RAPID CITY, S.D. — Consider the rust sufficiently shaken off. In just his second race back, super sub J.D. Beach (No. 95 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) claimed a hugely impressive victory on Tuesday night, winning the Black Hills Harley-Davidson Black Hills Half-Mile.
It was round 12 of the Progressive American Flat Track season, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing.
Beach blasted into the lead at the green light of the Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event at Black Hills Speedway, followed closely by full-time Grand National Championship contenders Jared Mees (No. 1 Rogers Racing/SDI Racing/Indian Motorcycle FTR750), Briar Bauman (No. 3 Rick Ware Racing/KTM/Parts Plus KTM 790 Duke), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750), along with the day’s fastest rider in qualifying, Chad Cose (No. 49 Indian Motorcycle of Oklahoma City/G&G Racing Indian FTR750).
Robinson found an outside line to his liking and used it to rip around Cose, Bauman, and Mees in rapid succession. However, his attempt to do so for first tipped the leader off and Beach promptly used the same line himself to secure his position at the front.
Mees stuck with the low line and made it work well enough to counter Robinson and then take the fight to Beach. Beach again adapted, running high in turns one and two and low in turns three and four, a combination that gradually broke the challenge of the nine-time series king.
Beach’s victory was his first-ever Half-Mile triumph, moving him to within just a Mile victory of the elusive old-school Grand Slam.
“A goal of mine since I was a kid was to get a Grand Slam; I’ve got a Superbike win, I’ve got a Short Track win, I’ve got a TT win, and now I’ve got the Half-Mile,” Beach said. “I can’t thank the team enough. We chipped away at it all day long. In the race, I knew I was going to stick to the bottom until someone tried to go around the outside of me. I saw Brandon go up top so I did too and I saw Jared going to the bottom in three and four, so I was going up top, down low, up top, down low. It was working so good. To get this win is just amazing.”
Mees kept Beach honest to the checkered flag and was rewarded with his fifth consecutive podium. Tuesday’s second was more than enough to push him past the injured Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) and put Mees at the head of the Mission AFT SuperTwins title fight for the first time all season long.
Robinson was unable to keep up his early heroics, eventually dropping to nearly five seconds back of the win. However, that still kept him on the podium and firmly in the championship fight, where he now ranks second, 17 points back of Mees (236-219).
Rookies Declan Bender (No. 70 GOMR/BriggsAuto.com/Martin Trucking Indian FTR750) and Trevor Brunner (No. 21 Mission Foods/Zanotti Racing Indian FTR750) continued their impressive second halves, claiming career-best results of fourth and fifth, respectively.
Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) was in imperious form while notching up the fourth victory of his 2024 Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER campaign.
The Australian got away in second, one spot behind defending champion and current points leader Kody Kopp (No. 1 Rick Ware Racing/Parts Plus KTM 450 SX-F), but wasted little time in deposing his highly decorated rival for the lead.
Chase Saathoff (No. 88 JPG Motorsports Honda CRF450R) – winner of the most recent two races coming into Rapid City – dropped to fifth from pole off the line. Once in third, he found the fight harder than did Drane to move through on Kopp and claim second, the champ rebuffing multiple attempts by Saathoff to squeak by up the inside.
That constant pressure finally worked in Saathoff’s favor, however, as Kopp eventually made a mistake in defense of the position. Saathoff pounced the moment Kopp ran slightly off line, allowing him to turn his attention to the escaping Drane.
But even with clear air ahead of him, the JPG Motorsports pilot could do nothing but watch the Estenson Racing runner continue to clear off at the front. Drane ultimately claimed a 1.999-second margin of victory over Saathoff with Kopp another 1.601 seconds back in third.
“We’ve just been working our butts off all day, trying to learn different things throughout the day,” Drane said. “We finally found a setting that really worked for us and were able to use it out there. I just couldn’t have done it without my whole Estenson Racing Monster Energy team, who put in all this hard work to get us back on the top step.”
Taia Little (No. 11 Royal Enfield INT650) fought her way to a second victory of the season at the conclusion of a four-rider scrap at the front of the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race. (BTR) Main Event.