Speed ace Harris Beech on fast track to success

After entering the newly-formed British Junior Supersport class, the Shropshire teenager has moved up from racing 140cc bikes on go-kart tracks to a Yamaha 300cc machine on the country’s most famous circuits.

Next up for the 14-year-old from Alveley, near Bridgnorth, is Snetterton this weekend for round three of championship.

But after getting to grips with the faster speeds and more powerful motorbike, he has won the praise of Bridgnorth’s veteran racer Michael Rutter, with whom Harris shares a garage at race weekends after earning sponsorship from Black Country brewer Bathams.

And such has been Harris’ progress, his proud father Richard, himself a former motorbike and sidecar club racer, admitted he was keeping quite about his own personal best track times.

He said: “He managed to mess up the timings for the first race during the previous round at Brands Hatch.

“He had qualified 17th but because he was too slow getting his bike out for the race he had to start from the back of the grid.

“But during the race he went from 27th up to 15th and although he made hard work of it, it probably did him more good than bad over all.

“Next race he finished 13th and in the third he was trying to make a move to take 11th but lost the front end going into Graham Hill bend and crashed. He was OK but he’d done a bit of damage to the bike. He was fighting really hard but most of the spectators were enjoying watching his class.

“I was gobsmacked with the speeds he got up to so quickly. I raced Brands Hatch Indy circuit a good few years ago now and managed to do a few 58 and 57 seconds laps.

“Harris was putting those times in as soon as he wound up on the track and I think his fastest was 55.2.”

Richard admitted the support from Rutter and Bathams had been invaluable for Harris’ progress, who also entered the Thundersport GB series as a wildcard, racing in the Superteens class, to keep his rhythm on the bike going.

“He’s competing against Aprillas and some bigger bikes in the class so it was a good experience for him,” he added.

“We just want to get him used to the bike and some of the circuits as much as possible.

“We went to Oulton Park and out of 19 riders Harris was the only one who hadn’t been at the free test day on the Friday, which was six-and-a-half hours long.

“Sixteen had also ridden the track before, unlike Harris, but during qualification, his first time on the track, all he knew about the circuit was what he had practised on the Playstation.

“Actually racing is obviously completely different but he knocked his lap times down by three second in the first race, to 2m 06s, and then in the second race he started 15th and got up to seventh.

“Trying to catch the front pack, he lost the front-end, similar to Brands, but I was so impressed with his pace.

“He keeps blowing me away with how quick he’s going. He’s only done 350 miles on the bike in total so he’s impressing everyone with how quickly he’s picking it up.

“The Yamaha R3, which is 321cc to be exact, does struggle against the Kawasakis (399cc) and the KTMs in the BSB.

“But he’s the quickest Yamaha rider out there at the moment.

“He also went to Mallory Park a few weeks back and he was putting in 110-second laps straight and then knocked them down to 107s and 105s, which again was really impressive.”

Rutter said going to brand-new circuits had been a bit of a shock for his young stablemate but he added Harris had also done exceptionally well.

“He’s racing against riders far more experienced but we’ve been more than happy with his progress,” he said.

“He’s had one or two little offs but he’s carried on and he’s got a brilliant riding style too.

“It’s very modern and something I wish I could do, but he just does it automatically. This year we want him to go out there and not worry about results.

“The more laps he does the better he will get – it’s just finding the places to do it.”

Harris and Rutter will both be back in action this weekend at Snetterton, competing in the British Junior Supersport and National Superstock 1000 series respectively.

Richard added: “Harris doing really well but we’re still desperate for sponsorship and support, so it anyone could help – even if it’s just a litre of fuel at one of the rounds or a set of tyres – it would be appreciated.”

To offer financial support contact Richard on 07969 274784, richardbeech@msn.com, or search for Harris Beech Racing on Facebook.