VOLUME ISSUE DECEMBER , P129
The R6 was one of the
most successful motorcycles
in Yamaha's history and the
reigning MotoAmerica Super
-
sport Champion in the hands
of Mathew Scholtz, the South
African moving back to Super-
sport in 2024 after a career
on 1000cc machinery in the
Superstock 1000/Stock 1000
and Superbike categories.
The newness of the R9 didn't
seem to matter, though, as
Scholtz took his Strack Racing
R9 to a comfortable 2.9-second
win in race one at Barber over
archrival PJ Jacobsen on the
Rahal Ducati.
To back things up, veteran
Josh Hayes used his wet-weath
-
er prowess to take race two,
again over Jacobsen.
The results would prove a
good omen for Scholtz and the
R9, who would romp clear to a
the 2026 Red Bull Rookies Cup,
with race winners Hank Voss
-
berg and Bodie Page, along with
Ella Dreher, Kensei Matsudaira,
Mikey Lou Sanchez, Mahdi
Salem and Joshua Raymond Jr
getting the call-up to try out.
As expected, the Talent Cup
races were often incredibly
intense, with many encounters
seeing the top five cross the
line within a second of each
other. New stars were uncov
-
ered in Australian Page, compa-
triot Sam Drane and Vossberg,
and the series saw the road-
racing debut of the three-time
AMA AFT Singles Champion,
Kody Kopp, who competed for
none other than Kenny Roberts.
The Talent Cup was an ambi
-
tious undertaking by Kramer
Motorcycles USA. The small
importer with a skeleton crew
based out of West Fargo,
In a new series
with new faces
and new bikes,
the MotoAmerica
Talent Cup proved
a big success.
North Dakota, in conjunction
with Kramer Motorcycles in
Munich, Germany, supplied a
brand-new motorcycle in the
APX-350 MA for the series in
what was the brand's first Mo
-
toAmerica appearance.
5
YAMAHA'S
NEW R9 WINS
ON DEBUT
Yamaha had a lot to live up to
in 2025 with the YZF-R6 being
replaced by the all-new, three-cyl
-
inder YZF-R9 as part of the Next
Generation Supersport rules.
