American JD Beach says he had a successful two-day test on
his Attack Performance/Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike this week ahead of
him participating in both the FIM Superbike World Championship and the
MotoAmerica Superbike races this coming weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna
Seca.

Beach and his Richard Stanboli-led team stopped off at
Buttonwillow Raceway Park on July 9-10 for a two-day test on the team’s way to
Laguna Seca from its base in Huntington Beach, California, and the test was a complete
success, according to Beach.

“I think it went really well, and I feel really good on the
bike,” Beach told Roadracingworld.com in the paddock Thursday at WeatherTech
Raceway Laguna Seca. “I think it was really good that I got to ride both brands
of tires and got to go back-to-back on them. It was nice to get that little bit
of time before being here.

“We started with the World Superbike, which is the bike that
I’ve been racing all year. We started with used Dunlops on it just to get up to
speed and get a feel for those tires. Then we put on the Pirellis. We burned up
a set just riding around so I could feel the bike.

“Then we changed the setup of the bike to the same setup the
[Yamaha] World Superbike guys are running and tried that and I liked that a
lot. Then we actually put the Dunlops back on and I tried that setup with those
and I liked the way the bike felt.

“The setups of the two bikes are real close. It’s a lot
closer than we thought it would be.”

The YZF-R1 Beach has been racing all season in MotoAmerica
will be used as his World Superbike at Laguna Seca, and the Attack Yamaha Josh
Herrin raced in 2018 will become Beach’s MotoAmerica racebike for the weekend.

According to Stanboli, the only differences between the chassis
setups of the two machines is a different spring rate for the shock and a
slightly different fork drop to compensate for the difference in front tire
sizes. Dunlop’s front tire is a 120/70-R17 and Pirelli’s front tire is a slightly
taller 125/70-R17.

But Beach said he felt little difference between the
Pirellis and Dunlops.

“It wasn’t as much as I thought. I thought it was going to
be completely different,” said Beach. “The [Pirelli] front feels different
because the shape of the tire is different and I think it has a little more
grip, but once the weekend gets going it’s going to be race mode. I’m not going
to have too much time to think about it. I’m just going to have to get on the
bike and go.

“I’m definitely glad that I got to ride on the tires before
this weekend just because they do feel different, but it’s not as big of a
difference as I thought it would be. At the end of the day they’re all black
and round, and the tires are the least for my worries right now.”