Team Kentucky will invade Europe this week with JD Beach and Hayden Gillim flying to Italy to take part in the 10th annual Valentino Rossi-hosted 100km dei Campioni, January 10-11. Beach will be handling the throttle and Gillim will be spinning the wrenches.
This will mark the second time that Beach takes part in the race that is organized by seven-time World Champion Rossi and his VR46 Academy. The race is almost a MotoGP with racers such as Enea Bastianini, Luca Marini, Pedro Acosta, Miguel Oliviera, Marco Bezzecchi, Franco Morbidelli, and the GOAT himself, Valentino Rossi.
The race will also feature several Moto2 and Moto3 riders as well as World Superbike riders and a few Isle of Man TT specialists.
And we can add Beach to that list as the MotoAmerica Superbike race winner and two-time MotoAmerica Supersport Champion is set for his second visit to the race.
“Yeah, it’s really cool,” Beach said prior to heading to Tavullia. “I got invited in 2019 to go do it. I talked to Valentino (Rossi) before about going over and riding. He actually asked me about coming over there. Then, in 2019, he reached out to me about coming and doing the race that he does. So, I went and did it and it was a ton of fun. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve been invited back every year since then, but it just hasn’t worked out because of COVID or stuff going on or whatever. But I keep getting asked to go back, so this year I was like, ‘I have to go.’ “
While the big race is the 100km event that features two-man teams, the racers must qualify via a set of somewhat miss-named “Americana” heat races.
“It’s kind of weird,” Beach explained. “They have the Americana race on one day. The first day is like the practice day for the people who are invited. Then the second day is the Americana race, which we don’t do anything like this here. So, you have to qualify for it, and I qualified for the A main. So, you start and you do two or three laps and then whoever is the last two or three, they cut those guys. Then they line back up and then you race again. I think I maybe got fifth or eighth or something like that. Me and Sammy Halbert were the only ones that made it that far that weren’t the VR46 guys. Then in the 100-kilometer race, the big race, that’s a team race. So, me and Sammy were teamed up for that. We actually got third. I know we’re the only Americans to do that and I think we’re one of the few non-VR46 Academy guys to get top three.”
At first glance, you’d think that Beach and his eight Peoria TT wins would show up, put his steel shoe on and dominate. That’s not the case.
“There’s nothing even close to the same here,” Beach said. “It’s not even a flat track. It’s a proper road course with dirt on it. There’s elevation change. There’s wide turns. There are left- and right-hand turns. The riding style is completely different.”
With his extensive road racing background, Beach has his way in the American Flat Track series at the TTs with his feel for using a front brake when there’s not a lot of traction. At Rossi’s race he faces guys who make their living with the front brake.
“No, I don’t have that advantage there,” Beach said. “That’s the thing over there. They treat it like it’s a road race, kind of. That’s what they’re training for.”
Beach also will show up at the Ranch and see his motorcycle for the first time.
“I don’t even know what I’m riding,” Beach said with a chuckle. “I know they’ve got a bike for me. That’s all I know. It could be a good bike, it could be a bad bike. I don’t really know. Of course, I want to do good. I’m not going over there to do badly, but I’m kind of restricted with the bike and all that stuff.”
Good thing he’s bringing Gillim with him to straighten things out.
