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MotoGP
AMA SBK: Tide Rising For JD Beach
JD Beach was thrown into the deep end in Superbike this season but he's got the right skills, attitude, and teachers to make the most of the opportunity.
Team Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki's JD Beach (Photo: Evan Williams)
Future star JD Beach has been taken under so many elite-caliber wings he could build himself a headdress of race-winning feathers that would put even the Scott Russell Screaming Chief replica helmet he wears to shame.
Despite his relatively short time in the sport, the 19-year-old prospect has already been groomed by the likes of MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner, reigning AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, and former AMA Supersport king and present day Superbike podium finisher Roger Hayden.
Stoner helped ease Beach's transition to life away from home during his time in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup a few years back and became something of a big brother figure to the young American. Hayes' relationship is more mentor/protégé, as the Mississippian can often be found schooling Beach on the finer points of the art of Superbike mastery during race weekends, as well as occasionally towing him around to demonstrate the fast lines in practice. And Hayden picks up Beach's tutelage away from the track, regularly training with JD between rounds.
Perhaps the established aces should be a bit stingier with their generosity and advice. Beach is soaking up their teachings and could soon be poised to step out of their shadows, no matter how long they may be cast. And once he does, you can be certain that his follow-up mission will be the two-wheeled equivalent of a kung-fu movie quest to render them obsolete ("the student has become the master.")
But for now, Beach continues to bide his time, pay his dues, and scratch his way up a near-vertical learning curve, only occasionally flashing that mammoth potential.
2011 was always going to be a difficult year spent absorbing as much knowledge as possible, at least once the decision was made to essentially skip a grade and slot him on the Team Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R Superbike. Following a highly-impressive run in the Daytona SportBike category in the prestigious Daytona 200 season opener in which he fell just 0.219 seconds short of victory, Beach was drafted into premier-class duty, taking the place of former two-time series runner-up Eric Bostrom, who stepped away from the fledgling project.
Despite his relatively short time in the sport, the 19-year-old prospect has already been groomed by the likes of MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner, reigning AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes, and former AMA Supersport king and present day Superbike podium finisher Roger Hayden.
Stoner helped ease Beach's transition to life away from home during his time in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup a few years back and became something of a big brother figure to the young American. Hayes' relationship is more mentor/protégé, as the Mississippian can often be found schooling Beach on the finer points of the art of Superbike mastery during race weekends, as well as occasionally towing him around to demonstrate the fast lines in practice. And Hayden picks up Beach's tutelage away from the track, regularly training with JD between rounds.
Perhaps the established aces should be a bit stingier with their generosity and advice. Beach is soaking up their teachings and could soon be poised to step out of their shadows, no matter how long they may be cast. And once he does, you can be certain that his follow-up mission will be the two-wheeled equivalent of a kung-fu movie quest to render them obsolete ("the student has become the master.")
But for now, Beach continues to bide his time, pay his dues, and scratch his way up a near-vertical learning curve, only occasionally flashing that mammoth potential.
2011 was always going to be a difficult year spent absorbing as much knowledge as possible, at least once the decision was made to essentially skip a grade and slot him on the Team Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki ZX-10R Superbike. Following a highly-impressive run in the Daytona SportBike category in the prestigious Daytona 200 season opener in which he fell just 0.219 seconds short of victory, Beach was drafted into premier-class duty, taking the place of former two-time series runner-up Eric Bostrom, who stepped away from the fledgling project.
Grand Prix of The Americas
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