JD Beach Race Report from Little Rock

by JD Beach - September 26, 2011

Well it's Monday morning and I'm at home sitting at the bar in the kitchen watching it rain. It was a great weekend for me in Little Rock, Arkansas. Steve Nace was having one of his All Star races. I was really looking forward to the race, last year the track was awesome and it was some good racing. This year the race was later on the calendar because the first one was rained out. There where some fast guys that showed up Chris Carr, Brad Baker, Jethro Halbert, and the Scherd Brothers.

The trip started out Friday afternoon. We left from Owensboro when Luke Baird got out of school. We drove two vans down. In mine it was Jon, Kerri, and me, and in Terry Payne's van it was him, Luke, and Frankie Lee. They run amateurs at the races as well as well as the pro class so FLG was dusting off his hot shoe again. We had a lot of fun on the way down and the way back. When we have time we like to take our time and see different things and try different foods. On the way down we stopped at Tyler Porter's house to pick up my bike so we went and got some food. After filling our belly's up we where on our way. It was to long of a drive, about 5 hours. We got to our hotel around mid night. We didn't have to be up early so we had plenty of time to get some rest.

Saturday morning we got up and had some food then headed to the track. It started raining a little bit but not bad I wasn't to worried. We where one of the first ones to the track. I like to get there early, so we started getting unloaded and watched everyone else come in and see who all was going to be there. A few hours went by then it was time to start practice, after the first lap I knew the track was going to be a lot different from last year. James Hart couldn't make it so I was on my own setting the bike up, after the first practice I dropped a tooth and called it good. In the heat race it was kinda crazy, nobody really knew where the line was so everyone was going wild. It took a few laps to get the line, I was going from 1st to 4th in a turn just sliding around, then I figured out I needed to stay down low. I got into first place then Brad followed right behind me, then we pulled away from everyone.

The top 2 from each expert heat race and the top 2 from the pro heat race went to the dash for cash. They had 500 bucks already for the dash then went in the stands to get more. Before the race we didn't know how much was on the line, I just knew I was starting pole and I needed to get the hole shot and stay right on the bottom. Last year the collected about 800 bucks I think so I knew it was going to be good. It was only 4laps. I got that hole shot and stayed right on the bottom and counted each lap down, I knew Brad and Chris wanted that money just as bad as I did. I ran 4 good laps and won it, I came back around for the podium and we found out how much it was $1202 but then they said plus the $500 they already had. After the race Paul the man putting the race on asked me if I would keep the $1202 and split the $500 between 2nd and 3rd. I decided to say yes hoping it would be good karma for the 15lap main that paid good money too.

Before the main there wasn't much to do to the bike to get it ready. Just check the gas and air pressure, everything was good to go and I think I was. I knew I was starting from pole and I just had to do the same as the dash just for 15 laps. I got the hole shot and lead every lap. Brad was right on me the whole time. 15 laps is a long time to lead a race, in the middle I started slowing down and Brad got right on me then the last 5 laps I turned it up and came home with a win.

This race meant a lot to me, I got my first win of the year. It was an All Star race but there was still some really fast guys in it. It really made me feel good. I've had a pretty tough year, and it was nice to finally get that victory lap. After doing so good last year to not even getting a top 5 all year (until Knoxville) getting this win was big for me. I was really happy.

Next weekend it's off to Brainerd, MN for the next GNC race then leaving right from there to head out to Calistoga, CA. It should be a really fun trip, hopefully we can do work on the twin.

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