SBK Journal v19.06

v19.06 Featuring: Suzuka 8Hr BSB Round Up JD Beach Interview SBKink FAST FOOD and more.

SBK Journal | version 19.06

Welcome to Issue six of SBK Journal.

It has been a little bit longer to get this issue of SBK Journal together than we had planned or expected but finally it is here.

The WorldSBK series headed west to Laguna Seca before its summer break and shared the programme with the MotoAmerica Superbike championship. It was a great opportunity to catch up with JD Beach who is combining racing in MotoAmerica with a programme in the AMA Pro Flat Track championship.

In what has now become our Summer Issue we look back to a momentous and highly controverial Suzuka 8Hrs in Japan. As always it was a visual feast but the racing was pretty tasty as well, and of course there was that finish and result.

Whist the WorldSBK series takes its now customary summer ‘hibernation’ the British Superbike Championship continues apace with some classic races, including Cadwell Park and its fabled mountain. As the season heads towards the Showdown races, the summer rounds were key to setting up the final positions for the championship contenders. It was also a time to start the 2020 gossip.

One man has made most of the talking points on WorldSBK this season but Alvaro Bautista also has a healthy collection of tattoos worth talking about.

We have also been working on a new website as a platform for the digital editions whilst work continues on trying to bring you printed copies of the only magazine solely dedicated to the world of superbike racing.

Feel free to share, of course, via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

GeeBee was racking up the airmiles in July with a trip to Laguna Seca followed immediately with Suzuka 8Hrs. He didn’t quite walk 500 miles but we are sure the Proclaimers would have been proud of his efforts.

Between running back and forward shooting magazine road tests and endlessly fettling a Peugeot 205 race car, Jamie has been finding all the nooks and crannies of British race tracks to get a different view on BSB. We hear he is pretty handy at burger flipping now as well.

Alex Lowes was fighting to stay in his seat in more ways than one at Laguna Seca. Cresting the rise between turn six and the Corkscrew at the iconic Californian circuit always requires total commitment but Lowes’ efforts may have been futile in his quest to remain with the Pata Yamaha team as indications over the summer suggest he will be replaced by Toprak Razgatlioglu.

A Champion day out was had by all. It’s always great to see the legends of Superbike racing visit the races and Laguna was no exception. Whilst Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes enjoyed catching up with the former champions it looked like Carl Forgaty and John Kocinski had an old score to settle.

The Honda CBR1000RR SP2 is the current iteration of a bike that essentially hasn’t changed for more than 10 years, minor chassis upgrades and bodywork changes being more or less the extent of the development. Winning therefore tastes all the more sweet when it comes.

Andrew Irwin took his first BSB win on the Honda at Thruxton and SBK Journal managed to speak to team boss Javier Beltran about just how ‘factory’ the race machine is.

Clash of Cultures: The Suzuka 8Hrs race is a really unique event where traditional Japanese culture sits cheek by jowl with racing culture of the scantily clad promo girl.

The beauty of shooting an endurance race like the Suzuka 8Hrs is how the light changes as the race goes on. As the sun goes down the track surface starts to sparkle and the riders are silhouetted against the rich golden reflections, casting deep shadows. It helps the drama when a rider like Dominique Aegerter has such a distinctive riding style.

The Eyes Have It. Four time World Champion and Superbike legend Carl Fogarty was in Laguna Seca to help launch a limited edition version of the Ducati Panigale V4R that bears his name and is presented in a colour scheme that pays hommage to his championship winning Ducati 916.

Suzuka hours

8

Words and Pictures: Graeme Brown

The 42nd Coca Cola Suzuka 8 Hours will go down in history as something of a classic on one hand but on the other one of the most controversial. For seven hours and 55 minutes there had been a fierce battle for the overall victory between the factory Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda squads. The lead had chopped and changed for the entire race but as we approached the final minutes Jonathan Rea had taken over the lead for Kawasaki until……

Further down the order another battle was raging. The Suzuka 8Hrs retains it’s traditional July slot in the racing calendar but is now the final round of the FIM Endurance World Championship.

The SRC Kawasaki France team would not normally race in Japan but this year they had the chance to win the 2019 EWC championship. With minutes remaining after a long season and an eight hour race their title rivals SERT Suzuki were in front and were in a title winning position unitl……

Championship victory was in the grasp of the SERT team but as Ettiene Masson came down the start-finish straight in the dying stages, the engine on his Suzuki let go in spectacular fashion. There was obviously an Endurance racer’s instinct that kicked in as he kept riding, probably trying to get back to pit lane, but in doing so he dumped an engine full of oil on the track from turn one all the way up through the S-Bends.

To make matters worse a few laps before the rain flags had been shown and whilst it came to nothing there was a distinct sheen on the track reflecting the headlights.

A lap or so later Jonathan Rea came round with a 20 second lead over the No.21 Yamaha, both having reeled in and passed the No.33 Honda that was leading at the start of the final hour. He found the oil that Masson had spread over the track and went down. To all intents and purposes that was his race over. However, race direction immediately called for the red flags and the whole race was over.

Photographing the Suzuka 8Hr race is on bucket list of many motorcycle racing snappers. I first visited in 2000 when Valentino Rossi partnered Colin Edwards on the Castrol Honda. That was probably the last time that a top Grand Prix rider took part in the event. Since then it’s popularity amongst some race fans has wained a little. It has always remained a hugely important race to the Japanese factories. This can easily been seen in the factory Yamaha effort.

Alex Lowes, Michael Van Der Mark and Katsuyuki Nakasuga went into the event as the favourites having won the event the previous year, the fourth in a row for Yamaha. Both Lowes and VD Mark had commented in previous years that there were a number of technical difference between their WorldSBK R1 and the one they race in Suzuka.

