South African Rider Secures First Career Double Victory As Beaubier’s Crash Mixes Up Championship Standings
BIRMINGHAM, AL – May 18, 2026 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Strack Racing Yamaha’s Mathew Scholtz stole the show again in The Magic City, disappearing from the field, leading all 20 laps of Sunday’s Quad Lock Superbike race two, and winning by over six seconds.
The South African took the lead from Rahal Ducati Moto with XPEL rider PJ Jacobsen in the final corner of the first lap and checked out from there, taking the first double win of his Superbike career and extending his championship lead to 34 points in dominating fashion.
Mathew Scholtz celebrates with his crew on pit wall as he crosses the line to take the race two victory. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Behind Scholtz, Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s JD Beach quickly moved into second on lap three with Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Cameron Beaubier and his Ducati Panigale V4 R moving into third behind him.
Beaubier worked his way past Beach for second, but it was short-lived as the Ducati rider crashed one lap later entering Charlotte’s Web, ending his bid for a second straight podium and handing the position back to the Yamaha YZF-R1 rider.
Beach capitalized to secure another podium finish in race two, propelling himself to third in the championship standings, 46 points behind the leader.
JD Beach (#95) moved into second as Cameron Beaubier (#1) chased him down in third. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Fresh off a hard crash on Saturday, birthday boy Sean Dylan Kelly rebounded with a composed ride aboard his OrangeCat Racing BMW M 1000 RR to finish third. The newly turned 24-year-old moved into the final podium position at the halfway mark and rode a calculated race to maintain second in the championship standings, 34 points behind the leader.
Sean Dylan Kelly (#40) made an inside move on Bobby Fong (#50) on lap nine to take the final podium spot. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Richie Escalante delivered an impressive charge through the field aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R to secure fourth place, marking his best finish of the season. The Mexico native started ninth and briefly dropped to 10th before methodically working his way forward on the #54 machine, while also climbing to sixth in the championship standings.
Wrench Motorcycles rider Cameron Petersen was out for redemption aboard his Ducati Panigale V4 R after a race one DNF. The South African shook off the tough Saturday, was locked in for the early mid-pack battle, and followed Escalante’s rise through the pack, but dropped from fifth to seventh in championship points.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong put his Yamaha YZF-R1 sixth in race two and managed to hang on to fourth in the season standings.
Race two was a mixed bag for the Real Steel Honda team. On the positive side, Andrew Lee once again topped the Superbike Cup category to maintain his points lead, while teammate Hayden Gillim suffered mechanical issues with his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP that forced the Kentuckian to retire from race two, holding him to 11th in the points standings.
Andrew Lee (#14) landed himself on the top step of the Superbike Cup podium in both of the weekend’s races. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Richie Escalante delivered an impressive charge through the field aboard his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki GSX-R1000R to secure fourth place, marking his best finish of the season. The Mexico native started ninth and briefly dropped to 10th before methodically working his way forward on the #54 machine, while also climbing to sixth in the championship standings.
Wrench Motorcycles rider Cameron Petersen was out for redemption aboard his Ducati Panigale V4 R after a race one DNF. The South African shook off the tough Saturday, was locked in for the early mid-pack battle, and followed Escalante’s rise through the pack, but dropped from fifth to seventh in championship points.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong put his Yamaha YZF-R1 sixth in race two and managed to hang on to fourth in the season standings.
Race two was a mixed bag for the Real Steel Honda team. On the positive side, Andrew Lee once again topped the Superbike Cup category to maintain his points lead, while teammate Hayden Gillim suffered mechanical issues with his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP that forced the Kentuckian to retire from race two, holding him to 11th in the points standings.
#14 Andrew Lee took the win in Superbike Cup over BPR Racing Yamaha’s Deion Campbell (#194). Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Six-time Superbike champion Cameron Beaubier’s crash relegated him to a 17th-place finish, dropping him to fifth in the championship standings with 47 points.
As the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship heads next to the high-speed confines of Road America, the long straights and fast-flowing layout are expected to favor the outright horsepower of the Ducati Panigale V4 R and the high-revving Suzuki GSX-R1000R. But, after a commanding weekend in Birmingham, Scholtz and the Strack Racing Yamaha squad arrive with momentum firmly on their side, as the South African continues to show supreme confidence aboard his Yamaha YZF-R1 in the early stages of the championship fight.
The following quote is from Quad Lock Superbike race two winner Mathew Scholtz:
“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s the first double on the Superbike for me. You know, just kind of still shocked with how things went. And I got out front, maintained a pretty decent pace. I knew that I had to get past PJ as soon as I could and kind of pulled out to a 1.5-second gap, and it stayed there for three or four laps, and then it suddenly jumped by one-and-a-half seconds, so I kind of knew something happened then. I saw Beaubier pulling it into the pits, and then, I just kind of settled into a pretty decent rhythm out there. The gap just got bigger and bigger, and, you know, brought it home in first place. I’m still just shook with how this year’s gone so far, but we’re gonna start to head west, to some tracks that aren’t my favorite, so I’m sure that we’re going to have our work cut out for us there. But overall, I’m just really pumped with how things have gone so far.”
The following quote is from Superbike Cup race two winner Andrew Lee:
“This weekend, we kind of came in not fully up to speed after Atlanta, so we used Friday as a bit of a test. My whole crew has been working their butts off to try to get the platform underneath me so that I feel 100% confident in it. We’re nearing it. We went ‘1 and 1’ this weekend, so that’s obviously a really big positive. We closed the gap to the Superbike boys a little bit today. too. I think that’s kind of my main goal throughout the season: to keep closing that gap, and today was, like, a really good step in that direction. So I’m ecstatic.”
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About MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is home to the AMA Superbike Championship as well as additional classes including Supersport, Twins Cup, Talent Cup, Super Hooligan National Championship, and King Of The Baggers. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership including three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Hall of Famer Wayne Rainey; ex-racer and former manager of Team Roberts Chuck Aksland; motorsports marketing executive Terry Karges; and businessman Richard Varner. For more information, please visit www.MotoAmerica.com and follow MotoAmerica on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. To watch all things MotoAmerica, subscribe to MotoAmerica’s live streaming and video on demand service, MotoAmerica Live+
Source: MotoAmerica
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