Fast on Friday, a new lap record and pole position on Saturday morning, and a runaway lights-to-flag victory on Saturday afternoon. So far, it’s not a bad weekend to be Mathew Scholtz.
Strack Racing’s Scholtz, who earlier in the day broke Garrett Gerloff’s Supersport lap record that had stood since 2016, led every lap of Saturday’s race at Circuit of The Americas, crossing the finish line a tick over 10 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer.
The early laps saw the top four together with Scholtz always leading, and with Celtic/Economy Lube + Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Cameron Petersen, Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s PJ Jacobsen and his Strack Racing teammate Blake Davis giving chase.
The four ran in formation for the first five laps, but the foursome was broken up when Petersen had a huge highside on the exit of the left-hander that leads to the long backstraight. The crash cost Davis, as well, as he had to take evasive action and lost his hold on third place to Jacobsen.
Davis, however, didn’t give up, and the battle for second place turned into a good one as Jacobsen hit a false neutral, ran wide, and allowed Davis to catch up. From there it was a battle to the end between the two, with Davis beating Jacobsen by a scant .194 of a second.
Scholtz, meanwhile, crossed the finish line with some 10 seconds in hand, happy to have won his eighth Motovation Supersport race of the year, and also pleased that his teammate Davis took valuable points away from Jacobsen in the title chase.
Behind the top three came a battle for fourth between Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott and Jacobsen’s teammate Kayla Yaakov. Despite running off the track on two occasions, Scott was able to beat Yaakov to the line by .106 of a second.
With his win and Jacobsen’s third-place finish, Scholtz now leads the New Yorker by 16 points, 308-292. Davis is third with 230 points.
‘We’ve kind of seen throughout the season that if I have a bit of a gap in the first practice on Friday, then I’m able to kind of keep that pace going,” Scholtz said. “But it just seemed like every single session we went out there, everyone picked up massive time. Not just .2, .3. It was like .6, .7. It was one of those kinds of tracks. Honestly, in today’s race, I thought that I would have had the pace, and I would have been gone. By lap five or six, it was still G3 or G4 and I kind of knew that these guys were there. I wasn’t panicking, but I was like, ‘I’m going to have to kind of pick it up.’ I did a 12.5 and a 12.6 back-to-back, and I felt like I had one or two tenths left. Then one lap across the line and it was plus two or three seconds. So, I kind of just chilled in the high 12s, low 13s, and just kind of eked out the gap a little bit. Overall, the bike has been working great. COTA has always been a really good circuit for me. For once when I won, PJ (Jacobsen) wasn’t second. It seems like he’s been doing that most of the season. So, it was nice to kind of get those extra points. Overall, I know that these boys are coming in the second race tomorrow, so I’m going to have to pick up something.”
Mission King Of The Baggers – Gillim’s Day, Wyman’s Year
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Hayden Gillim was nothing short of untouchable in Saturday’s Mission King Of The Baggers race one. Gillim, who dominated the Mission King Of The Baggers Challenge on Saturday morning, led the race that really counted on Saturday afternoon from start to finish.
While Gillim scored his second win in what has been a rough season for the Kentuckian, his win was overshadowed by Kyle Wyman’s fourth-place finish that resulted in him taking the 2025 Mission King Of The Baggers Championship – his second title in the class.
So, is 2025 the best year of Wyman’s life?
“By far,” Wyman said. “Hannah (his wife) and I welcomed our first child. He’s five weeks old. He’s here this weekend. KWR (Kyle Wyman Racing)… we won the Super Hooligan title at Mid-Ohio, and now we have the King Of The Baggers Championship. So, it’s definitely a dream year. It’s hard to dream up anything better than that.
With Gillim out front, the final few laps saw a battle for second between S&S/Indian Motorcycle’s Loris Baz and RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson’s Rocco Landers. At the finish line, it was Baz getting the nod over Landers by .111 of a second.
With Wyman fourth, fifth and sixth went to his teammates Bradley Smith and James Rispoli, respectively.
Baz’s teammate Troy Herfoss gutted it out, with the Australian suffering with an injured shoulder and cracked pelvis to finish seventh.
With three races left to run, Wyman has an insurmountable points lead of 90 over Baz, 240-150. Herfoss holds on to third with 133 points.
