Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

In a Cribs feature in the September 2004 issue of Roadracing World, AMA Superbike Championship contender Jake Zemke talked about how he got on the AMA 750cc Supersport podium riding a bike his parents bought, during a season (1998) he financed through credit cards and a line of credit at his local motorcycle shop. Now, said Zemke, that just wouldn’t be possible, and he gave his suggestions for revising the AMA road racing class structure to benefit factory riders and privateers alike.

“There needs to be some place for young kids and privateers to showcase their talent, get some exposure to get some sponsors or get a support ride or whatever it takes,” said Zemke. “Right now the classes are so stacked it’s hard to find a class to do that in. Right now, it looks like Formula Xtreme would be your best bet, but at the same time, to build a competitive FX bike you’re talking a lot of money. That’s not an easy way to go about it. For the average kid and his parents trying to get out there and do something it’s just not feasible.

“Plus, I don’t know if there’s the need for the redundancy of classes we have in the AMA right now. We’ve got too many classes that are too much the same: Supersport and Formula Xtreme, and Superstock and Superbike.

“The way I see it, they need three classes. They need a 600cc Supersport class, a 1000cc Superbike class and then they need to have some sort of privateer class where guys can come up and showcase their talent.

“By doing that you could slim the grids down so there’s not as much problem with backmarkers coming into play at the end of the races. You could cut the grid size down to where it’s actually an accomplishment to make the grid, like it is to make an AMA motocross or Supercross main event. If you can make the gate at a Supercross for the main event, it’s an accomplishment to make it. Same in dirt track, there’s 18 in the main event. It’s an accomplishment to make it. It’s just too easy out there in AMA road racing. It’s too easy to be in the field.

“At the same time, those privateer guys need to be out there, because they need to have a place where they can hone their skills at that level to race in the Superbike class.

“If you limit the amount of privateers who can get in on that side, say you limit it to 24, like they do in MotoGP, and you took all the factory and the factory-support guys who are racing in Superstock and Superbike right now and blended them into one class, you’ve got a deep field, you’ve got a strong field!

“Then, you could take the (purse) money you pay from (24th) down and put it into that privateer class so these guys can go make the same money they are making now, but they have a place they can showcase their talent. They have a place where instead of getting 12th or 15th place in a Superbike National, now they’re winning this other race, and now they’re gonna learn tracks, get exposure, get help, work their way up and maybe get on a support team.

“I also think they need to make it harder to get the licenses, too. You can start with a license, like a Pro Sport license, then you could earn a 600cc Supersport license. Then you could earn your Superbike license.”