Motorcycle Racing Podcast: Off Track With Carruthers And Bice

Mathew Scholtz is a happy guy. And he should be. The South African is coming off an 11-win season in which he earned his second successive MotoAmerica Supersport title, and the end result of those two years of domination have led him back to the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship for the 2026 season. A five-time MotoAmerica Superbike race winner, Scholtz will be aboard a Yamaha YZF-R1 with the team that helped him win the past two Supersport titles - Strack Racing. Scholtz knows that the task is a big one, but he's ready for the challenge as the team gets closer to starting its off-season testing program. We caught up with Scholtz from his home in Georgia to discuss the year that was and the year to come on this week's episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice.

Support the show

MotoAmerica COO Chuck Aksland joins us on this episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice from the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park to talk about the recently completed 2025 MotoAmerica Championship, making the Daytona 200 a points-paying race, Superbike and Superbike Cup rules, the 2026 schedule and much more.

Support the show

It would have taken a brave person to bet money on James Rispoli winning the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship after the first two rounds of the series at Daytona International Speedway and Road Atlanta. Rispoli was third and fifth in the two races at Daytona and those were a highlight as the two races at Road Atlanta ended with zero points for the KWR Harley-Davidson team. He left Georgia trailing points leader Jake Lewis by 48 points. But it all changed at Ridge Motorsports Park when Rispoli carded a pair of second-place finishes. That started a roll with Rispoli winning the final four races to beat Lewis to the title by four points. We chatted with Rispoli about his Hooligan title, the Mission King Of The Baggers Championship, and more on this episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice.

Support the show

Based on what he's accomplished, it's hard to believe that Dennis Noyes isn't a lifelong motorcyclist. But it's true as he didn't discover the sport until he was in his 20s, with a visit to the Spanish Grand Prix in 1968. That was all it took as he was immediately hooked. Noyes started riding and that quickly turned into racing. Then came the perfect job as a motojournalist, which not only allowed him to cover the World Championship, but also gave him the opportunity to test motorcycles and write about them. Since then, Noyes has become one of the most respected journalists in the MotoGP World Championship, having both written and spoken extensively about motorcycle racing as both a print and television journalist. More recently, Noyes has also made good on a dream of writing a non-motorcycle novel. We caught up with Noyes from his home in the desert town of Borrego Springs, California, to talk about motorcycle racing and life as an American in Spain on this week's episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice.

Support the show

ARCH co-founder Gard Hollinger doesn’t want to be referred to as an “engineer” or a “designer” out of respect for those in the field who have a formal degree. But whether he likes it not, Hollinger is a bit of both. He’s also actor Keanu Reeves’ partner in ARCH Motorcycle, and the pair, along with their race team, recently completed their first year in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship. They did so in style, with Corey Alexander racing the ARCH 2S-R to two fourth-place finishes in the season finale at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. We chatted with Hollinger prior to the weekend’s action at Mid-Ohio to talk all things ARCH, the difficulty of jumping in the deep end with a new bike and team, and much more on this week’s episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice.

Support the show

Dunlop tire tester/part-time road racer Taylor Knapp wears many hats. This weekend he's wearing his racer hat and will do battle in the MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class on the PS² Racing Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory as a fill-in rider for the injured Cory Ventura. Never one (or two) to miss an opportunity to chat with Knapp, we cornered the soft-spoken racing veteran to talk about racing, tire testing, and much more on this episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice.

Support the show

Jeremy Taubman is one of the riders in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship Powered By Harley-Davidson. Together with Shanea Makinson, they are co-founders of the Remix Racing Project, which encompasses two of Jeremy's and Shanea's greatest passions: motorcycles and mental health. In this episode of "Off Track With Carruthers And Bice," Jeremy and Shanea talk about how the significant challenges they've each faced brought them together and set them on a path to help others cultivate brave spaces in which to overcome mental health issues and substance addiction. We think you'll be as uplifted as Paul and Sean are after learning about the Remix Racing Project.

Support the show

Real Steel Honda rider JD Beach is in his happy place, and it's not just at the racetrack. He's on a team with his brother Hayden Gillim, he's an uncle to Gillim's two kids, as well as other Gillim brother Frankie Lee's two kids, and he's continuing to do what he's always done and what he does best: racing motorcycles. For this episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice, Paul and Sean caught up with Beach as they discussed a wide variety of subjects. Check out this episode, and we think you'll find out a thing or two about The Jiggy Dog that you didn't already know.

Support the show

Sam Moses worked for Sports Illustrated for 18 years, the majority of which as its motorsports writer, covering events like the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the Long Beach Grand Prix back when it was a round of the Formula One World Championship. But his first love was motorcycles, and motorcycle racing, so Moses pitched those stories to Sports Illustrated and, with the help of his SI editor Bob Brown, he was able to write stories that no one else was writing. Those stories included his first motorcycle racing feature on a young, dirt-tracking Kenny Roberts in 1974. But he didn't stop there. He kept pitching those stories, bringing motorcycle racing to a new audience with more feature stories, including Roberts during his World Championship years, and the three-time 500cc World Champion's challenger, a young Freddie Spencer. We got the chance to chat with Moses from his island home of Lombok in Indonesia to chat about all that and more.

Support the show

From fighting alcoholism as a young man who actually did hit rock bottom, to building a start-up trucking company into a $360 million success story with 3000 employees, Tim Estenson has most definitely lived. Having sold Estenson Logistics in 2017, Estenson is now "retired," and focusing his efforts on Estenson Racing, which encompasses the highly successful American Flat Track (AFT) team of Dallas Daniels and Tom Drane, and the upstart MotoAmerica Talent Cup team featuring Sam Drane. Estenson also has an impressive collection of motorcycles that hovers around 300. The story of Estenson's life has been written in his biography, On Rails, and you can hear a shortened version on this week's episode of Off Track With Carruthers And Bice as we welcome Estenson as our guest.

Support the show