Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz completed a perfect weekend in the Motovation Supersport class as he raced to victory on Sunday at VIRginia International Raceway after setting the precedent on Saturday.
While Scholtz was able to eke away at the front, the battle behind him went the distance after some back and forth between Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen and Scholtz’s Strack Racing teammate Blake Davis.
Although it was Davis getting the holeshot, Jacobsen found a hole and came out of turn one with the lead. The New Yorker put his head down and opened a slight gap, but it all went away with Scholtz and Davis closing in. On the fourth lap, Scholtz went into the lead as the threesome ran together. A lap later, Davis moved past Jacobsen for second, but the three were still locked together with Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK’s Cameron Petersen getting chippy behind them as he tried to close in on the three-rider pack ahead of him.
By the halfway mark, Scholtz had started to pull away ever so slightly. At the end of the ninth lap, the South African clicked off a new lap record of 1:25.964 to lead Davis by almost a second.
On the 10th lap, Petersen was out of the race with a crash in turn four, Scholtz had given himself a lead that wouldn’t allow him to be caught, and Davis and Jacobsen were set to fight to the finish.
After 18 laps of the 2.24-mile racetrack, Jacobsen was .114 of a second ahead of Davis as the pair crossed the finish line – 3.3 seconds behind Scholtz.
The top three were in another league entirely as fourth-placed Tyler Scott and his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki were almost 30 seconds adrift. Scott was half a second ahead of Rahal Ducati Moto w/ XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov, who barely beat BPR Racing Yamaha’s Josh Hayes for fifth with Rahal Ducati Moto w/Roller Die’s Corey Alexander right behind Hayes in seventh.
Altus Motorsports’ Torin Collins, Bauce BARTCON Racing’s Joseph LiMandri Jr. and MP13 Racing’s Aiden Sneed rounded out the top 10.
Stock 1000 – Back-To-Back Beach
Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach cultivated a perfect weekend in the Stock 1000 class as he came out on top of a battle to the flag over OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe by .055 of a second after passing the Californian on the final lap. It was the second day in a row that Beach had won a close one as he topped BPR Racing’s Bryce Kornbau by just .194 of a second on Saturday at VIR.
The race was red flagged on the first lap due to a crash, and the restart saw a four-rider battle for victory. Uribe was doing the leading, with Beach, Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates, and Uribe’s teammate Andrew Lee flying in formation.
As they started the final lap, Yates’ Honda failed him, and he coasted to a stop on the outside of turn one. That left three riders, though Uribe and Beach had a slight gap to Lee. Beach made his move in the turn-three left-hander, diving under Uribe. Beach was perfect from there to the finish line as he managed to keep Uribe behind him, albeit by just .055 of a second.
Beach’s perfect weekend vaulted him into contention for the championship as he now trails Lee by just 10 points, 122-112. Uribe is third with 94 points with two rounds and four races remaining.
“I wasn’t being patient,” Beach said. I wanted to make that move sooner before that, but I just kept fighting, kept fighting. I didn’t want to wait until the last lap to do something, but I thought I had a pretty good move there. I tried the lap before and about high-sided. I was going all in. I got to thank my whole (team and) American Honda. This bike has just been working great. My whole crew has been working so hard this weekend. To get the double win like that just feels amazing. I feel like I’m back, I’m racing. It’s a big difference from last year. I’m just excited and pumped. I’m grateful for this team and this chance I got. It’s going to be a battle these last four races, but I’m ready for it.”
Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul – Di Mario Bounces Back
Warhorse Ducati/American Racing’s Alessandro Di Mario made up for yesterday’s disappointment in the Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul race by winning today’s race two after a game of cat and mouse with yesterday’s winner Hank Vossberg and his Tytlers Cycle Racing Krämer APX-350 MA.
On Saturday, Di Mario looked to have victory in the bag when his shifter broke, forcing him to slow to what was ultimately a fifth-place finish. All he could do was watch as Vossberg pulled away to victory.
Sunday’s race had a different sort of drama as the top two, Di Mario and Vossberg, pulled away from the pack and then, on the final lap, did the “you lead, no, you lead” game that was reminiscent of races at Daytona International Speedway where no one wants to lead out of the chicane. Di Mario put Vossberg in a position where he really had no choice but to try and lead to the flag.
