INTERVIEW
MOTOAMERICA SUPERBIKE CHAMPION CAMERON BEAUBIER
P84
JD Beach
SUPERSPORT CHAMPION
JD Beach made history when he became the
first champion of the new MotoAmerica Su-
persport Championship. The 2015 MotoAmer-
ica's Supersport Series harkens back to the
earlier days of AMA Supersport where many of
the top riders with factory support raced 600cc
sportbikes. When the DMG took over racing the
series became more of a class for young up-and-
coming riders, but now it's, once again, a series
for some of American road racing's top teams and
top riders.
The 2015 season was a breakthrough for
Beach. A former AMA Pro Supersport East and
Red Bull Rookies Cup champ, Beach was once
considered one of the leading contenders for be-
ing the next rider to break through to world cham-
pionship competition. Then his career stalled a
bit in the Daytona Sportbike class in the past two
seasons, where he showed flashes of brilliance,
but didn't perform
consistently to the level
many expected.
That all changed
in 2015. It was like a
light switch turned on
for Beach. He won
the series opener at
CotA in April, but then
watched as Josh Her-
rin and Garrett Gerloff
took victories at Road
Atlanta and VIR. Beach
said he thinks race one
at Virginia International
Raceway was the turn-
ing point in the
championship,
even though he
didn't win it.
"I led the
whole race until
two turns to go
when Herrin got
by me," Beach
recalls. "That
was the first
time I'd ever
been able to
lead a race like
that and put down fast laps. At that point I finally
realized I could."
The record bears out that indeed a corner had
been turned. Beach went on to dominate the
middle of the season, winning seven of the next
eight rounds, giving him a cushion in the stand-
ings and clearly making him the man to beat.
Beach then closed out the season conservatively
to insure the championship.
Beach will be back to defend his Supersport
title in 2016, again with Yamaha, and he hopes
to repeat and again be the rider most mentioned
when talking about possible future American
world champions.
