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MATHEW SCHOLTZ | BAZZAZ SUPERSTOCK 1000
Scholtz turned a lot of heads during the first damp session of the weekend on Friday as he set the fastest overall time in the class. Although the conditions changed drastically throughout the weekend, it was a confidence booster
that undoubtedly played its part in his mindset going forward. He managed a successful Superpole session in which he was able to put his Yamalube/Westby Racing Yamaha in seventh position with a 1:24.895, only a couple of hundredths behind Jake Gagne. The South African was sitting pretty on the starting grid as the fastest Superstock 1000 rider, projecting him as one of the pre-race favorites to take the victory. As the lights went out above the grid, Scholtz was overtaken by a couple of riders on the run down to the first corner, demoting him to ninth position on the opening lap. He found himself behind the CBR1000RR of Jake Gagne on the first time around the circuit as the two of them made up the tail-end of a gigantic group
at the head of the field. Scholtz found his way past the Californian after five elapsed laps, placing Kyle Wyman
in his sights. The South African was able to force his way past his fellow Yamaha rider shortly thereafter, setting
up a duel for the Superstock 1000 victory with his main rival, Bobby Fong. The two of them clicked off practically identical lap times throughout the midway point of the race, doing an exceptional job of keeping the Superbike riders within their reach. Scholtz mounted an attack for the position on the fourteenth lap and was able to maintain the advantage momentarily, but Fong struck back a couple of laps later. At that point, he wasn’t able to match the pace of the Kawasaki and he was forced to settle for fifth position overall, second in the Superstock 1000 class.
In the second race, the Yamalube/Westby Racing rider dropped back to ninth position on the opening lap, but he showed urgency to move his way back through the field in the early laps. He remained tangled in a closely contested battle with Jake Gagne up until the eighth lap when the Honda rider was able to make the pass stick and demote the South African to eighth place. Nonetheless, Scholtz
MATHEW SCHOLTZ maintained second position in the Superstock 1000 classification all the way until the finish line as he secured
yet another podium finish.
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MATHEW SCHOLTZ
VIRgInIa InternatIonal
Raceway