ROAD RACE
MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 6 / JUNE 12, 2016
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA/BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
P74
Supersport
It was a case of good times and
black lines for Y.E.S. Graves
Yamaha rider JD Beach as the
defending Supersport champion
slammed home his first double
win of the season over teammate
and championship leader, Gar-
rett Gerloff.
Current Superstock 600
Champion Joe Roberts stuck his
Meen Motorsports/Wheels In
Motion Yamaha on pole posi-
tion by 0.112 seconds, heading
Gerloff and M4 Suzuki's Valen-
tin Debise with Beach head-
ing row two, 0.534 seconds
down on Roberts in fourth. But
it would be Beach who would
take control of race one af-
ter an entertaining scrap with
Roberts, putting the Meen rider
behind him and pulling away to
take race one with Gerloff and
Debise both finding their way
past Roberts, who held on for a
nonetheless impressive fourth
place.
"Like I've said before, I like to
lead the races," Beach said. "If
I get out front and push, I feel
better and I don't really like to sit
behind. I just kept pushing on
Joe (Roberts) and finally got by
him and did my thing and clicked
off consistent laps and tried to
hit all my marks. When we came
up on the lappers I could see
the blue flags, but none of the
lappers were looking or moving
so I knew if I could get it right
it would be good for me and
bad for Garrett. I got it right. We
definitely should talk to some
of those guys and get it a little
bit better because I hate to see
races determined like that."
Race two was intense, with
Beach holding out Gerloff by just
0.485 seconds with Roberts
taking his third podium of the
season by beating Debise to the
line by the tiny margin of 0.014
seconds.
"It was so much fun racing with
Valentin (Debise) and then Cam-
eron (Petersen) and Joe (Rob-
erts) and Garrett (Gerloff)," said
Beach. "We were all racing hard
JD Beach (1) let it all
hang out to take his first
double win of the year in
the blazing heat of Barber.
Garrett Gerloff (31) still
holds a good lead in the
series, though.
