Cycle News Staff | January 2, 2011
DU QUOIN, Ill. (Jan. 2, 2011) — JD Beach continued his domination of racing on the final day of the Ethan Gillim Memorial in Southern Illinois Center at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, but for one shining moment Chris Carr culled his years of racing experience together and at least momentarily halted Beach’s domination and won the best pro race of the weekend. In the Open Pro/Am Short Track final Sunday Carr, racing his Kenny Tolbert-prepped DFW Honda, chased down early leader Beach, made a combination move on his young rival to take over the lead and then held off an excellent charge by Beach on the final turn to win the best battle of the weekend.
“Here I am getting ready to collect social security and walk off into the sunset,” Carr joked as fans and fellow racers gathered around to congratulate him after the win. “I can’t come all the way out here to Illinois and let these kids push me around. I had to come out and show them the old guy still has a few tricks up his sleeve.”
Carr said the track came together perfectly for his win.
“That race a couple of lines developed that were equally fast,” said the seven-time AMA Grand National Champ who is hanging up his leathers after this season. “I was able to do a high-low combination on him to take the lead. I’ll have to say that was a fun race.”
Even though losing to Carr kept Beach from going a perfect six for six in Sunday’s pro events, he seemed thrilled to be a part of such a good contest.
“That was an excellent race,” Beach said. “Chris found a high line and when he got by me I tried to use it, but couldn’t make it work like he was. I went back down low. On the last lap I got a great drive coming out of the final turn and tried to shoot the gap underneath him. It almost worked. I came up just a little bit short.”
Home state hero Rob Pearson finished third on a Yamaha.
Except for his great duel with Carr, Beach pretty much controlled every other race Sunday, winning five of the six pro events, just as he’d done the day before. The field was just a little less talent packed on Sunday. Both Sammy Halbert and Jeffrey Carver crashed in morning qualifying and did not race the finals. In addition, James Rispoli, who scored victory in one of the pro races Saturday, also crashed early Sunday and rode banged up, never quite finding the speed he had the day before.
Regardless of the no-shows and walking wounded, the field in Sunday’s pro races was still chock-full of a interesting mix of Grand National regulars as well as top up-and-coming regional flat trackers.
Beach beat Carr and Pearson in the other two Short Track races, the Pro and Open Pro finals. The 19-year-old Red Bull-backed rider then scored three straight victories, all in convincing fashion in the three TT finals. His biggest challenge in the TTs came from Hayden Gillim, who scored two runner-up finishes aboard a Honda.
” felt really good all weekend and things worked out perfectly,” said Beach, who in all won 10 of the 12 pro races during the two days of racing. “I had my mechanic James Hart with me and since there’s a national here we really focused on trying to get the bike set up. We found a great combination and I couldn’t have asked for a better bike. It was great to see Chris [Carr] come out and do a race like this for fun. Steve Nace puts on a really good program here and it’s nice to have a place like this to race.”
With Beach’s performance at the Ethan Gillim Memorial many are looking to him to be the favorite for the AMA Grand National Short Track here in April.
Results of Ethan Gillim Memorial (Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011)
Short Track
450 Pro
1. JD Beach, Honda.
2. Chris Carr, Honda.
3. Rob Pearson, Yamaha.
4. Brock Schwarzenbacher, Honda.
5. James Rispoli, Suzuki.
Open Pro/Am
1. Chris Carr, Honda.
2. JD Beach, Honda.
3. Rob Pearson, Yamaha.
4. Brett Neville, Honda.
5. Chase Hundley, Yamaha.
Open Pro
1. JD Beach, Honda.
2. Chris Carr, Honda.
3. Rob Pearson, Yamaha.
4. Hayden Gillim, Honda.
5. James Rispoli, Suzuki.
TT
Open Pro/Am
1. JD Beach, Honda.
2. Hayden Gillim, Honda.
3. Brock Schwarzenbacher, Honda.
4. Levi Mayer, Honda.
5. Chase Hundley, Yamaha.
Open Pro
1. JD Beach, Honda.
2. Hayden Gillim, Honda.
3. Frankie Lee Gillim, Kawasaki.
4. Brock Schwarzenbacher, Honda.
5. Johnathan Heiden, Honda.
450 Pro
1. JD Beach, Honda.
2. Johnathan Heiden, Honda.
3. Hayden Gillim, Honda.
4. Frankie Lee Gillim, Kawasaki.
5. Michael Heiden, Honda.
