Friday’s action in the Valentino Rossi-hosted 100km dei Campioni saw the “46” invited riders take to the track to attempt to qualify for Saturday’s main event at Rossi’s ranch in Tavullia, Italy, and MotoAmerica star JD Beach was among them. In addition to qualifying, there was also the “Americana” race, which was won by Honda MotoGP factory rider Luca Marini.
“Day two was qualifying for the 100km dei Campioni race that will take place on Saturday and also for the ‘Americana’ race that was held this evening,” Beach said. “There was an A, B, and C Main, and I ended up qualifying for the B Main. I think I could have qualified better if we made the shock change earlier in the day that we ended up making later in the day. Hayden (Gillim) got them to change the spring to a softer one and adjusted the sag, and it helped a lot. Unfortunately, by the time we did that, the track was getting slower.”
Beach ended up winning two of the three two-lap races but crashed out in the third. Still, he finished third, but that wasn’t enough as he missed qualifying for the A Main by one spot.
“In the ‘Americana’ race, it’s two laps, and the last four to finish are out. So, it’s two laps, last four to finish are out, two laps, last two to finish are out, three laps, and top two go to the A Main. I won two out of the three two-lap races and, in the third one, got just a little too aggressive with a pass on Lorenzo Baldassarri, and I went down. That put me third, and I missed going to the A Main by one spot. But Baldassarri went on to finish fourth in the A Main, and he was the one I battled with in all of the B Mains.”
The star of Friday’s “Americana” race was Marini, who came out on top over fellow Italian Franco Morbidelli. Morbidelli, meanwhile, beat Rossi in the battle for second. Rossi crashed on the last lap but remounted to finish third.
