Scholtz vs. Jacobsen: It’s Getting Hot In Here

The Supersport Championship Battle Is White Hot As The Series Heads To Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course For The First Time In 10 Years

IRVINE, CA – August 14, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Ever since the contact between Strack Racing’s Mathew Scholtz and Rahal Ducati Moto’s PJ Jacobsen in the second of two Supersport races at Ridge Motorsports Park (with Jacobsen getting the brunt of it), tension has been running a tad high between the two championship rivals. When Jacobsen put two impressive passes on Scholtz in places you wouldn’t expect at the very next round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to snatch two victories, the heat was turned up even more. And what we have now is a good old-fashioned rivalry for the rest of us to enjoy.

This is what the 2024 MotoAmerica Supersport Series looks like: Mathew Scholtz (11) vs. PJ Jacobsen (15) going back and forth in their private battle for the championship. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

With a month off between Laguna Seca and this weekend’s return to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course after a 10-year hiatus, it’s Go Time again with the Supersport class and five other support classes set to race in conjunction with the Steel Commander Superbike Championship round, August 16-18, in Lexington, Ohio.

Anticipation for all the classes runs high after the summer break, but none higher than in the Supersport class.

To say that Scholtz and Jacobsen have dominated the class would be an understatement. Twelve Supersport races have been held thus far in the 2024 series and the Scholtz/Jacobsen duo has won 11 of them. And they’ve all been close.

Scholtz leads the title chase by 18 points with Jacobsen pulling back 10 points on the South African with his two Laguna Seca wins as he tries to claw his way back after the Ridge incident that cost him at least 20 points. The gap between those two and third-placed Jake Lewis is a Grand Canyon-sized 131 points, and that’s with Altus Motorsports’ Lewis actually having a really good season.

Scholtz’s first season with the Strack team has been impressive with six wins, four second-place finishes, a third and a fourth. Jacobsen and his Rahal Ducati Moto Panigale V2 have been with him the entire way with five wins, five seconds, a third… and his only non-podium DNF with his Ridge crash.

Lewis is third with the Kentuckian scoring points in every round to lead N2 Racing/BobbleHeadMoto’s Blake Davis by just one point. Jacobsen’s teammate Corey Alexander is fifth in…