire as much as I probably could have, but in saying that, he was just so in control. I sort of knew that if I was going to make a pass, he was so dialed in it wasn’t going to do much. It wasn’t going to get me far. But today, we made a few adjustments and sort of predicted the way the track would go in that heat. I kept a good eye on the Superbike races today. The answer is yes, I was extremely comfortable. As I said on the podium, a little bit of a smart-ass comment, but I have also been super respectful all the year because I was so comfortable, I don’t go back on that. I felt like it was a puppet show, and I felt like I was in charge of it. I tried to get Kyle (Wyman) to do something he didn’t want to do, and like I knew he was too smart to try. It’s even and we’re going to the last round. Best man can win. I understand full well that it’s a track that he’s really good at. I’ve got a lot of respect for that. I can’t wait to go there and see what I can do there.”
Supersport – Breathing Room For Scholtz
The 2024 Supersport Championship will go down to the final round of the season after a drama-filled weekend that began with a 25-point lead for Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz over Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen and ended with Scholtz now taking a 39-point lead to New Jersey Motorsports Park for the final two races of the championship.
Scholtz survived some intense challenges from the other riders and a near-get-off from his Yamaha to take the checkered flag by a little over two seconds ahead of Vision Wheel ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott. Third place went to N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto Yamaha’s Blake Davis.
But, what about Jacobsen? Well, the title contender led the race, was shuffled back in the lead pack, and ultimately looked like he’d finish on the podium until the penultimate corner on the final lap when he inexplicably went down and slid out of the race, which cost him most of the valuable points that he had gained from the results of Saturday’s race one.
“I knew I had the pace to do (fast laps) consistently, and I knew that I should be able to win,” Scholtz said. “It sucks that PJ crashed, but it really, really helps me in the championship. So, now, we go to New Jersey for the final round. Two more races, and we have the advantage. We’ll be ready.”
Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – West Crowned!
Saddlemen Harley-Davidson’s Cory West did exactly what he needed to do to earn the 2024 Mission Super Hooligan National Championship. He finished second to championship rival Tyler O’Hara on Saturday morning at COTA, and that earned the veteran racer from Arkansas his first career AMA title.
The race was won by S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s O’Hara, but it wasn’t enough as he didn’t get the help he was hoping for. When his teammate Troy Herfoss went out with a mechanical problem, that put the onus of help on the shoulders of his other teammate, 61-year-old Jeremy McWilliams. McWilliams gave it his all but came up .167 of a second behind West in third. Even if he’d gotten the spot and West had ended the race tied with O’Hara on points, the title would have gone to West based on the tiebreaker of number of wins.
Second place on the track went to uber talent Alessandro Di Mario, who was riding a non-homologated Ducati Streetfighter V2. Di Mario was racing knowing that the bike would be disqualified, but it didn’t take away from the fact that the 15-year-old was impressive in his debut in the class.
Fourth place went to West’s teammate Jake Lewis, with the Kentuckian playing the role of wingman to perfection. The third Saddlemen Harley-Davidson teamster, Travis Wyman, finished fifth.
“It’s hard to stay cool when it’s so hot out,” West said. “Saddlemen Harley Davidson Pan America… I can’t say enough. That bike just worked awesome. It was a really stressful race. I had to finish third. I knew what TO (Tyler O’Hara) was going to do. He was going to go out and try to win it. I just kept my head down and did what I could. This is a dream come true. It’s something that you’ve always wanted when you were a kid when you start to racing, to be a champion. It’s just complete, man. It’s a check off the old bucket list. I really have to thank everybody. Dave, Amy, Chris. My beautiful wife, who is due in eight days. Jake, Taylor, Kento, Eric, Matty, Fury, Ricky, everybody. I love you guys. My family is here this weekend. I’ve got so many friends. We brought home the number-one plate, and I couldn’t be happier.”
BellissiMoto Twins Cup – Di Mario Takes It
The BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship came down to the final race of the season, and at the start, it looked like we were going to get the epic showdown was expected between title contenders Alessandro Di Mario and Rocco Landers, who were only separated by six points after Saturday’s race one.
Landers got the holeshot coming out of turn one on the first lap, but 15-year-old phenom Di Mario took the lead before the opening lap had been completed, and he pressed his advantage all the way to the checkered flag.
The Rodio Racing – Powered by Robem Engineering rider led every lap of the race and took the checkered flag by more than six and a half seconds.
Meanwhile, after challenging on the opening lap, Landers had a mechanical problem, which put him out of the race and unfortunately out of the championship.
For Di Mario, who is only in his second year of MotoAmerica racing and is a Twins Cup rookie, he notched his first of what may be many MotoAmerica class championships to come.
Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Rossi Moor, who celebrated his 17th birthday on Friday, finished second for his best result of the season, while Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle came home third, which was his sixth podium finish in the 2024 BellissiMoto Twins Cup Championship.
