Austin, TX – April 21, 2018 – Three races into the 2018 MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, and Mathew Scholtz has already hit for the cycle. He notched second- and third-place race finishes last weekend at Road Atlanta, and on Saturday at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA), he completed the set with a superb victory in the rain aboard his #11 Yamalube/Westby Racing/Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike.
Mathew is the only Superbike rider this season to have finished on the podium in all three races thus far. He won Saturday’s Race 1 at COTA by nearly 13 seconds over the second-place finisher, which was even more remarkable considering that he had to race up through the pack to take the lead, pull away, and win convincingly.
“The start was terrible for me,” Mathew said bluntly. “I found that I got shuffled back pretty far, but I just kept on passing guys. I made it past, maybe, four or five guys on the first lap, and I could see that I was catching everyone that was just up the road in front of me. And then, once I got up to third, Josh (Herrin) and Cameron (Beaubier) had a pretty decent gap, and I kept on pushing hard, and I could see that my sector times were getting better. Unfortunately, Cameron crashed, and I focused on catching Josh. There were some sections on the track where he was slightly quicker than me, but in the sections where I was quicker, I was making up massive time. Fortunately, I got up to Josh, and he was protecting his lines, and he was fighting for it. I managed to pass him with about three laps left, and I just put my head down and took the victory. I’m really happy, and I’ve got to give a big shout-out to my Yamalube/Westby Racing team. They gave me a faultless bike today.”
Mathew will try to keep his podium streak going tomorrow in Superbike Race 2, which goes green at 3:45 PM Central Time.
For more updates about Yamalube/Westby Racing, including news, photos, and videos, visit http://www.WestbyRacing.com
