Saturday

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.

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.

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.”

Sunday

Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz stole the show again in The Magic City, disappearing from the field, leading all 20 laps of Sunday’s Quad Lock Superbike race two, and winning by over six seconds.

The South African took the lead from Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL rider PJ Jacobsen in the final corner of the first lap and checked out from there, taking the first double win of his Superbike career and extending his championship lead to 34 points in dominating fashion.

Behind Scholtz, Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s JD Beach quickly moved into second on lap three with Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Cameron Beaubier and his Ducati Panigale V4 R moving into third behind him.

Beaubier worked his way past Beach for second, but it was short-lived as the Ducati rider crashed one lap later entering Charlotte’s Web, ending his bid for a second straight podium and handing the position back to the Yamaha YZF-R1 rider.

Beach capitalized to secure another podium finish in race two, propelling himself to third in the championship standings, 46 points behind the leader.

Fresh off a hard crash on Saturday, birthday boy Sean Dylan Kelly rebounded with a composed ride aboard his OrangeCat Racing BMW M 1000 RR to finish third. The newly turned 24-year-old moved into the final podium position at the halfway mark and rode a calculated race to maintain second in the championship standings, 34 points behind the leader.

Richie Escalante delivered an impressive charge through the field aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R to secure fourth place, marking his best finish of the season. The Mexico native started ninth and briefly dropped to 10th before methodically working his way forward on the #54 machine, while also climbing to sixth in the championship standings.

Wrench Motorcycles rider Cameron Petersen was out for redemption aboard his Ducati Panigale V4 R after a race one DNF. The South African shook off the tough Saturday, was locked in for the early mid-pack battle, and followed Escalante’s rise through the pack, but dropped from fifth to seventh in championship points.

Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong put his Yamaha YZF-R1 sixth in race two and managed to hang on to fourth in the season standings.

Race two was a mixed bag for the Real Steel Honda team. On the positive side, Andrew Lee once again topped the Superbike Cup category to maintain his points lead, while teammate Hayden Gillim suffered mechanical issues with his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP that forced the Kentuckian to retire from race two, holding him to 11th in the points standings.

Six-time Superbike champion Cameron Beaubier’s crash relegated him to a 17th-place finish, dropping him to fifth in the championship standings with 47 points.

As the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship heads next to the high-speed confines of Road America, the long straights and fast-flowing layout are expected to favor the outright horsepower of the Ducati Panigale V4 R and the high-revving Suzuki GSX-R1000R. But, after a commanding weekend in Birmingham, Scholtz and the Strack Racing Yamaha squad arrive with momentum firmly on their side, as the South African continues to show supreme confidence aboard his Yamaha YZF-R1 in the early stages of the championship fight.

The following quote is from Quad Lock Superbike race two winner Mathew Scholtz:

“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s the first double on the Superbike for me. You know, just kind of still shocked with how things went. And I got out front, maintained a pretty decent pace. I knew that I had to get past PJ as soon as I could and kind of pulled out to a 1.5-second gap, and it stayed there for three or four laps, and then it suddenly jumped by one-and-a-half seconds, so I kind of knew something happened then. I saw Beaubier pulling it into the pits, and then, I just kind of settled into a pretty decent rhythm out there. The gap just got bigger and bigger, and, you know, brought it home in first place. I’m still just shook with how this year’s gone so far, but we’re gonna start to head west, to some tracks that aren’t my favorite, so I’m sure that we’re going to have our work cut out for us there. But overall, I’m just really pumped with how things have gone so far.”

The following quote is from Superbike Cup race two winner Andrew Lee: 

“This weekend, we kind of came in not fully up to speed after Atlanta, so we used Friday as a bit of a test. My whole crew has been working their butts off to try to get the platform underneath me so that I feel 100% confident in it. We’re nearing it. We went ‘1 and 1’ this weekend, so that’s obviously a really big positive. We closed the gap to the Superbike boys a little bit today. too. I think that’s kind of my main goal throughout the season: to keep closing that gap, and today was, like, a really good step in that direction. So I’m ecstatic.”