In Sunday’s encore Quad Lock Superbike race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Bobby Fong hounded leader Mathew Scholtz, then snatched the victory when Scholtz had a technical issue with his bike. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Drama-Filled Quad Lock Superbike Opener Debuts Deeply Competitive Field For 2026 Season
BRASELTON, GA (April 19, 2026) – The first round of the 2026 Quad Lock
Superbike Championship is officially complete at Michelin Raceway Road
Atlanta as North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series
closes the first weekend of the 50th anniversary of Superbike racing.
Sunday experienced cooler temperatures than Saturday and brought
overcast skies and some noticeable wind for the riders.
Attack Performance Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Bobby Fong took the win
in a tight battle with fellow YZF-R1 pilot and race one winner, Strack
Racing’s Mathew Scholtz. Fong began the race in second and spent 17
laps behind last year’s Supersport Champion taking multiple looks at
turn 10A but could not gain the advantage before the corner, tucking
back in line each time.
With two laps remaining, Scholtz dropped off the pace down the
backstretch allowing Fong past. Prior to this, the two had been
separated by no more than half a second for most of the contest. Fong
went on to win the race by a margin of 2.921 seconds while Scholtz
nursed his Yamaha home to a second-place finish, 6.270 seconds ahead of
third place.
OrangeCat Racing’s Sean Dylan Kelly scored another podium performance
with a third-place finish aboard his BMW M 1000 RR. The Hollywood,
Florida, native navigated through a solid first Superbike weekend with
his OrangeCat Racing team, with a pair of podiums for a solid start to
the season, second in points.
JD Beach had a lonely race in fourth aboard his Attack Performance
Progressive Yamaha YZF-R1 but salvaged valuable points after a race one
DNF from a mechanical failure.
Fifth-place finisher Cameron Beaubier leaves Michelin Raceway Road
Atlanta third in points after a hard-fought weekend. The six-time
Superbike champ started from 20th position once again, and made his way
to P6 by the sixth lap. Beaubier found himself within reach of a top
five and overtook Wrench Motorcycle Cameron Petersen’s Ducati Panigale
V4 R, securing a fifth-place finish.
In seventh place was the Real Steel Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP of
Hayden Gillim, just beating out M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Brandon Paasch in
eighth aboard his GSX-R1000.
Warhorse HSBK Ducati Flo4Law’s Benjamin Smith and Mission Foods M4
ECSTAR Suzuki’s Richie Escalante rounded out the top 10.
The following quote is from race two winner Bobby Fong:
“My confidence was kicked twice this weekend and as a racer, you have
two crashes and you don’t know what the hell is going on, you’re
kind of just looking around like, ‘I can’t do that again,’
especially with my team owner. Everybody knows he’d probably kill me
if I did one more throwing it down. So, no. It wasn’t that great at
the time. I just wanted it to be over with. But I knew at the end it was
going to be a hell of a last-lap battle, if his bike didn’t break. We
got a little lucky at the end. I’m sure it would have been fireworks,
for sure. We’re both competitive riders. We try to be safe out there,
but we want the win just as much as anybody. It was good to get 25
points on the board. Looking forward to Barber. This track, you don’t
get that big a drop when the tire goes off. It’s not like a huge
decline like most tracks. I feel like going to Barber, you get a huge
drop off in the tires and stuff. I think we excel a little bit. I’m
looking forward to that. It’s going to be a long season. These guys
next to me are super-fast. I feel like, every weekend, we’re going to
be seeing each other up here.”
For the full 2026 MotoAmerica schedule, and to purchase tickets for
MotoAmerica events, CLICK HERE [5]
For information on how to watch the MotoAmerica series, CLICK HERE [6]
For full results, CLICK HERE [7]