Tuesday Conversation: Jake Holden

The shake-up of American road racing left many good riders standing alone in 2009, and one of those was Jake Holden. Now riding a CBR1000RR for his own privateer team, Jake has had some solid results lately, including a fourth-place finish at Heartland Park Topeka. We spoke with the Washington native as he prepared to head for Virginia International Raceway, AMA Round 10.

Brian J. Nelson photo

RRX: Looking back for a sec, you were one of a handful of AMA guys who participated in the Larry Miller GTO Superbike Challenge when World Superbike came to Utah, and you won it. What was that like?
Jake Holden: Well, it wasn’t the biggest race of the season for sure, but Taylor Knapp was in it, and David Anthony; a couple of guys who are doing really well this year ran in it. But the purse was like eight thousand dollars and I needed the money to fund the season, so the Corona guys asked me if I wanted to do it. I for sure wanted to do it because I figured I could win it—I love that track and the Honda CBR1000RR goes good around there. I think we won by eight or nine seconds, We had a pretty good pace the whole weekend, and actually, I think it would have put me up in the top-twenty or so in World Superbike. So it wasn’t a too bad of a weekend.

You’re tenth in American Superbike standings right now—with ten top-ten finishes—and you just had a season-best ride to fourth in Race 2 at Topeka. How do you feel about your results this year?
It kind of started off rough; I didn’t really have a ride for 2009. We pulled some strings and some old sponsors helped me out, then I purchased the bike and an old sponsor helped me get the motor ready. The factory Honda guys sort of helped throw it together, too. We finally got it going around Laguna and started throwing down some good lap times, whether it was in practice or qualifying. We had some bad luck along the way, but we kind of showed our face at Laguna, where we were quickest in practice. Then we had some overheating issues and a rock through the radiator.

We got to Kansas feeling really good, and we qualified on the front row as pretty much a privateer. I’m paying for all the tires and everything, so it felt really good to get on the front row. I didn’t quite get up there in the race like I wanted to, but I still showed that we have what it takes to run up front for a while. You could see me up there for most of the race, but I kind of fell off on lap twelve or thirteen. I just settled in, and then Bostrom had some issues, and Yates took Blake Young off the track. I took advantage of that and ended up with fourth, which was my best superbike finish yet. I figured that weekend I could get on the box if everything came together for me, but I’ll take fourth. It wasn’t a bad finish at all.

Brian J. Nelson photo

Describe your team and bike this year.
My team consists of me and Walker [Jemison], who is the truck driver for the Corona team. Walker is my crew chief, tire guy, mechanic … everything. I’ve got some other people to help me out here and there; I was paying for Chris from Motion Pro to come out to the track and help me out, but with a couple of DNFs, I can’t afford to keep it going. So my dad’s actually coming to Virginia to help me out, and I’ll try to throw in a hand and help out, too.

It’s been fun, though—it brings you back to old times when you had to drive cross-country in a van and get this stuff done yourself, and it kind of brings you closer to the finishes. Fourth place may be that much sweeter because I worked harder to get it. So for sure, the team is short handed, but hopefully we can keep my name out there and land something for next year. I think we’ve shown that I can ride the CBR1000RR pretty well, it’s just a matter of funding and paying for the extra set of tires to go out and practice and keep the pace going. It just comes down to which teams are going to be there for next year, and I think everyone doesn’t really know what’s going on yet.

So next year’s plans are obviously far from concrete right now.
Next season is still up in the air; I don’t really hear any talk or anything. Usually the silly season starts coming around this time and people are talking, but I don’t really hear anything. I guess there are a lot of riders without contracts for next year, and we’re just kind of playing the waiting game. It unfortunate for motorcycle racing, but everyone is cutting their budgets. It’s just getting tougher and tougher to race.

Brian J. Nelson photo

As a privateer, how do you feel about what AMA Pro’s done with the series thus far?
As a privateer, it’s brought the racing closer, which I don’t mind. It makes it a lot easier. I mean, my bike is pretty much stock except for the motor; there’s nothing too crazy on it, I’ve got stock wheels and stock brakes. So I paid about eleven thousand dollars for the bike, then about five thousand to build the motor, then you get into bodywork. My bike is about twenty thousand dollars and I put that thing on the front row, and I got a forth-place finish. So that isn’t too bad for American Superbike. Basically they’ve made quite a few changes that a lot of people were kind of skeptical about, but I think if everybody sticks with it—gives it couple years—I think it’ll be bigger than it’s ever been.

Do you have any specific goals for the last four races?
Just keep doing what I’ve been doing. Each race has been closer and closer to better finishes and I’ve been more consistently up top, so [my goal is] just to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully we can have some good luck and maybe fight with those factory guys a little bit more.

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