But it didn’t work out for Vossberg as Di Mario’s plan worked to perfection as he was able to draft past at the finish line to win by .086 of a second.
Those two were 11 seconds ahead of the scrap behind them with Bodie Paige Racing/Mission Foods/D&D Certified’s Bodie Paige getting the better of a six-rider scrap for third place. It was ultra-close with the difference between third-placed Paige and seventh-placed Kody Kopp, on his Team Roberts Krämer, being just .326 of a second.
MP13 Racing’s Ella Dreher crossed the line on Paige’s tail with Jones Honda’s Julian Correa, Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane and Kopp crossing the line in a gaggle.
Bettencourt Racing’s Nathan Bettencourt and Rossi Motorsports Powered By 3:16’s Rossi Garcia rounded out the top 10.
“The pace was insane,” Di Mario said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way he’s keeping up.’ I kept looking back and he’s right there. So, in the first couple laps, he drafted past me at the line so I knew he would get me. So, I didn’t know what the plan was, but it was definitely not going in the last turn first. So, at that point, when he got to the last turn, I thought he was going to speed up and try and get the run but we both slowed down. I was able to tell that he slowed down a little too much. So, I was pretty confident he wouldn’t be able to draft past me. It was the weirdest race of my life. I’m not going to lie. I have to thank the whole Warhorse team. Mr. Ferracci, Moto Liberty, KYT, Dainese, and just everyone that’s helped me out. Thank you so much.”
SC-Project Twins Cup – Who Else But Di Mario
Robem Engineering’s Alessandro Di Mario won his seventh SC-Project Twins Cup race in a row on Sunday at VIR, a day after the Kentuckian wrapped up the 2025 Twins Cup Championship.
Di Mario beat a three-rider battle for second by 4.5 seconds. That fight for the podium spots was won by Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle by .059 of a second over Di Mario’s Robem Engineering teammate Hank Vossberg. Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher was a shadow fourth.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin was about six seconds behind the podium battle and a second ahead of Brown Town Racing’s Chase Brown. Speeddemon Racing’s Logan Cunnison, Karns/TST Racing’s Levi Badie, Weyh Racing’s Andrew Weyh, and Koch Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky rounded out the top 10.
With just one round left, Di Mario has an insurmountable 106-point lead. Chapin is still second, though he’s just 13 points ahead of Dreher, who in turn is 11 points ahead of Vossberg. Doyle rounds out the top five, 10 points behind Vossberg.
Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. – Knebel Krowned!
Kira Knebel wasted little time getting to the front of the Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. finale on Sunday morning at VIR as she went about winning the class championship in style. Job one was winning the title, job two was winning the race. When Shea MacGregor, the only person in the race with a chance of stealing the title from Knebel, crashed on the second lap, the job was complete. She was champion in her second year after finishing third in the 2024 title chase.
At the finish line of the seven-lap race, it was Knebel slowing in the final laps to beat Miranda Cain by 1.4 seconds. Cain was giving it her all and ended up turning in the fastest lap of the race on the final lap – a 1:46.428.
Third place went to Saturday’s race winner Camille Conrad after a race-long battle with Cassie Creer, Bryanna Everitt, and Kate West. Those four were covered by just 1.4 seconds.
The victory was Knebel’s sixth in the eight-race Royal Enfield season.
“Thank you so much,” Knebel said. “It’s definitely been an emotional rollercoaster this round. A little bit more drama than I was hoping for, but they kept saying that’s what’s going to make the win even sweeter. It’s just awesome what we were able to do with the team. Freddie Spencer was there working on the bike with us, letting us take parts from his bike. Just trying to make sure that we could get the bike working today. All of our sponsors for giving us the extra parts. We ended up switching out the battery and my rectifier. The battery managed to stay running this whole time. I had to go out there and just run like hell. “I wanted this program to be a first step, and a lot of it is just huge personal growth. Learning a ton about racecraft and making a ton of connections and lifelong friends. Just being able to move on from here and continue perfecting the craft and hopefully also introducing and guiding other newer riders, women, to get into a program like this, just get into racing and get out there and compete and do your best. Work on personal improvement. Just follow your dreams. Just get out there and do what you want to do.”