Di Mario, whose cool, calm demeanor belies his young age, was asked if he felt the pressure of being in contention for his first MotoAmerica Championship.
“It was hard. It wasn’t easy at all,” Di Mario said. “Rocco (Landers) was fast all year. I came into this weekend, and I was really confident. I like the track. It was really hot, but it was a little better than yesterday. Yesterday felt a lot worse. I just went out and I knew what I could do. I just tried to do as many fast laps as possible at the start, tried to pull a little gap. When I saw the pit board with the gap, I started to manage it until the last lap. My last lap was super slow. I didn’t want to make any mistakes. I left off quite a bit. I just want to thank everybody, my whole team, Mike, Chad, Kevin, Freddy from home, Sara for the pictures. I love you. My teammate, Gus (Rodio). He’s been a great teammate all year. I just want to thank all my sponsors. Also, my brother. He’s in the Marine Corps. I think he’s watching from home. I love you. I just want to thank everybody. Dainese, HJC, all my sponsors. Thank you so much.”
More, from a press release issued by Rahal Ducati Moto:
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS RACE 2
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 | WARM-UP & RACE 2
Sunday at Circuit of The Americas proved bittersweet for the Rahal Ducati Moto team. The battle for the podium came down to the very last lap with PJ Jacobsen trading positions with championship leader Mathew Scholtz, Tyler Scott, and Blake Davis. In true competitor fashion, Jacobsen was determinded to go for second-place on the final lap to keep the championship tight, however his move in Turn 19 of 20 landed him in the gravel. Jacobsen was able to get his bike back up and join the race to finish 19th. Scholtz now leads Jacobsen by 39 points leading into the final two rounds of the season.
Corey Alexander fumbled on the start but was able to quickly move through the field and picking off competitors one at a time. Wearing race boots a size smaller than usual to help with shifting, Alexander eventually climbed to the fourth position when he crossed the finish line earning his eighth top five of the season.
Kayla Yaakov rode her first-ever Supersport race at Circuit of The Americas just last year. Showing improvement steadily throughout the weekend, Kayla earned a seventh place finish after impressive passes throughout the field.
The team packs the truck to head to the East Coast where the final two rounds of the season will be held at all three rider’s home track of New Jersey Motorsports Park. Join the team at the season finale September 27-29.
COREY ALEXANDER
No. 23 ROLLER DIE + FORMING DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 5th
FINISHED: 4th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 6th (140 pts)
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “We had a great race today. I got a bad start – the first one we’ve had in a long time, which made our race more difficult than it should have been. We had the pace to run away with the front group, but I made it too hard for myself with the gap. Unfortunately, with my size, and without a draft, it was very difficult. Overall, it was a positive weekend. I hate for PJ to crash out like that on the last lap, but for me, it was a positive weekend. Thanks to the whole crew for sweating it out with the brutal heat.”
KAYLA YAAKOV
No. 19 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 12th
FINISHED: 7th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 8th (134 pts)
WHAT SHE’S SAYING: “It was a decent end to the weekend. We made such a big improvement from Friday and Race 1, so I can’t thank my team enough. This program has helped me so much, and to see where I was last year at this race to where I am now, it’s a completely different rider. I owe it all to Ben and all the fitness that he’s put me through, to Graham for trusting me, and Richie for putting together this amazing program for us riders. We tried our best today, and we were able to come out on top of the group that I was in, and continue to improve our pace. Now, we are going to focus on New Jersey, our home race. I think we’ll have a good showing and hopefully get all three bikes on the podium. That and getting PJ his championship would be a dream ending to the season.”
PJ JACOBSEN
No. 15 XPEL DUCATI PANIGALE V2
STARTED: 3rd
FINISHED: 19th
CHAMPIONSHIP: 2nd (290 pts)
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “Honestly, it was a bad weekend for us. We were struggling here all weekend with the bike. The team did a great job, we just have to figure some things out after this weekend. I’m not sure if it was the heat that was making us struggle. We go to my home race next in New Jersey, so I’m pretty confident about those races. It’s a bummer to end the weekend like this but we’ll focus on New Jersey and getting two wins there.”
BEN SPIES
TEAM PRINCIPAL
WHAT HE’S SAYING: “It was a little bit of a bittersweet Sunday. PJ had a good start and great pace, Corey was riding really well after getting hung up at the start, but he came through the pack. Kayla had a better race than she did yesterday, so we had some improvements. With the heat at the track, our chassis and the bike were struggling with edge grip and losing too much for PJ to make the difference. He was going for it, trying to save valuable championship points going for second place, but lost the front. That’s how it happens sometimes in racing. We have one race weekend left, but we have to be happy with the year and how everything has gone so far. As a team, you always want to win, so it’s a bit frustrating, but we’ll regroup and come back stronger in a couple of weeks.”