This year we had an extra day of testing on the Wednesday before the race itself so I arrived in Nagoya a day earlier than previously. Having travelled back home from the WorldSBK race in Laguna Seca in the previous week, my head was a little fuzzy as I got to work at the track. In the space of a week I had crossed 16 time zones and travelled 18,000km. I am not getting any younger and I knew that the jet lag was going to be with me all week.

Suzuka circuit is an old style track that doesn’t have a service road all the way around. The figure of eight layout doesn’t lend itself one anyway, but what it means is that access is fairly limited and most of the time is accessed on foot.

The weather this year was expectedly warm, 35˚C each day with oppressively high humidity. Physically therefore it is a tough week. Sunday was a busy day with a number of corporate photoshoots to be done in the morning after warm up, but then a picture selection and a social media post for every hour of the race.

I therefore shot about 40-45 minutes of every hour and rushed back to the press office to process and post some images.

Modern technology is a wonderful thing and the fitness App I have on my phone was able to inform me that from Tuesday to Sunday I had walked 109.6km – with 28.6km alone on Sunday.

Rea never made it back to pit lane and Yamaha were declared winners for a fifth consecutive year. Whilst the team of Lowes, Van Der Mark and Nakasuga were enjoying the podium celebrations there was a scene of heartbreak in the Kawasaki rider cabin. Behind the scenes the Kawasaki management were pouring over the rule book and found a loophole that enabled them to protest the result.

After an hour or so of deliberation the win was eventually given to Kawasaki and a makeshift celebration took place, with the winners trophy, in front of an empty grandstand that had been plunged into darkness.

It was a double celebration for Kawasaki.

The SERT team failed to finish and maximum point went to the SRC Kawasaki France squad and they were crowned 2019 EWC Champions.

The 2019 race will be remembered for the controversial finish but up until the last five minutes it had been a wonderful race between the top three teams. They were never separated by more than number of seconds and the lead swapped and changed throughout the day. Honda chose a different pit stop strategy from Kawasaki and Yamaha and held the lead with less than an hour to go. In a race that is so important to Honda it could have been a welcomed victory and halt the domination of Yamaha in recent years.

Yamaha themselves had had to be careful with their rider strategy. Michael VD Mark was still feeling the effects of an injury sustained in a crash whilst racing in WorldSBK, so Nakasuga was pressed into action more than expected. Kawasaki on the other hand chose to run a two rider strategy and never called on third rider Toprak Razgatlioglu for the entirety of the race. That decision in itself caused controversy with Razgatlioglu’s mentor and manager, and ironically former Kawasaki Superport World Champion, Kenan Sofuolgu taking to social media to lambast his former employer as being disrespectful for not using his young charge. It would seem that those circumstances have put the nail in the coffin of the young Turk’s Kawasaki career as he is expected to announce his move to the Yamaha WorldSBK squad for 2020.

Some have commented that the way the final result was reached cast a shadow over the event but in the end it had it all; tension, excitement and huge anticipation in the build up; a typhoon affected Top Ten Rider Shoot out; close racing that ebbed and flowed between three teams over the whole race; and drama and controversy in the final result. All the elements we want from our sporting events.

The Factory Honda in BSB...

Andrew Irwin scored his first British Superbike win at Thruxton aboard the venerable Honda Fireblade, one of the oldest bike designs on the grid. But, it’s a factory Honda, right?

Words: Kenny Pryde Pictures: Jamie Morris

Racing a Factory Honda! Riding for a team that is, truly, factory. Well, yes and no.

Andrew Irwin and Xavi Fores bikes do indeed come out of a Japanese Honda factory, in a crate, like yours, then is transported to Louth in Lincolnshire.

It is at this point that the BSB bikes become truly ‘factory’ in that the team led by manager Javier Beltran owns the building, the workshop, the bikes and employs the staff. So, yes, it’s a factory team in the BSB championship, assuming that factory is Honda UK – not Honda Motor Europe or Honda Racing Corporation (HRC).

Beltran, a man who has worked for Honda for 30 years, is at pains and proud to point out that the Honda Fireblade being raced in the British Superbike championship by Irwin and Fores, is a British enterprise, funded

by Honda UK, not Japan or Honda Europe.

“People are always asking me about the relationship with HRC and World superbikes,” explains Beltran with the patience of a man who has been asked this same question at every round of every championship for the past 15 years. He sighs, with some justification, and explains the position clearly, even if what he’s really thinking is ‘Fuck sake, not this again.’

So, to be clear, the engine specification, the engine build, the chassis, the suspension, the bodywork, everything that can be changed and tweaked is designed and modified by Beltran’s team in Louth. The staff and the riders are chosen by Beltran and, although former BSB crew chief Chris Pike might now be working closely with HRC Racing in Europe as Leon Camier’s crew chief, there’s no special relationship.

“I’m still friends with Chris, obviously and we talk often, but there are no back channels of communication or anything like that, that’s really not how it works at Honda. Besides, the WSBK project is very different to the one we are racing here, their goals and aims are totally different, there’s much more focus on the Suzuka 8-Hour for them.”

Beltran changed riders in the winter, biding farewell to Jason O’Halloran who had been with Honda for eight seasons, bringing in Spanish WSBK refugee Javi Fores who found himself without a ride.

“I called him up,” says Beltran, “when I heard that he didn’t have a ride for 2019. I’d seen him race, I’d seen his results, he’s raced in the German and Italian superbike championships as well as WSB, so I knew he could ride a bike,” smiles Beltran. The Spaniard – now 33 - is an experienced rider who Beltran brought in to help mentor his younger talent, superbike rookie Andrew Irwin and 1000cc superstock rider Tom Neave. “The way Javi explains to his crew chief what’s happening on track is an education for the younger guys, to hear the way he describes how the bike is behaving underneath him is really useful.”

