Although bad luck spoiled JD Beach’s podium ambitions, he was able to salvage valuable championship points with a seventh-place finish in MotoAmerica Superbike race one at Road America on Saturday, June 1.
After a tough day one of qualifying, Beach continued to make progress on day two moving up a position in Superpole and lining up on the grid seventh on his Attack Performance Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1. He got a decent start, but was shuffled around a bit in the top seven. Around lap five, the rain flags came out. Although conditions were tricky, riders stayed out on the slick tires and it was a heated battle for position. Beach had his eyes set on another podium finish, but unfortunately a technical issue with three laps to go made seventh the best-possible position for him that day.
JD Beach – MotoAmerica Superbike #95:
“It was a good race. I think we took some big steps forward from the way we were going yesterday in practice. The first few laps, I was feeling really good. Then it started to sprinkle a little bit towards the middle of the race. I just kind of backed it down a little bit and the lead four kind of got a little bit of a gap. Once I started feeling a bit better, I started charging back up to them. I got up to the lead group and was making some moves. Then I think with about three laps to go we had a slight mechanical issue going into the first turn. I had to go wide and kind of get that sorted out. Once I got it fixed, we got going again and I tried to salvage some points. Coming away with a seventh isn’t horrible. That’s where we started. I think we learned a lot about the bike and about the track, so I’m feeling really good for the race tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to race two.”
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