Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1028780
P122 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX L ast week, former 250cc SX champ Jake Weimer decided to retire from rac- ing. He'll be 31 in December, and the sport doesn't get any easier as you get older. That said, I'm proud to call Jake Weimer a friend, and I'm even prouder of him for what he managed to accomplish in his career, de- spite—for a reason unbeknownst to me—being one of the least respected racers in the industry throughout most of his career. You might roll your eyes at that, but I watched it happen. Con- stantly. We became good friends about the time he signed up with the Factory Connection Honda team in 2006. He was a nice kid and he was funny. He had a way of saying things in a matter-of-fact, straight-faced manner that you just don't come across very often. Example: One time I asked him about how confident he was, and he said, "You can be confident, but if you aren't fast enough to get to the checkered flag first, what good is it? And if you are fast enough, why do you need confi- dence? You're either fast enough, or you aren't." In the beginning of his career, Weimer wasn't. Not really even close. But he wasn't one of these racers who was bred to win championships in the first place. He was an Idaho boy whose dad put in a lot of effort to get to the big amateur races, but when Weimer turned pro, he had to go to Canada first in 2005. Then he got a chance to try out for the Factory Connection Honda team. He got the final, unpaid spot on the five-man roster in 2006 and was happy just to have top-level equipment underneath him. His best finish that year indoors was sixth at Anaheim II, and he ended up 13th in points. Outdoor racing was never really his strong suit, but his rookie year was pretty pathetic. He missed four of the 12 rounds, and in the eight races (16 motos) he raced, he scored a total of 26 points—31st place in the championship. Some guys would've folded up, but Weimer just buckled down. He simply didn't know what he was up against until he was in the middle of it. And injuries didn't help. In his second year, though, Weimer started showing some promise. He grabbed his first podium at the San Francisco Supercross behind his team- mate Josh Grant (in second) and Ryan Villopoto, who won. He was fourth in points in the 250cc West, and then he finished sec- ond to Ryan Dungey in the East/ West Shootout in Vegas. Outdoors took an even more dramatic turn, with Weimer snatching sixth in points. Com- pared to the year before, it was night and day. Then, in 2008, after crash- ing out at Anaheim I, Weimer NO RESPECT, I TELL YA!