MotoAmerica: Scholtz Sandwiches Beaubier Between Strack And Attack In Race One At Barber
MotoAmerica: The Quad Lock Superbike Championship completed race one at Barber Motorsports Park with Mathew Scholtz taking the win aboard his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
Scholtz came from second on the grid and quickly jumped out front before a red flag halted his progress. On the restart, Scholtz ripped another blistering start and led the remaining eight laps of the red-flag-shortened event to take the win by over four seconds.
Cameron Beaubier started on pole and finished second aboard his Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law Panigale V4 R. Before the red flag, Beaubier and Scholtz appeared to be in a class of their own, but a difficult launch on the restart dropped the six-time Superbike Champion to fourth entering turn one. Forced to fight back through traffic to reclaim second position, Beaubier lost valuable ground to Scholtz and ultimately ran out of laps to challenge for the win.
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As Beaubier tried to run down Scholtz in the waning laps, the battle for the final podium spot was heating up between four riders.
The Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing duo of JD Beach and Bobby Fong were leading a close group that included M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Richie Escalante and Real Steel Honda’s Hayden Gillim. Beach came out on top with the final podium spot, passing his teammate Fong on the run to the checkers to put his Yamaha YZF-R1 on the podium in third position with Fong in fourth.
Richie Escalante recorded his best finish this season coming across the line fifth in race one. The Mexico native took his GSX-R1000R directly into the podium battle during the closing laps and will look to improve towards the top three spots in tomorrow’s race two.
Hayden Gillim started in eighth and brought up the tail end of the leading group, finishing 0.833 of a second behind Escalante in sixth. Gillim kept contact with the podium contending group for the entirety of the race and the Kentuckian continues to make strides toward higher finishes aboard the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
Rounding out the top finishers in Quad Lock Superbike was OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly, who rebounded from a violent crash in qualifying to finish seventh aboard his BMW M 1000 RR, salvaging valuable championship points.
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Some notable riders looking to rebound in race two are Wrench Motorcycles Cam Petersen and Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL rider PJ Jacobsen. Both riders crashed out of the race, with Jacobsen’s incident bringing out the red flag and requiring a section of the soft barriers to be replaced.
In Superbike Cup, Real Steel Honda’s Andrew Lee took the top spot aboard his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, and he will try for his first double victory of the season in Sunday’s race two.
Tomorrow’s race will see similar conditions, with temperatures climbing into the upper 80s under clear skies. After a dominant win and runner-up finish in the two Quad Lock Superbike races last month at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, followed by another topnotch performance in Saturday’s race one at Barber, Scholtz clearly has momentum in his favor. The rest of the Quad Lock Superbike field will be extra-motivated to thwart his early-season surge as the battle for the championship heats up in Birmingham.
The following quote is from Quad Lock Superbike Race One winner Mathew Scholtz:
“We went on the softer front tire and I knew in the first part of the race that we had, before the red flag came out, that I was trying to conserve the front tire slightly. Then when the restart happened, there was only eight laps. So I just went hard for the first couple of laps and managed to open up a gap and then just till the last 2 or 3 laps over there. But overall, you know, surprised me with how that race went. I kind of thought that there would be more of us battling up front, but I did get a little bit lucky. I’m sure tomorrow’s race is going to be more guys up there challenging.”
The following quote is from Superbike Cup Race One winner Andrew Lee:
“Really happy with how the first race went today. We’ve made some pretty good strides on the bike development throughout this weekend. We missed the first Friday of the year in Atlanta so getting a full Friday really helped us move this bike forward and it’s starting to feel a little bit more like my bike. We got to run with the Superbike guys for a little bit, so just happy to be moving up closer to the front and keep trudging away. We won the race today so keep moving forward.”
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