Stock 1000 – Beach Stays Alive In Title Chase After Thriller
A thrilling Stock 1000 race went to Real Steel Honda’s JD Beach after a race-long dogfight with OrangeCat Racing’s Jayson Uribe that went to the last corner on the final lap. The win also gave Beach another day of life in the championship fight as points leader Andrew Lee and his OrangeCat Racing BMW finished fourth.
Lee now leads Beach by 14 points with only tomorrow’s race at Circuit of The Americas remaining in the Stock 1000 Championship, 176-162. Uribe is third with 154 points.
The margin of victory was .590 of a second, but it was actually much closer than that as Beach was on the inside going into the final corner and Uribe ended up in no-man’s land on the exit while Beach wheelied to victory. The pair were glued together for the majority of the race, with Uribe doing most of the leading.
Third place went to Jones Honda’s Ashton Yates by 3.2 seconds over Lee, who is obviously thinking about the championship at this point.
RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Rocco Landers was 2.3 seconds behind Lee and some 13 seconds ahead of BPR Racing Yamaha’s Bryce Kornbau, who emerged from a pack of five riders to finish sixth.
Kornbau’s teammate Deion Campbell was seventh, with Castrol/Lamkin Racing’s Nolan Lamkin, Edge Racing’s Jason Waters, and PDR Motorsports’ Diego Perez rounding out the top 10 finishers.
“That was a great race,” Beach said. “Jayson (Uribe) was riding phenomenal. It was all I could do to stay with him. We were just going back and forth. He had areas on the track where he was stronger and there were areas where I was stronger. I was a little desperate the last lap, trying to do the passes and just kind of making them stick. The last two turns, it was just good racing. I gave Jayson a few (taps to the head) to think about that. But honestly, I would have done the same thing. It was just the heat of the moment. But he races clean every time we go out on track, and I love racing with him. I’ve got nothing against him or the team. It was just a great race. I’ve got to thank my American Honda bike. It was a good day, but it’s going to be a fight tomorrow. We’re still in it. We’ve still got a long shot. I’m going to get hydrated, go out there and race Superbikes, and these guys better be ready for tomorrow.”
Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul – Super Di Mario
Warhorse Ducati/American Racing’s Alessandro di Mario has one hand on the 2025 Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul Championship number-one plate after earning his sixth win of the season on Saturday at COTA.
Di Mario led from start to finish in the seven-lap race while those around him stumbled.
It started with Di Mario’s main challenger of late having a problem right off the start as Tytlers Cycle Racing’s Hank Vossberg had an issue off the start that left him well behind. He would finish 12th, a lap behind Di Mario.
Real Steel Honda’s Ian Fraley also had early issues and dropped down to 11th by the time the race finished. Roadracing World Young Guns’ Kensei Matsudaira was another to suffer a mechanical issue, as he was out of the race on the first lap.
Team Roberts’ Kody Kopp had something go wrong that caused his Krämer to slide violently, with Kopp using all of his flat track skills to make an impressive save from crashing. He was out of the race, however.
That left Di Mario to ride to victory, 3.8 seconds ahead of Jones Honda’s Bodie Paige at the finish line.
There was more action on the final lap with MP13 Racing’s Ella Dreher and Yamaha BLU CRU Estenson Racing’s Sam Drane going at it in the fight for third. It came down to the final corner with both riders crashing out. Drane was able to remount to finish third, with Dreher taking more time and ending up eighth.
With Di Mario winning, Paige finishing second, and Drane recovering for third, a popular fourth-place finish went to Ice Barn Racing’s Solly Mervis, with the youngster turning in his best result of the season. Mervis was 1.4 seconds ahead of Bettencourt Racing’s Nathan Bettencourt, who rounded out the top-five finishers.
“I got a great start, so that’s what I wanted to do,” Di Mario said. “I was able to lead from lap one all the way to the end. So, I just can’t thank the Warhorse HSBK team enough. The bike felt amazing all weekend. I just want to thank all my sponsors. KYT, Dainese, and the team, my parents, Moto Liberty, and just everyone that’s helped me out. It is hot out there.”
Di Mario now leads Drane by 53 points, 229-176, heading into tomorrow’s race two. Paige jumps to third with 158 points, one point ahead of Vossberg. Dreher rounds out the top five in the title chase with 109 points.