That Beltran and his team have taken two new riders on an old bike to the cusp of the showdown is testimony to what can be done on a modest budget with a well-run squad. That and the fact that that pensionable Fireblade still has something to offer. If only it had 15 more horsepower...

KP

It’s rare a brand new, straight-outthe-crate superbike will dominate a championship, but the Ducati Panigale V4 R is rather special.

Since our last edition BSB has enjoyed its summer frenzy, with a packed calendar that makes the World Superbike championship look like a part-time regional club series. And in the eight rounds we’ve seen (at time of writing), it is clear that the boffins with computers, the chiefs with clipboards, the boys with the spanners and the guys actually in leathers, have worked out how to get more out of the new Ducati Panigale V4 R. Racing a brand new bike was never going to be straightforward, but when you have money to pay for talented staff and when you’ve been running winning Ducati race teams as long as Paul Bird Motorsport, you can be confident they’re going to work it out sooner or later. And, this season, it was ‘sooner.’ With Scott Redding and Josh Brookes and the bike now dialled-in, it’s hard to see past them for the title.

A measure of how good that new bike is can be assessed by checking the results of Tommy Bridewell, a gutsy rider who, after 10 years campaigning in the British superbike championship hadn’t been at the sharp end too frequently. With a well-prepped Oxford Ducati V4 R under him, 31-year-old Bridewell is enjoying his best ever season. In nine previous seasons, Bridewell managed 16 podiums. Thus far – with 10 races remaining – Bridewell has already scored nine podiums on that Oxford Ducati V4 R. It’s not quite ‘as many podiums in one season as in the previous nine put together – but you get the idea.

Who could have predicted it eh? A purposebuilt race bike homologated for the road that was based on the 2015 Ducati MotoGP bike turns out to be a bit of a weapon!

KP.

REDPOWER

The chips are down, the die is cast and every other cliché you can imagine applies.

The showdown selection is about to be made, the climax of the 2019 British Superbike championship is almost upon us.

And no sooner are the calculations being made, the arithmetical permutations about who needs to score how many points, finish in what spot, than attention turns to 2020.

It seems ridiculous that such issues ‘cloud’ the season finale, yet deals discussed in August for 2020 can have an impact on motivation and results in the final races of 2019.

Thus, the rider who looked like a cert to make the shoot-out and secure himself a good deal for 2020 now finds himself needing points – badly needing points – to make the final selection, secure a bonus for 2019 and, more importantly, set himself up for the next phase of his career. It’s a fickle sport.

In the world of motorsport August is often called the ‘Silly Season’ when rumours and real deals are mixed in cocktail that is one-third bullshit, one third wishfulfilment and a final third hard news, all stirred by social media swizzle stick. We are therefore obliged to play our part.

20:20 ALARM: On

30:08:19

Is It That Time Already?

How about the fact that Lez Pearson won’t have his crew chief contract renewed at Rizla Pata Yamaha in WorldSB and will no doubt be eyeing a job back in BSB in 2020?

Or that it could be all change at Kawasaki with the venerable Jack Valentine and the JG Speedfit squad seeking new pastures?

Snakes and Ladders Having won the Red Bull Rookies Championship in 2008, and sharing life with MotoGP Champion Casey Stoner, JD Beach thought he had it made. The dream ride in MotoGP never materialised however and Beach returned to the US to begin climbing the ladder again. Now a double MotoAmerica Supersport Champion, breaking records along the way, he still finds himself falling down the snakes.

Words: Graeme Brown Pictures: Graeme Brown, Corey J Coulter, Estenson Racing

I first met JD Beach in 2008 at the Catalunya GP when he was starting to make a name for himself in the burgeoning Red Bull Rookies championship. A shy and unassuming teenager, he had been thrust into the world of Grand Prix racing and found himself under the wing of Australian Casey Stoner, who had secured Ducati’s first ever MotoGP world championship the previous year.

Beach would go on to win the Rookies Cup that year but instead of being thrust into the limelight as a future World Champion he was forced to return to the US and into relative obscurity.

“I don’t understand what happened back then because the years since then the Rookies champion has always been given something and like I didn’t get a chance to have anything. I came back to America, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I don’t know about now but the first and second year of the Rookies Cup whoever won got a motocross bike and when they sent me mine I didn’t even get it as I had to sell it to get the money to go racing. I wanted to road race but I had no money so Norm (Norm Viano – JD’s manager at the time) lined up some stuff for me to get a 600 and I had to spend all my own money to go racing.

That really hurt me and beat me down but I also don’t think I would be where I am now if that hadn’t happened.”

Wind the clock forward and it could be argued that JD is still being dealt a raw deal. After a few years racing Supersport, he had a brief spell in Superbike in 2010 that lead to no solid opportunities in the final years of the AMA. It wasn’t until the MotoAmerica championship where he finally made a breakthrough, winning the Supersport series in 2015. Despite his championship form, there were no seats available in Superbike.

“2015 was a weird year. On the Yamaha team they had Cameron (Beaubier) and Josh (Hayes) (in Superbike) and they had me and Garrett (Gerloff) on the 600 and I knew I wasn’t going to be moving up, our Yamaha team was full and the Yoshimura Suzuki team was full so I was more focused on retaining the title.”

It would be another couple of years before achieving that second Supersport title in 2018. Surely now the big break would come.

“Last year winning the title; I had a good points lead, I knew Roger (Hayden) was going to retire before he announced it but I waited till after the announcement and I had been speaking to Yosh (Yoshimura Suzuki) and things seemed so positive and I mean I thought I had a good chance at getting the ride and it seemed like that was what was going to happen. I knew at the time that other than that there was no other Superbike ride. I also didn’t have my current ride to fall back on as I knew that team was pulling out. So I get to the last round at Barber and that was when there were rumours that my team Graves were going to be done, the phone went cold from Yosh and I didn’t get anything back from them and I find out at Barber that they are either going to go with Josh Herrin or Valentin Debise. That was gut wrenching. I also had an opportunity to go and ride a Moto2 bike but they went with someone else, probably because of money as I couldn’t bring anything. I put in years of work and I had my hand on a Superbike ride, or I felt like it. I had won the title by 100 points or whatever it was and I had won the most races in a year, it was a great year. Then I get to the last round, and it was really hard as the last round is my home race and I get this news about the team, I get this news about Yosh, I get second in both races at Barber to Hayden, which pissed me off even more ‘cos we live together and we had family and friends there so I wanted to get at least one win and he took them both so that pissed me off. So at the time I am like ‘I don’t know what the hell I am going to do’.

“I thought I was done road racing. There was nothing. So I text Tim (Estenson) as I had met him and we were friends. He had told me before that if I ever wanted to come to a dirt track race he had a bike for me so I texted him and the next two weekends were the last two rounds of the dirt track season. I actually had some decent offers to go dirt track and there was nothing in World Superbike – there was nothing for me, so I figured it was either this or I was going to mow yards. Tim sorted out the bikes and I went and did the last two flat track races and I had a lot of fun. It was the first time I had done those races in five or six years and I think Tim and I worked well together and he appreciated the work that I did in those two races. I had nothing to prove and I went out and did well and that’s when he offered me the dirt track ride for 2019. I thought ‘ok I will go and ride dirt track’ So I was signed up to ride dirt track and Dick Lesguise offered me a ride on a 600 in MotoAmerica which wasn’t what I wanted to do. I felt like I had proved myself, and to be on a Superbike, but I wanted to keep road racing and I think Tim knew that so we started working on that deal. That deal was if I was going to ride for them they wanted me to do all the races so then I’d miss some dirt track races and Tim didn’t really like that and I understand cos he has spent a lot of money.”

“So then out of the blue, and I had no idea Tim was even working on this, on Thanksgiving Day he calls me and he said “Hey. Do you want to race a Superbike?” …… No shit do I wanna race a Superbike!

And he had everything lined up. Normally with stuff you start hearing rumours but within a week Tim called Yamaha and called Attack and got everything lined up and I just had to tell him yes and so that’s all how it came about. Tim is an amazing person who loves racing but he loves helping people too so that’s how it all came about racing flat track and road racing in 2019.”

So 2019 would see Beach return to his first love of flat track racing but also with the opportunity to race the MotoAmerica Superbike series on a fully supported Yamaha R1, all with Estenson Racing’s support.

Most riders would baulk at the thought of doing two separate championships in one year but motorcycle racing runs thick in JD’s blood. He is a product of the dirt and grit that embodies American Flat Trackers. Growing up the son of flat track racer, he got his first taste of flat track at the tender age of three. Sharing his father’s passion, JD vowed to be a professional flat track racer.

“My Dad raced when he was younger – in his teens until he was 25 or so and then he stopped racing but he started racing again when he was 30 or 40 and at that time I was born and I think as soon as he found out he was having a boy he bought a bike.

He had me on a bike as soon as possible and I think I actually rode a motorbike before I rode a bicycle. I know that my first race was when I was aged 3. I know about that because my Dad lied about my age so that I could race.”

“My Dad raced Flat Track so that’s what I started out on and I do remember that I was about about seven or so and we had a film about the 1990 pro dirt track series and I would watch it more or less everyday. So at that age I told my Dad that that was what I wanted to do when I grow up, I want to be a pro Flat Track racer. So that was really my goal and at that age I didn’t know anything about road racing, Flat Track was my whole life.”

“I was riding in Flat Track and I was doing a school called American Super Camp and it was a Flat Track school but they would have guest instructors come. Eric and Ben Bostrom were coming and I got to know them as they came to a few camps so I started watching them and got to know about road racing. That was also when I got to meet Roger Hayden for the first time. Through Eric and Ben that’s when I met Norm Viano, (Ben and Eric’s manager) so I guess Eric and Ben thought I was decent and they thought I should start road racing and that was right when the Red Bull Rookies Cup was starting up. So right before the Rookies Cup try out I went to Utah and did the first track day that was held at the track there. (Miller Motorsports Park as it was known then) My Dad had bought me a 125 to ride and that was the first time I had ever got on a street bike but it ceased up on the first lap so I was done with that. My Dad then went into the town, to a local bike shop, bought a 600 and I rode that for 3 or 4 days. We then found someone else with a 125 and I rode that the day before I left to go to Europe to try out for the Rookies Cup.”

“Back then my Heroes were more Flat Track racers that had retired because I grew up watching that movie of the 1990 season and I started watching it in around 1997/98 so most of those guys had retired. Then as the years went on I met Eric and Ben so that was really cool and as I was starting to get into the road racing – or even when I started traveling back east for dirt track that was when I met the Gillam’s and Nicky Hayden, about ’02 or so, so that was when when Nicky was racing both series and that was when I was following road racing more because of Eric and Ben so I thought that was kinda cool. I actually then spent some time in Kentucky from ’03 till ’06 so I knew Nicky and as I got older Nicky was certainly someone I looked up to as he was racing dirt track and road racing and I was making the step to do both and then as I was making the step into doing road racing Nicky won the MotoGP World Championship. I knew Earl, Nicky, Roger and Tommy, I had rode dirt track with them for 2002 till 2006 and I was at Valencia when he won the title so that was really cool.”

“When I started doing road racing I certainly fell in love with it. I definitely got a little lucky cos my first ever road race was at Jerez at a GP race. Even though I was young then I had been racing dirt track for something like 12 years so it was cool to do something different and I think knowing Nicky and later on meeting Casey Stoner.

I think that’s kinda when it changed from wanting to be a dirt tracker to be a road racer.”

Those first steps into road racing were pretty daunting and allied to his success in the Rookies Cup JD admits that he was maybe given too much too early and he had unrealistic expectations at such a young age.

Whilst most sixteen year old kids were still at school sitting exams and making career choices, a young JD Beach was traveling the world with a World Champion living out his dreams.

“I don’t exactly remember how it came about as I was so young and it was a long time ago. Everything moved so fast – we met Casey – then we were in his motorhome – then me and Cameron (Beaubier) were spending the night there – then that winter we went to Australia for three weeks and stayed with him and in 2008, the year I won the Rookies Cup, I basically lived with him, in his motorhome in Europe and in Switzerland and in Monaco and I travelled everywhere with him. It was incredible. I was 15/16 and I think it honestly hurt me a little bit as I think I was given too much too quick. I was like “I’ve made it” when I actually I had made nothing.

I was basically living off Casey.

Because I had so many things given to me at that point I actually think I needed reality a little bit….maybe not as much as I got.

Every day when I wake up and look at results, or when I go to a GP, I went to Spain last year, it honestly pisses me off that I never got my shot. But it has happened here too.

I won the 600 championship twice, I had the most wins on a 600 but no one would give me a shot on a Superbike until this team (Estenson Racing) and I feel like I went out and proved that I could do it. So yeah, I am a little bit bitter.

I feel like if I had that shot, a fair shot on a good team I could go out and show what Americans can do and what I could do.”

“I won the 600 championship twice, I had the most wins on a 600 but no one would give me a shot on a Superbike until this team (Estenson Racing) and I feel like I went out and proved that I could do it. So yeah, I am a little bit bitter.

I feel like if I had that shot, a fair shot on a good team I could go out and show what Americans can do and what I could do.”

With a foot on two camps and the obvious strains of traveling and racing almost every weekend, and in two distinctly different series, JD has defied the doubters and pulled of the rare feat of winning a pro Flat Track race at Phoenix and a few weeks later at Virginia International Raceway standing on the top step of the podium in the MotoAmerica Superbike class. The last person to achieve that in the same season was Nicky Hayden back in 2002.

When we start to talk about those 2019 races the previously discussed bitterness evaporates and the sparkle returns to his eyes, his passion for racing re-ignited by the faith and support shown by Tim Estenson. However, he does acknowledge that it is not exactly a stroll in the park.

“I was pretty bummed out as I had put in so much work, won the championship and at the end of the year (wipes his hands) and it’s like ‘good job. See you later’ So it was nice to go to a race and have fun, but to be able to go, have fun and be competitive in a series that I hadn’t raced in in 5 years was nice too.”

“Honestly the worst part has been the travel. Other than that it hasn’t been horrible. I have had my days where I kinda mentally break down because I have so much going on but it’s really hasn’t been as bad as I thought it was going to be but it’s definitely been tough.

But it’s been fun to experience it and I think it’s the best time for me just because it’s my first year in a long time on a Superbike and the last time I rode one I definitely wasn’t ready for it so I think it’s been a little bit easier because they don’t expect me to win Superbike races and they don’t expect me to win dirt track races so that pressure from the team side is away. Of course that pressure is on from my side.” (A mischievous smile appears on his face.) “Even if I go do a local flat track race I have to win.

There is no choice for me. If I don’t win I am pissed off.”

In recent years a lot of European riders have hooked into flat track and MX riding. Current WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea once described himself on social media as ‘a failed MX rider who was quite good at road racing’. Rea spends his winter riding MX in preparation for the season ahead.

He sees it as the best way to stay physically fit but also mentally and crucially, race sharp. There are others that will ride dirt track for winter training, Chaz Davies, Jordi Torres etc and many commentators reckon that the feeling they get from riding on a loose surface helps them with their road racing. Beach on the other hand feels that too much Flat Track riding can be detrimental to his lap times on the Yamaha R1 and on the contrary he sees some benefit in using his road racing style on the dirt.

“For me, I don’t think riding dirt helps me. That’s where I grew up so I am all ready on a road race bike if it steps out, spins up or the front pushes I am already used to it and I think if I spend too much time dirt track it hurts my road racing because then I am trying to slide the bike too much so it gives me feelings that I don’t need for road racing but I think the road racing helps my dirt track more. Especially on bigger tracks it’s been not wanting to back the bike in, carry the roll speed, getting back to neutral throttle, kinda getting off the brakes and trying to let bike roll through the turns.”

It is also difficult for Beach to assess his progress in MotoAmerica as at the turn of the year he had no prospect of racing, but now finds himself battling each week with the factory Monster Yamaha and Yoshimura Suzuki boys.

Racing in WorldSBK was an ideal opportunity for Beach to put himself in the shop window. As the season approaches the second half, and despite all his success he finds himself in a familiar situation as he contemplates the future.

“I think for me the goal that I set for myself in MA… I’m doing better than I thought I would but not doing as good as I hoped I would. I am definitely happy with how it has been going and I am proud of myself for what I have done cos all the guys I am racing against have tons of time on these bikes but as a racer I want to be doing better. I think if it wasn’t for the bike breaking and me doing a stupid mistake at the last round I think the year would be pretty good. We are sitting fifth on points I would love to be top 3 by the end of the year and I think that’s a goal we can achieve but I think if we are top five at the end it would be a good season.”

“Right now I have no idea. It is pretty rough. It got to a point last year I was thinking it much just be time to find a real job. It gets stressful living month to month, year to year, not knowing if I am going to get paid, not knowing what’s going on. One of my best friends had to quit racing cos he got hurt and I actually went to Spain with him last year cos he was helping me trying to find something in Europe. He had raced in Europe and so I was talking to him and his wife and his retirement from racing was forced on him and it’s something he said to me unless you have to, don’t stop. So at one time I was thinking it’s time to stop and get a real job cos not only does it put a lot of stress on me but my family around me.

One, when I am not doing great at racing racing it’s not great to be around me and then especially at the end of the year, cos it’s every year I don’t know what I am going to do the next year so there’s a month or two where I am stressed out, I am not making any money, I don’t know what I am going to do, I don’t know how I am going to pay my bills and then it all comes up.

The race weekend at Laguna Seca saw Beach racing in both the MotoAmerica races as well as being the sole wildcard on the WorldSBK grid. Before the racing got underway he was trying to play down his prospects at a track that he hadn’t always got on with.

“The first time I came to Laguna Seca was in 2011 on a Superbike, actually with this team, and I hated the place, could not stand it so after that, every year, on the 600, I dreaded coming here. Then I came one year and I don’t know why, it clicked, I figured the track out and had so much fun and since then I look forward to and I enjoy it. It’s a track I enjoy a lot and in the years past when I’ve won here I’ll start out Friday and be one of the roughest days all year but as soon as it clicks it’s so much fun.”

Then there was the matter of riding with Dunlop tyres in MotoAmerica spec but having to race with Pirelli’s in WorldSBK. Again Beach just laughs and shrugs it off when asked about the Pirelli tyres.

“Yeah it’s fine – they’re black and round.

When I was a kid when my Dad and I would go to a race weekend – dirt track – and of course we were going to win but he would change stuff on the bike without telling me and I would have to go and figure how to ride it and tell him what he had changed, what was different. At Outlaw races now, depending on the type of track I will take three different kinds of tyres so if the track is changing I just change brands or compounds so for me I am used to having to change stuff. I am not saying it is easier it’s just something I’m more used to.”

For me racing is crazy. I went from not having a ride to having more than I could handle so with the WorldSBK thing – I would love to do it and if the right team called me it would be hard to say no.

Racing is my life – I have never drunk alcohol, I don’t party, I don’t stay up late and I wake up thinking about racing so if I got the chanceI would put my whole heart into it. It would be something I would love to do. I think I am taking a bit of a chance this weekend. I don’t know how well our bike will stack up against the WorldSBK guys but if I do good it might show a team that I can do it.”

In the end results didn’t go Beach’s way.

He retried from WorldSBK race one on Saturday with a technical issue. His goal was to score top ten finishes in the WorldSBK races and he was running in ninth when the gremlins struck. Luck was not on his side on Sunday when he got caught up in a crash in the ten-lap Superpole race and being a little beat-up he took to the grid for WorldSBK race 2 but ultimately finished down in 16th. In the MotoAmerica races he scored two fourth places and came away as the top non-factory rider in the Superbike class.

Despite his optimism of running on the Pirelli tyres it must have been difficult to work on a set up for what is a fairly technical track jumping from one tyre brand to another, sometimes within minutes.

The schedule for the weekend put the MotoAmerica Superbike sessions and races immediately straight after or immediately before the WorldSBK events. Race fans lament the fact that there are no longer a pack of Wildcard riders taking part in WorldSBK races but it is hardly surprising when the teams and riders have to run in two sessions back to back.

The Attack Performance Estenson Racing team had to run two bikes on the weekend to make it easier to run JD in both series’ events and that must have had a detrimental effect on his performance overall. It was a gamble for the weekend but certainly one worth taking. Hopefully the pace he ran in the WorldSBK class as a non-factory wildcard brought him to the attention of the paddock. There are currently three Yamaha seats up for grabs in WorldSBK and it would be a great addition to the series to have a strong US rider on the grid.

Racing is a cruel game however and the past is littered with immensely talented riders who never achieved their potential, either by not making the most of an opportunity, or like JD, not getting a fair crack at the whip. One thing is for sure, speaking to him only confirmed that motorbike racing is in his blood and I wouldn’t doubt he will be lining up on a grid somewhere next year, either on dirt or asphalt, or again both.

Fast Food

SBK Journal meets the chefs behind the WorldSBK hospitality units.

In this issue we delved into the mobile kitchen of Kawasaki Racing Team at Laguna Seca and met their chef Nacho.

Words and Pictures: Graeme Brown

Fast Food

Name: Jose Ignacio-Gutierrez(Nacho) Role: Chef Age: 39 Hometown: Castellón

One curiosity not everybody knows is that the name “Paella” actually doesn’t refer to the food itself, but to the pan it is cooked in!

Kawasaki Racing Team have contracted Sa Paella to provide the catering within the hospitality unit this year and they are contracted to provide the chefs. However, at nearly all the races this year it has been Nacho that has been preparing the meals for the team and their guests.

Recipe: Serves 4

“I have been a chef for 16 years. I mainly work in a restaurant but the company also does events and this is the first year that we have worked with Kawasaki Racing Team.

I like working in the WorldSBK paddock. It is a good experience for me as I am meeting lots of new and interesting people.”

“When I was growing up my passion was really for cars and Formula 1, I am a big fan of Fernando Alonso but I also like motorbikes and to be honest MotoGP.” “Working in the paddock is really different from working in the restaurant because in the restaurant it is cooking all the time, I don’t have time for lunch or dinner. Here it is different because we have a set timetable to have food ready for 1pm and 7:30pm, so I have a little more time but here we prepare the same food for everyone. In a restaurant there is more freedom with the menu and for a chef I prefer this.”

“In between the races I can be working either in the restaurant or on other events. After the race in Jerez I spent some days in the restaurant but before we came to Laguna Seca I was in Ibiza at an event, cooking paella.”

“My favourite dish to cook is obviously paella but the authentic dish is Paella Valenciana. When preparing this you must use rice which is typical to the Valencia region, a variety known as Bomba or you can use Calasparra which is typical in the Murcia region to the south is best.

To be authentic paella you have to use this rice.”

INGREDIENTS 500g Rabbit 500g Chicken 60 cl Extra virgin olive oil 1 ripe tomato 200g of green beans 200g of garrofón (lima bean) 500g Bomba rice 1.5 litres water Sprig of fresh rosemary Saffron Salt 10 pre-boiled snails (optional) Preparation: Heat up the paella, add the oil and when it gets quite warm, add the meat (chicken and rabbit, cut into small pieces).

Sauté it over low heat until the meat is sealed and golden.

The next step is to add the tomatoes (peeled and ground) and vegetables (lima and green beans), maintaining the same heat.

Once everything is well fried add water, a sprig of rosemary and heat everything up.

Just when it begins to boil, add the rice, the snails, salt and saffron and remove the rosemary. At this moment the fire needs to be at its maximum.

When the rice is cooking for about 10 minutes, decrease the heat gradually for at least another ten minutes.

Once the paella is done and all the liquid has evaporated, let it stand for a few more minutes covered with alu-foil, and then it’s ready.

“I don’t have a favourite tattoo.

I like all of them. One thing that is curious is that when I see myself in the mirror I don’t see the tattoos. I see my body, and I have more than 20 tattoos, but I don’t see them. I forget they are there.”

SBKink

Pictures: Graeme Brown

My race number , 19, is on my knuckles and also I have the roman numerals on my arm. I did this when I won the world championship. (125cc Grand Prix World Championship in 2006).

This one on my arm explains itself.

On my leg is my favourite cartoon character when I was small, from Dragon Ball. (Dragon Ball is a Japanese martial arts manga series that was also adapted into an animated television series)

This is the Cruz de Caravaca.

This is for protection.

(The cross appears on the crest of the town it is named after, Caravaca de la Cruz, in the province of Murcia in Spain. The Cruz de Caravaca comes from a legend when the Moorish Muslim King of Murcia was converted to Christianity by the Missionary Don GĂ­nes PĂŠrez Chirinos de Cuenca.

Legend states that the cross was delivered by angels to perform the ceremony, as there being no cross in the Muslim temple. Since then it has been used as a symbol for the city and is said to offer protection and strength to all its people).

The writing on my back is also a message for protection but is in Buddhism. I had this one done in Thailand. I gave the tattoo artist my idea and he came up with the words and the design.

This one is Daruma (normally a doll depicting the founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma.) In Japan it is a symbol for good luck. It comes with no eyes.

When you make a wish you colour in the left eye then, when the wish is coming true, you paint in the other eye. (We didn’t ask Alvaro what he had wished for but it obviously hasn’t come true so far).

GRID PASS

GRID PASS

GRID PASS

From Pit Lane To Memory Lane The Superbike World Championship last visited Monza in 2013. It was always a venue that courted controversy and one that I had a real love hate relationship with. I first visited the track in August 1999 at the start of my full time photography career and was shooting a Formula 1 test, ahead of the Italian Grand Prix a few weeks later. The following year I was back shooting the Superbike World Championship.

Words and Pictures: Graeme Brown

Monza. Such an iconic and fabled race track. I bristled with anticipation at the prospect and was a bit awestruck when I got there and stood trackside at Ascari and Parabolica, and walked as far as I could around the old banked circuit. It was as if I had stepped in to my TV. It was only a few short months before I was back again, shooting my first full season of the Superbike World Championship and already starting to feel the nibbles of frustration that would become the norm.

The Autodromo di Monza is located slap bang in the middle of a public park on the north side of the city of Monza, on the outskirts of Milan. Getting in and out of the track was always difficult with traffic queues, diversions that changed from Friday to Saturday to Sunday, and the overall size of the crowd that would attend. However, over the years it would become more and more sanitized to meet the safety demands of the FIA for Formula 1. Ever higher catch fencing around the track and fencing erected to prevent access around the track; more and more security to keep the scavaging Italian fans from the getting trackside, which in turn prevented the photographers from getting access as well. Every day on a race weekend we would be met with another locked gate or a marshall preventing you form standing in the same place you stood the day before, for no other reason than because they could.

A race weekend was never a simple affair and when you are there to work, and have clients with demands that need to be met, you would be forgiven if you said ‘stuff it’ and walked away. The thing with Monza however was that if you worked at it you could get some lovely pictures.

With it being in the middle of a woodland park, when the sun shone the track would be either bathed in light or cast into deep shadow. It was possible to get some really nice images that showed the setting at it’s best and wasn’t just a shot of a bike going round a corner.

It also provided the opportunity to stand on the platform that overlooked Parabolica and get a shot looking completely straight down on the bike as the sped underneath you at 200km/h. It was hard work but very rewarding.

Like childhood school holidays we tend to remember all the good days and blank out the days when it rained and we had to stay inside. When I look through the photography archive I am filled with a real mix of memories of sunny days where I just fell in love with photographing motorcycle racing, against being soaked in a thunderstorm, being denied access to the track and having to walk back to the paddock amongst an ‘enthusiastic’ throng of fans.

