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/824646
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE The first in a two-part installment on the legendary four-time AMA Pro Road Racing Champion Jamie James. T he "Ragin Cajun" is a great racing moniker for Louisiana native Jamie James. A fun nickname no doubt, but the reality is James is about as far from "Ragin" as a man can get. One of the friendliest and most approachable racers ever to be crowned AMA Superbike Champion, James garnered a large following of fans. At autograph time, you could always tell where James was located by the massive line. James had a dream season in 1989, winning both the AMA Superbike and AMA 750 Supersport Championships with Yo- shimura Suzuki. A rare two-title season was a stun- ning factory debut. The only downside for James was that he'd chase that second Superbike title the rest of his career. He came agonizingly close, but was never quite able to gain back the number-one plate in the premier road racing class. James got hooked on racing from a young age, growing up watching races at a track that neigh- bored his grandfather's farm. As he got older James dabbled in flat track off-road and motocross racing and was an avid street warrior. To pay for his hobby, James did a variety of manual labor jobs, includ- ing working as a deckhand on Mississippi River barges. While James enjoyed the adrenaline rush, of hardcore street riding, a few of his older, wiser riding buddies gave him some sage advice. "They said, 'Man, you'd better start racing on the track, if you don't you're gonna kill yourself!" James' first road race was a CRRC event at Texas World. He raced a Yamaha RZ350. His years of riding paid off and James rapidly moved up the ranks. One of the riders James chased in his early club racing days was fellow CRRC racer Kevin Schwantz. "It wasn't long and I was beginning to tie up with Kevin and I crashed a couple times," James laughs. "I remember his uncle told me, 'Well if you try to keep up with him you're going to crash more than that.' I didn't even think about it. I was like, 'I'm going to show him.'" Even though he was having success on the track and was getting help from his mom and dad (his mom even co-signed a loan to buy one of Jamie's racebikes), it was tough financially to keep racing. John Klaus from Klaus Speedworks gave James a Kawasaki GPz750 Superbike to race a few AMA Superbike rounds in '85. With help from a buddy Rob Bennett, James hit the road for Road America and Loudon. He amazingly scored a top-10 finish (ninth) at Road America in his AMA Su- perbike debut. "I think that was my fifth road race THE RAGIN' CAJUN, PART 1 P136 Jamie James (center) in the winner's circle at Daytona after winning his first AMA Pro event, the '89 Daytona 750cc Supersport race over second-place David Sadowski (right) and third-place Mike Harth (right). PHOTOGRAPHY BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS