J.D. Beach took a crushing double victory at Virginia in SuperSport.
Huntley Nash quickly shot to the front in the second SuperSport contest on Sunday at VIR. His initial efforts, however, proved to be in vain after the race was red-flagged on the opening lap following a crash that involved Travis Ohge and Hunter Propst. In the restart it was DNA Energy Drink Yamaha rider Joey Pascarella with the initial lead ahead of Dustin Dominguez and Huntley Nash. Rockwall Performance Yamaha’s J.D. Beach was running in fourth with Tomas Puerta following.
On Lap 2 Nash advanced into second-place ahead of Dominguez, and by Lap 3 he was eyeing Pascarella in the lead.
Picking up his pace, Beach took over second ahead of Dominguez as Nash went into the lead on Lap 5. Pascarella, who was in the lead, now found himself outside the top-five and continually dropping positions.
Shortly after Beach then shot ahead of Nash for the front position as Travis Wyman and Austin Dehaven moved up to fourth and fifth respectively. There was no stopping Beach as he began pulling away from the pack, setting the fastest lap times and becoming the only rider to reach below the 1’29 mark. Behind him Nash and Dominguez stayed with each other, maintaining a small gap while the rest of the top-five riders began to spread themselves out.
Continually pushing, Beach had more than a seven-second lead ahead of Nash by Lap 13. In the final laps Miles Thornton and Eric Stump made passes on Dehaven to move up to fifth and sixth respectively. Beach went on to take the double victory at VIR by more than five seconds ahead of Nash, and secured the AMA Pro SuperSport Young Gun East Division championship.
"I didn't think I was going to win the championship when the season started," said Beach. "I was riding good at the end of the season last year but I knew Huntley was going to be stepping it up this year. I wasn't sure what division Joey was riding in. I knew Cameron, I was excited because I kind of got him the ride for Rockwall. After I got him the ride I realized that he was probably going to be kind of fast, so I kind of made a mistake there but I did what I knew how to do and rode consistent and rode to the best that I could. Not too crazy, but crazy enough to win, and it just ended up this way. If the team does go to New Jersey we're going to be running SportBike."
Dominguez, Wyman and Thornton rounded out the top-five finishers, with Thornton crossing the finish line in fifth nearly 30 seconds behind Beach.
Huntley Nash (#75) had the lead temporarily in Race 2, but couldn't keep up with Beach's (#73) lightning-fast pace.
1. J.D. Beach (Yamaha)
2. Huntley Nash (Yamaha)
3. Dustin Dominguez (Kawasaki)
4. Travis Wyman (Yamaha)
5. Miles Thornton (Yamaha)
6. Eric Stump (Yamaha)
7. Austin Dehaven (Yamaha)
8. Travis Ohge (Yamaha)
9. Elena Myers (Suzuki)
10. Corey Alexander (Suzuki)
11. Ryan Kerr (Kawasaki)
12. David Gaviria (Kawasaki)
13. Michael Corbino (Yamaha)
14. Matias Cassano (Yamaha)
15. James Cohrs (Yamaha)
2010 AMA SuperSport Championship Points:
1. J.D. Beach, 265
2. Huntley Nash, 198
3. Tomas Puerta, 171
4. Cameron Beaubier, 167
5. Miles Thornton, 107
