Stoppin-In: Jake Weimer

Is all about starts...

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Stoppin-In: Jake Weimer

Story and photos by Shan Moore

Jake Weimer and mechanic Dana Wiggins get ready for practice in New Orleans.

As the second rider on the high-powered Monster Energy Kawasaki team, Jake Weimer sometimes gets overshadowed by the likes of his teammate Ryan Villopoto. However, Weimer has had some respectable rides of his own this year, including three podium finishes.

Motocross.com sat down with Weimer at the New Orleans round of the series to get his take on how things are going.

What are your thoughts on how your season is going so far?

Coming in, I expected to be a top-five guy; the goal was to try be a podium guy coming in before the first round. I think for a few rounds midway into the series, things weren’t going that good. I guess the main thing is my starts have been a little bit inconsistent. That’s really what I think was causing my issues in the middle of the season, but lately I feel like I kind of re-lit the fire, kind of got things moving again in the right direction.  It’s been a little bit up and down but I think a lot of that is just starts.

That makes sense because the races you’ve had good starts in you’ve also had good finishes.

Yeah, you’re never going to do it with bad starts. There’s a few people that have done it and that can do it but, for the majority of us it’s not going to happen. You’ve got to get good starts and keep yourself out of trouble, and the races that I’ve done that, I’ve done pretty well, so the races that I haven’t done that have been not good, so that’s really what it boils down to, just getting good starts and staying out of trouble, which comes from good starts.

Weimer has had three podiums in 2012.

How was the transition from the 250 to the 450 for you?

It’s tough… that’s a big jump. I’ve ridden a 450 plenty of times, but to race it is tougher. It’s different; you can’t really explain it but it takes some time for sure.

But it doesn’t matter, Lites and 450, whatever, there’s been a lot of competition all the way around, east coast, west coast, 450, whatever, the case may be the last few years there’s been great competition no matter where you’re racing at. The 450, I guess, is a little bit different. The 450 is all the guys that graduate from the lights guys that have won titles. I mean there’s Stewart, Reed, Dungey, Villopoto, Tedesco, Short, all the guys that were the cream of the crop in the 250’s that are on the 450’s now, so it’s a tough class.

Is there anything you’ve picked up from being Villopoto’s teammate?

I’ve been around Ryan a long – a long time, way before we were teammates. But nothing that I can really be like, yeah, I learned this or that from him. I would say there’s stuff to learn from everybody, which I do, but it’s not like there’s just one thing that I’m like, that’s the key.

Do you think of yourself as being better at Supercross or motocross?

Supercross is probably a little bit easier for me to be good at, but I really do enjoy racing outdoors. Last year was a tough year for me outdoors; well the last 2 years I’ve ridden outdoors have been tough. The one year I was injured and then last year trying to come back from injury and jumping to the 450, I was trying to play catch up, and it’s pretty tough to play catch up in the middle of the summer and it’s hot and long motos, so last year was tough. I’m physically in a lot better spot now and I’m excited to go to Hangtown and see what’s going on.

Have you started testing for the outdoors?

A little bit; we haven’t got to crazy, but here in about a week we’ll really start testing getting that going.

How different are the settings from indoors to outdoors?

It’s completely different, a lot different.

Why do you think we’ve had so many injuries this year?

Because people are just trying too hard and I think a few years back, it was you know, one guy running away with it or maybe two guys battling. I think this year there were a handful of guys that were capable of winning and I think it’s just a case of people just pushing and wanting to win and just trying hard. I think that’s ….I don’t think it’s the tracks or anything crazy or different. You know, our bikes are good and the bikes to me are safer than they were a few years ago, the EFI and everything has really made it a lot safer in my eyes. The bikes are good, the tracks are similar, it’s just everything is evolving, people are training harder they want it more. I guess I would have to say that’s it.

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