2012 sticks out in my memory as particularly difficult for a few reasons but mostly because it was the race where the Pirelli tyres weren’t up to the demand of a wet but drying track with a 300km/h straight and long fast right hand turns. Tom Sykes won a shortened race with his main title rival Max Biaggi back in 2012.

It was decided to award half points at the end of the race and come the end of the season Sykes famously lost the title by half a point.

It wasn’t the first time the tyres caused an issue at Monza and ironically being Pirelli’s back yard, with their HQ a few kilometers away in Milan. As early as 2005, only a couple of years into their tenure as sole tyre supplier for SBK, they introduced a qualifying ‘Q’ tyre which was good for three laps. You might think that that means after three laps the grip levels would drop off but at Monza it actually meant that the tyre fell apart.

I remember the Yamaha mechanics all to keen to show journalists and photographers a rear tyre from the R1 of Andrew Pitt that had delaminated after five laps. There was a similar scenario in 2007 when James Toseland crossed the line to win a race, clinging on to the lead, whilst chunks of rubber flew of his rear tyre.

The problem with Monza was the unique ‘oval’ nature of the track. It was predominatly laid out with long right hand corners – Curva Grande; the two Lesmos; Parabolica, where the right hand side of the tyre was under considerable and persistant stress. Such a situation was never a problem in previous years when one-off, dual compound tyres were allowed but when SBK introduced a single tyre regulation it meant that those tyres had to cope with all types of track. The constant right hand corners, combined with a long fast straight, meant that the tyres never got a break and excessive wear and delamination was a perennial problem.

In 2012 the actual weather played a key role in developing the perfect storm.

Spring time could often mean sunshine and showers in the shadow of the Dolomites and I remember the weekend action being punctuated with heavy showers. It meant that where the sun got to the track it dried and the surface warmed up, but under the trees it remained damp and cool.

During Free Practice and qualifying the wet tyres in particular were losing tread by over heating on the start finish straight and more than one bike lost a bit of paintwork from chucks of rubber flying off at high speed.

Come Sunday the riders and team managers were not happy and I remember we spend a long time on the grid after the sighting lap with everyone debating what to do.

Come Sunday the riders and team managers were not happy and I remember we spend a long time on the grid after the sighting lap with everyone debating what to do.

Pirelli were defensive of their position, some riders were happy to race whilst others point blankly refused; team bosses stomped up and down the grid remonstrating with race direction all the while photographers and journalist were poking their noses into every conversation, and being continually rebuffed by SBK staff.

Racing eventually got underway and Tom Sykes scorched into what looked like an unassailable lead. My memory is that despite it being declared a wet race, it was red flagged after eight laps when a few spots came down and that ended the action for the day. Again after much debate and procrastination, half points were awarded and we all went home. No one could have predicted how that would affect the results at the last round of the season at Magny Cours, Max Biaggi finished race two in fifth place, Sykes won, but it wasn’t enough and the Yorkshireman and Kawasaki were denied the World Championship by half a point.

It was particularly galling that that weekend should have ended in such a manner as the organisers had invited a number of former champions and stars of the past: Carl Fogarty; Troy Bayliss; Doug Pollen; Troy Bayliss; Andy Meklau to name a few, to celebrate 25 seasons of the Superbike World Championship. What began as a lavish celebration of Superbike racing ended on a sour note.

Another aspect to Monza was continual changes to accommodate Formula 1. In particular to the first chicane. Over the years it had been turned into a stopstart, bus stop chicane to allow an overtaking opportunity for F1 cars but it resulted in some horrific crashes at SBK races. The run into the first corner, after a long straight, meant that the whole grid was battling for the holeshot.

When someone went down they would often continue across the grass into the path of those in front who were exiting the chicane and oblivious to the carnage behind. In the end SBK and FIM between them deemed the track to be unsafe for Superbike racing and when the contract for renewal came up at the end of 2013 it was dropped from the calendar.

It’s a shame the series doesn’t visit there anymore as it offers so much potential but there are to many issue that conspire against it. I have shot some of my favourite images at Monza but considering how frustrating is was to work there it is not somewhere I pine after when winter comes and I am booking the next season’s travel.

SBK Journal is Published by Slipstream Media Ltd, PO Box 26532, Glasgow, G74 9FB and its title (SBK Journal) is authorized by DORNA WSBK ORGANIZATION S.R.L. (DWO), with legal domicile at Viale Luca Gaurico no. 9/11, 00143 Rome, Italy and operating headquarters at Via Sudafrica no. 7, 00144 Rome, Italy.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Slipstream Media Ltd. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the facts and the data contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted by Slipstream Media Ltd or any of the contributors for error or ommissions, or their consequences. ©Slipstream Media Ltd Photography: Graeme Brown Jamie Morris Tim Keeton Vaclav Duska Jnr Images ©geebeeimages ©jamiemorrisphotography @wd.jrphoto (WorldSBK) @impact_images_Photos (TT) Contributors Graeme Brown Kenny Pryde

Design and Layout: Graeme Brown Jamie Morris Corey J. Coulter v19.06 | 08.19

www.sbkjournal.com @sbkjournal

SBKJournal

@SBKJournal

Coming Next......

WorldSBK gets back on track with races in Portimao and Magny Cours. digging around to find the stories behind the gossip.

SBK Journal will be

BSB is getting towards the sharp end. The first weekend in September sees the second visit of the season to Oulton Park in Cheshire and the results will determine the places for the championship deciding Showdown.

SBK Journal will also cast our view south and catch up on the Australian Superbike Championship as their sereis draws to a close.

The dust has only settled on the 2018/19 Endurance World Championship with the last round at Suzuka but the 2019/20 season is ready to kick of with another icon of the endurance racing scene, the Bol d’Or.

@sbkjournal

SBKJournal

@SBKJournal