JD Beach seized the Cup lead with a great win at the German round of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup while arch rival Luis Salom fell twice and scored no points at the Sachsenring. The 16 year old American victor now has a 7 point advantage over the 16 year old Spaniard with just 2 races remaining. Beach had to fight all the way and crossed the line just ahead of 13 year old Japanese Daijiro Hiura and 17 year old Briton Matthew Hoyle. Just off the podium was German 15 year old Daniel Kartheininger who was only 1.5 seconds behind the winner after a superb fight that saw the quartet swap places several times at most corners. The 5th place struggle was even more desperate with 8 teenagers fighting for it and 2 crashing at the second to last corner. Success went to the 15 year olds, Frenchman Nelson Major taking 5th ahead of South African Mathew Scholtz and another Frenchman Florian Marino. The race and perhaps the championship was, to an extent, decided at the first corner as Norwegian Sturla Fagerhaug crashed and took out Cup leader Salom. Fagerhaug’s race was over but Salom remounted at the back of the field only to fall again as he tried to get back in the points. Fagerhaug had set out to banish the slow starts that blighted too many of his races this year. “I got off the line well for once and went into the first corner at the same speed I normally do but I guess with only 3 right handers the tyre wasn’t hot enough after the warm up laps and with the track colder than yesterday it just slid away,” said the 16 year old. “I’m sorry for taking out Luis.” The first lap ended with Kartheininger leading from Hoyle and Beach with Hiura back in 10th. Beach had said after practice that he needed to learn a bit more about the track and hoped to do it in the race by following the other guys. He showed himself a quick learner by grabbing the lead on lap 3. “I usually go better in the race than I do in practice and it just felt right,” said Beach who had both Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner cheering him on the podium. “I couldn’t get away from the guys and then later in the race the bike was sliding around quite a lot and I was just keeping it together,” said Beach. “I saw 3 laps to go and then the next time round it was 1 lap and I thought I’d better get going. I was in front and just put my head down. I’d been thinking that if it did come down to the last lap Cameron (Beaubier) took the lead with just two corners to go last year and I could try to do something like that but I didn’t have to.” Though he now has a 15 point advantage all riders have to discount their worst score of the season and with Salom dropping his zero from this race Beach has to loose his 8 points from Assen so has only a 7 point buffer with two races at Brno to decide things. “I like Brno, I had my best result there last year (8th) and I am not going there thinking about the Cup, it is just 2 more races. I am not going to let myself get pressured about it.” Hiura was happy enough with his second. “It was a great race, I had a lot of work to do because I made a bad start but it was OK. I really tried to win but JD was so good in that last lap I just couldn’t get close.” Hoyle was a bit frustrated with his 2nd 3rd place in as many races. “I did what I could, pushed all the way. The bike was moving around a lot at the end, we all were. It was a great race and I ‘m enjoying it so much more now and looking forward to another 2 good races at Brno and try for a double win,” concluded the Brno lap record holder who was 2nd there last year.” Kartheininger was not quite as philosophical about the result. “I’m disappointed, from half way through I had no rear tyre. I tried to get Matty just to follow me so we didn’t fight so hard but he wanted to pass at every corner and my tyre was just destroyed.” Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Championship Sachsenring, Germany July 12, 2008 Race Results (all on KTM RC125s and Dunlop tires): 1. J.D. BEACH (USA), 18 laps, 27:40.414 2. Daijiro HIURA (JPN), -0.201 second 3. Matthew HOYLE (GBR), -0.543 4. Daniel KARTHEININGER (GER), -1.515 seconds 5. Nelson MAJOR (FRA), -13.290 6. Mathew SCHOLTZ (RSA), -13.395 7. Florian MARINO (FRA), -14.560 8. Peter SEBESTYEN (HUN), -14.734 9. Cristian TRABALON (SPA), -15.591 10. Markus REITERBERGER (GER), -27.716 11. Kevin CALIA (ITA), -29.704 12. Nico THÖNI (AUT), -32.660 13. Harry STAFFORD (GBR), -43.366 14. Adam BLACKLOCK (GBR), -55.649, crash 15. Niklas AJO (FIN), -106.103 16. Dylan MAVIN (AUS), -1 lap, crash 17. Jakub KORNFEIL (CZE), -1 lap, DNF, crash 18. Sasuke SHINOZAKI (JPN), -14 laps, DNF, crash 19. Luis SALOM (SPA), -14 laps, DNF, crashed twice 20. Joshua ELLIOTT (IRL), -16 laps, DNF, crash 21. Daniel RUIZ (SPA), -18 laps, DNF, crash 22. Alessio CAPPELLA (ITA), -18 laps, DNF, crash 23. Sturla FAGERHAUG (NOR), -18 laps, DNF, crash Championship Standings (after 8 of 10 rounds, best 9 count): 1. Beach, 144 points 2. Salom, 129 points 3. Fagerhaug, 97 points 4. Hiura, 96 points 5. Major, 79 points 6. Ruiz, 60 points 7. Oliveira, 58 points 8. Scholtz, 52 opoints 9. Kartheininger, 48 points 10. Kornfeil, 47 points