OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly (SDK) turned the Quad Lock Superbike Championship battle into a last lap showdown on Sunday, drafting past his rivals to secure a heart-stopping victory at Ridge Motorsports Park. In a race that required grit and precision, Kelly rallied from as far back as sixth place to hunt down the leaders, ultimately executing a daring pass on the final lap to win by a 0.499-second margin.
The victory capped a dramatic weekend that saw the championship lead fluctuate by the thinnest of margins. While SDK took the win, Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz retained the championship lead he took in Saturday’s Race 1. Scholtz now holds 145 points to SDK’s 140, heading into the next round with a slim five-point advantage.
Sunday’s proceedings began with uncertainty during the 15-minute morning Warm Up. While Hayden Gillim led the session aboard his Real Steel Honda with a 1:41.070, Scholtz suffered a significant crash midway through the practice—his second major “off” of the weekend.
The incident forced the Strack Racing crew into a frantic rebuild of his Yamaha YZF-R1 for the second time in two days. Against all odds, Scholtz lined up for Race 2 and immediately charged to the front, leading for 15 consecutive laps and appearing destined for a redemption victory.
The narrative shifted in the closing stages as SDK began his assault on the podium. With five laps remaining, SDK picked off Saturday’s winner JD Beach and then worked his way past Bobby Fong—both representing the Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing team.
On the final lap, SDK set his sights on Scholtz. Entering Turn 13, Kelly dove to the inside at the top of “The Waterfall,” forcing Scholtz onto the curbing and beyond. Kelly powered away to the checkered flag, while Scholtz narrowly held onto second place, crossing the line a hair ahead of a hard charging Fong.
The race also featured a heartbreak-turned-heroic recovery from Wrench Motorcycles’ Cameron Petersen who started from second on the grid. After an equipment malfunction forced him into the pits on the opening lap, Petersen rejoined the field in 19th place. He proceeded to slice through the pack, in a charge that set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:40.758 on Lap 6. His relentless pace allowed him to salvage a 10th-place finish the hard way.
In the Superbike Cup, Andrew Lee continued his dominance, which has now improved to seven wins in eight Superbike Cup appearances, finishing second only once. Following his top-10 overall performance on Saturday, Lee piloted his Real Steel Honda to an 11th-place overall finish in Sunday’s Race 2, once again leading the Cup contingent to the finish line, extending his championship lead to 84-points over Soltisz, 195-111.
The following quote is from Quad Lock Superbike Race 2 Winner Sean Dylan Kelly:
“What an incredible race. Like, by far, my best race, I think ever, not just in Superbike, but just ever. I had a rough few laps at the beginning, and I think it’s normal, you know, I’ve had a kind of rough weekend, big crash Friday, crash yesterday in the sighting lap before the race. Not a good race. Not very confident. Not too fast in Warm Up this morning in the dry. And then I almost crashed, you know, with a couple other guys the first few laps. So, it wasn’t looking like it was going to be my day again today, but I kept focused. I kept locked in, lap by lap, and things started to click, and I really just got into a flow state, and I felt so good with my bike. That’s the best I felt with the BMW.
Seriously, thank you so much to the OrangeCat Racing team, to all my guys, to BMW. They gave me an incredible package, and I’m so happy to be feeling that strong with my bike, you know, and it clearly showed, I was able to make a lot of passes from sixth to first is quite a lot, especially when there’s a grid this stacked, you know? So, yeah, I’m glad I was able to make it to the podium places with a few laps to go, but at that point, I knew that I had a chance to fight for the win, and it was definitely a close one at the end, but Mathew (Scholtz), we know he’s, he’s a tough, tough racer. He closed the door, but I’m glad I was able to put the front wheel at least in the right spot to be able to keep us both safe and get my second win of the season. So, again, really excited for the rest of the season, really excited for everything that we’ve got coming. And again, thank you to everyone for the support.”
The following quote is from Superbike Cup Race 2, first finisher, Andrew Lee:
“Yeah, I think this weekend presented some challenges, but overall, I’m pretty happy. We made some changes for qualifying that felt really good, and then we had some weird harmonic chatter in the race today that kind of was uneasy. So after a few laps, I just kind of backed it off. Going to my home around at Laguna Seca, I’m excited for that weekend. So just keep going to work and keep trying to develop the bike and make it a little bit more of my own.”
Quad Lock Superbike Race 2
- Sean Dylan Kelly (BMW)
- Mathew Scholtz (Yamaha)
- Bobby Fong (Yamaha)
- JD Beach (Yamaha)
- Hayden Gillim (Honda)
- PJ Jacobsen (Ducati)
- Benjamin Smith (Ducati)
- Brandon Paasch (Suzuki)
- Ashton Yates (Honda)
- Cameron Petersen (Ducati)
- Andrew Lee (Honda) – Superbike Cup
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