Who predicted this? Danilo Petrucci and Mathew Scholtz, two racers with reputations as nice guys, went beyond just fighting for a Medallia MotoAmerica Superbike championship and got fully involved in a personality clash.
Petrucci, the Warhorse HSBK Racing Ducati NYC rider who came to MotoAmerica from MotoGP by way of an impressive first appearance in the Dakar rally, and Scholtz, the Westby Racing veteran in MotoAmerica and Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup graduate, are not the types you’d expect to get into a grudge match. When the news was announced that Petrucci was coming to the United States to race Superbike this year, media types who cover MotoGP told U.S. colleagues that we’d be happy to have him, because he’s such a popular and down-to-earth presence in the paddock. Meanwhile, in the years I’ve been periodically dropping into the MotoAmerica paddock a few times a year, I’ve never heard anyone say a harsh word about Scholtz. Yet the Italian and the South African were clearly at odds this weekend at the Dynapac MotoAmerica Superbikes at The Ridge in Washington state.
There will always be tension between the riders running first and second in a championship chase, but it went beyond that. At the end of a Friday session, Scholtz and Max Flinders were stopped on the track to do a practice start. An angry Petrucci came up from behind and barged in between them, bumping both riders and flashing a middle finger at a perplexed Scholtz as he rode off.
There was a bit of a traffic jam at the end of @Medallia Superbike Qualifying 1 at @RidgeMP. Trying to fit three bikes into the space of two never works out well, but @Petrux9 wanted to leave a quick message for @Scholtzm20 with @Max888Racing being collateral damage. #motorsport pic.twitter.com/sr2hFW2hdi
— MotoAmerica (@MotoAmerica) June 24, 2022
MotoAmerica penalized Petrucci three spots on the starting grid for Saturday’s race for making the contact, meaning he had to start fifth despite qualifying second behind Fresh N Lean Progressive Yamaha Racing’s Jake Gagne, who has won the pole position at every race this year. Petrucci said he was upset with Scholtz for buzzing past him too close on the cool-down lap. Of course there’s more to it than that and it didn’t start there.
Despite leading the series, both Petrucci and Scholtz came into this weekend’s round at The Ridge feeling frustrated, which always puts nerves on edge. After winning the first three races while defending champion Gagne struggled with mechanical issues and a crash, Petrucci has gone winless. His win streak was broken with a DNF in the second race at Road Atlanta when his Ducati Panigale V4 R expired, a problem he blamed on MotoAmerica delaying the start of the race due to a power interruption. He has also been battling injuries old and new, on top of the challenge of learning new tracks (eight of the 10 this season are new to him), a new race bike, and different Dunlop tires.
Meanwhile, Scholtz had five second-place finishes in the first six races before finally breaking through for a win in the first race at Road America.
But where the tension really started building was at VIRginia International Raceway. Gagne won both races, but on Sunday Petrucci and Scholtz were in a fierce battle for fourth and just after they crossed the finish line, Petrucci crashed and suffered some lacerations and a fracture.
Moments after this photo was taken of Mathew Scholtz edging Danilo Petrucci at the line for fourth place, Petrucci crashed, adding to the nagging injuries he already had. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
In the aftermath, Petrucci posted a rather exaggerated account on social media, saying he was “lying down for over two minutes with no assistance” and “went alone to the medical center.” The crash itself was not captured on camera, but based on the live video, about 55 seconds passed from the time the two crossed the finish line to the time the camera showed Petrucci walking toward the medical center, which is just across the track from where he crashed. So considering that he crashed, tumbled, laid on the ground, and got up and started walking in 55 seconds, he certainly didn’t lie there two minutes (though it may have felt that way). Also, a worker met him in a golf cart and took him the rest of the way to the medical center. I was at the VIR race, and when I went to the Ducati team in the paddock to ask about Petrucci’s condition, the team angrily refused to discuss it.
Some European media accepted Petrucci’s post as fact and fanned the flames, criticizing MotoAmerica, which was forced to issue a statement. Some time later, Scholtz was interviewed on the MotoAmerica podcast and stated, unbidden, that he thinks MotoAmerica is doing a great job. It wasn’t explicit, but it sure sounded like a rebuttal to Petrucci’s criticism of the series and the international criticism that followed it.
. @Scholtzm20 is in his 6th year of the MotoAmerica and he’s found his happy place. “I’ve really found a home and a family here and I couldn’t be happier.” Listen to Scholtz’s feelings on the series and more on Off Track With Carruthers And Bice. https://t.co/Kwh9VEXnGq pic.twitter.com/OxhwftytMI
— MotoAmerica (@MotoAmerica) June 2, 2022
Two days after that clip was posted by MotoAmerica, Petrucci and Scholtz clashed cleanly on the track at Road America as Scholtz won race one by just 0.015 seconds over Petrucci. Scholtz said it was a very satisfying win, beating someone with MotoGP-level skills in a straight-up battle.
That’s just some of what led up to Petrucci’s middle finger to Scholtz Friday at The Ridge. A day later, Petrucci was already looking like a man who regretted losing his cool and wanted the whole thing to go away. In the press conference after Saturday’s race, he was asked to say more about the Friday incident and he responded, simply, “No.” Pressed to explain, he added, “I never had issues with anyone in 10 years in MotoGP, why do I have to have this kind of feeling with guys who are all good guys?’
The four Superbike riders who have won this season: Jake Gagne (1), Cameron Petersen (45), Danilo Petrucci (9), and Mathew Scholtz (11). The danger, now that Gagne is feeling confident with his Yamaha YZF-R1, is that he’ll go on another win streak like the record-setting run he recorded last year and nobody else will be able to keep up. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
Scholtz is only Petrucci’s third biggest problem
Maybe Petrucci has realized that he has at least two bigger problems than Mathew Scholtz. One is the intermittent problems the team has had with his Panigale V4 R. At VIR, the engine braking would suddenly change without explanation. It’s like going full speed into a corner not knowing how much braking you are going to have.
But Petrucci’s biggest problem is Gagne. Coming into this past weekend, Petrucci led Scholtz by seven points and Gagne by 25. But Gagne was on a different level from everyone else at The Ridge, qualifying almost a full second faster than anyone else and comfortably winning both races while leading every lap. He said the team had finally found the right front end geometry to give him the feel he needed to have full confidence. Ominously for the competition, he said after Sunday’s win that he now has the same level of confidence he had last year when he reeled off a record 16 wins in a row.
| Rider | Wins | Points |
| Danilo Petrucci | 3 | 176 |
| Jake Gagne | 5 | 165 |
| Mathew Scholtz | 1 | 159 |
| Cameron Petersen | 1 | 139 |
| Héctor Barberá | 0 | 101 |
The 1-1 finishes this weekend by Gagne and the 4-4 finishes by Scholtz allowed Gagne to jump into second place in the standings. Petrucci limited the damage with his 3-2 finishes at The Ridge, and he’s going next to a track where at least he has raced before, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, though his last race there was MotoGP in 2013. But with 10 races remaining, if Gagne can run off a streak of wins like he did last year, second-place finishes won’t be enough for Petrucci.
Before the season, in our annual 2022 motorcycle predictions article at RevZilla’s Common Tread, I predicted Gagne would successfully defend his title. I still felt that way, though maybe a little less certainly, after the first three races, when he was 59 points behind an undefeated Petrucci. I definitely feel that way now that Gagne’s just 11 points behind Petrucci.
That’s not to disrespect Scholtz and write him off as incapable of winning the title. But it is a prediction that while the Petrucci-Scholtz spat may be the most interesting and unexpected story of the moment in MotoAmerica, it won’t be the final one that matters.
