When it was announced late last year that two-time
MotoAmerica Supersport Champion JD Beach would race full-time for Estenson
Racing in the American Flat Track (AFT) Twins Championship and for Attack
Performance/Estenson Racing in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship it wasn’t
hard to figure out that there were four weekends during which both series were scheduled
to race, producing conflicts.
At the time the deals were announced, Beach essentially said
he and his teams would wait and see how they would handle the conflicts when
they got to them.
Well, the first of those four original conflicts is here now
with MotoAmerica racing at Road America in Wisconsin and AFT racing at the Red
Mile hundreds of miles away in Kentucky this coming weekend.
Roadracingworld.com checked in with Beach to ask how this
conflict would be handled.
“The plan is I’m going to race at Road America for the
MotoAmerica round,” said Beach. “When this all came about and we knew the races
were going to conflict it was all going to come down to what Tim [Estenson,
Estenson Racing owner] would want me to do and where we’re at in points.
“Right now in the [American Flat Track Twins] series, we’re
definitely not in the points and we’re sitting third in the MotoAmerica
Superbike points. So our plan is to race Superbike.
“We’re doing better on the Superbike than we had thought and
the dirt track points aren’t going great. With the Yamaha MT-07 being a new
bike there’s still a lot of work to be done. So right now we feel chasing the points
on the Superbike is better.”
While Beach’s results on his Attack Performance/Estenson
Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike have been better than expected, including his
career-first win at VIRginia International Raceway, Beach’s results on his
Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 AFT Twins racebike have been hit or miss,
including a career-first win at the Arizona Super TT and not making the
main event at the Daytona TT and the Atlanta Short Track.
Asked about his AFT Twins program, Beach said, “It’s just so
new for all of us. It’s a new team, a new bike, a new program and stuff. I
think we’re doing a great job, but we’re racing against teams that have been
doing it for years. We’re still trying to work hard to make the bike better. I
think the bike still has some spots it needs to improve in, like grip and the
way it takes the bumps on the track and stuff. It’s something where we’re a
team that’s having to test at the races instead of having the bike ready before
the race season started.”
As for the remainder of Beach’s AFT/MotoAmerica event
conflicts, which now includes the Sacramento Mile (August 10) being rescheduled
on the same weekend as the MotoAmerica event (August 9-11) at Sonoma Raceway,
Beach said he and his teams will deal with each one as it comes up.