78 BENJAMIN SMITH
DNF/DNF/DNF
SUPERBIKE
"It was definitely an interesting week-
end," Smith said. "It started off well.
We were in the top five right away,
had good qualifying pace and put the
bike fourth on the grid. In race one,
we were running with the front group,
but I made a small mistake that took
me out of the race. Then, in race two,
we had almost an identical situation.
It was basically cut, copy and paste,
which was definitely a bummer. Race
three started well. I felt good and we
were right there. Then the red flag
came out. On the restart, we got into
turn one and, to be honest, I don't
even know what happened. It was
just chaos. I got collected in whatever
the first incident was, and unfortu-
nately that was the end of the race for
us. It's all part of the learning process.
On to Texas."
MYOWNRACE
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2026 P87
leader Kelly salvaged 15th.
PJ Jacobsen (Rahal Ducati
Moto with Xpel) inherited the
lead, but Baz charged through
the field and passed Jayson
Uribe (OrangeCat Racing) for
second before making a last-lap
move on Jacobsen at turn one.
Baz held on to win by just 0.155
of a second, with Jacobsen sec
-
ond and Uribe third for his first
career Superbike podium.
"It's
amazing to have the 2026
Ducati Panigale V4 R, which I
Race three delivered the week
-
end's biggest drama. After seven
laps,
Escalante crashed heavily
into the air fence, bringing out the
red flag and prompting an 11-lap
restart. The restart descended
into chaos, as a three-wide
charge into turn one triggered
a multi-rider pileup that elimi
-
nated Fong, Cameron Petersen,
Scholtz, Kelly and Smith. Scholtz
and
Kelly remounted, but Scholtz
later retired with mechanical
problems, while championship
believe is the best-looking bike in
the world, winning here in Amer
-
ica. I'm proud to be the first one
to
do it," Baz said. "It was a hard
weekend, but we kept believ-
ing after Mid-Ohio that we were
improving
every session. I came
here thinking I could fight for the
win, but this track is so different.
"I can't thank the team enough,
especially my crew chief, Simone.
Since Laguna, there hasn't been a
single time when he hasn't made
the bike better from one session
Matthew Scholtz (11) leads the field
away in race one. Despite no wins
this weekend, the South African
clawed back some vital ground in
the championship, leaving VIR 17
points behind Sean Dylan Kelly (40)
with 125 points still left on the table.
