ROAD RACE
2017 MOTOAMERICA AMA/FIM NORTH AMERICAN ROAD RACING
ROUND 1 / APRIL 22-23, 2017
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS / AUSTIN, TEXAS
P84
SUPERSPORT
In Supersport, JD Beach re-
bounded after a tough off
season. The 2015 MotoAmerica
Supersport Champion suffered
a broken leg in an off-season
motocross accident, struggled
to get movement back, and was
bested by his teammate Garrett
Gerloff at every off-season test.
But that changed on a cloudy
day at COTA with Beach domi-
nating the race to win by 4.930
over M4 Ecstar Suzuki's Valentin
Debise, the Frenchman com-
ing out on top of a race-long
battle with defending Super-
stock Champion Garrett Gerloff.
Debise beat Gerloff to the line by
0.478 of a second.
"The off-season was difficult
this year coming off of a broken
leg and it feels good to break-
through with a win at the first
race," said Beach. "I spent a
lot of time the past few months
training with fast guys like Roger
[Hayden] and I feel like it really
helped me elevate my riding and
come into the season a better
rider."
Debise was second and knew
he didn't have the pace to match
Beach.
"The restart was a huge ben-
efit for me after I crashed in the
opening laps of the race," said
Debise. "I lost confidence due
to my crash and it kept me from
pushing as hard as I would have
liked. It was a good battle with
Garrett [Gerloff] and I was able
to make the pass back on him in
the final corner."
Gerloff thought the two would
have been better fighting less
with each other in order to try
and stay with Beach.
"My riding felt good today, but
I just lacked speed to run at the
front," said Gerloff. "The restart
allowed for me to get off of the
line a little bit better and regroup.
Valentin [Debise] was riding awe-
some, we passed each other
back and forth, but maybe next
time we should try to push for-
ward towards JD [Beach] instead
of holding each other up."
Fourth place in the Super-
