Wampum, PA – August 25, 2018 –

The first of a three-round, end-of-the-season East Coast swing got off to a podium-reaching start in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship as Mathew Scholtz successfully negotiated the tricky part-wet, part-dry conditions to finish third in Saturday’s Superbike Race 1 at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.

 

A brief shower that moved through the area on Saturday afternoon left the track damp in places and completely dry in others, and MotoAmerica officials declared it a dry race, which meant that the teams would choose Dunlop full slicks for the weather-shortened, 15-lap feature event. Mathew started from the second row of the grid aboard his #11 Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike, and he was immediately in the hunt for a top-three finish. He moved into second place as the laps wound down and the track dried out, but in the end, Factory Yamaha Superbike rider Garrett Gerloff managed to get past the “Durban Dynamo.” Mathew crossed the finish line in third and a little over two seconds ahead of defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion Toni Elias.

 

After the race, Mathew said, “The first few rounds of the season, we put in a couple of good results and we looked really good. We were contending for the podium in every single race, and then Dunlop introduced a new rear tire. We kind of lost our feeling slightly, but I feel like we’ve been getting better and better every single race. It took me a while to change my riding style to suit the new tire, but I’m very happy to be back up here on the podium. The Yamalube/Westby Racing team has been working hard. This race was great. (Josh) Herrin went off flying, and I tried to follow him, but he was a little bit quicker at the start. I feel like I was slowly reeling him in, and then he picked up his pace. Then, probably with about eight laps left, I could see that (Garrett) Gerloff was catching me. I tried to up my pace, which I did slightly but Garrett just ran me down and passed me. I’m really happy to be back up here on the podium. Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck behind me and supported me.”

 

Superbike Race 2 is set to go green at Pittsburgh International Race Complex on Sunday at 3:30 PM Eastern Time.

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