VOL. 52 ISSUE 11 MARCH 17, 2015 P99
port East Region title in his first season. He then
earned Rookie of the Year honors his first season
in Daytona SportBike riding for Meen Motorsports
Yamaha. And then of course there was the break-
out season last year where he scored his first
Daytona Sportbike victory, fortuitously in front of
an international crowd, at Laguna Seca during the
World Superbike weekend. He followed that up
with a second consecutive win at Mid-Ohio. Sud-
denly important people in the AMA paddock were
taking notice. One of those was
Yoshimura's Don Sakakura.
"We just noticed how quickly
his racing skills have developed
at such a young age," Sakakura
said of the 19-year-old Lewis.
"We just feel there's a huge
future opportunity with Jake so
we went ahead and made arrangements for Jake
to be with the team for multiple years and we're
excited about it."
Sakakura knows young talent when he sees it.
He was there when a lanky Texan named Kevin
Schwantz defied all odds and developed into a
world class rider with the team. It happened again
two decades later with Ben Spies. Now another
decade on and perhaps Sakakura sees the same
type of upside potential with Lewis as he wit-
nessed with Schwantz and Spies. And certainly,
although Sakakura is perhaps the most modest
head of a racing team in history, it is conceivable
that he would like to have been the one to peg
Lewis as a future champion, should the youngster
go on in the future to bigger accolades on the
world stage.
If Lewis is to become a world-class star in road
racing he'll have to buck a trend of hiring pint-
sized riders. At 6' 3" Lewis is certain to go down
as one of the tallest factory Superbike riders of
all time. "We hope he's done growing," Sakakura
added with a grin.
On the other hand, Lewis seemed to perform
just fine on a little 600cc Daytona Sportbike ma-
At 6'3", the
bigger bikes
should suit the
19 year old much
better than the
smaller 600cc
machines.
