This off-season, we received a ton of questions and emails along with social media requests for our 2016 plans. Well, we are very excited to announce that for the 2016 MotoAmerica Season, we are going wide open in the Superbike class! You heard that right. We spent a lot of time working this out and we’ve finally nailed down the bones of what will be our assault on the premiere class for 2016. Who’s going to fly our colors in 2016? We’ve doubled down and secured 2015 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000cc Champion, Jake Gagne as our standard bearer for this effort. Jake will be returning to the team on a RoadRace Factory sponsored and prepared Yamaha R1.
The new structure can be broken down as follows:
Class – Superbike
Rider – Jake Gagne
Chief Engineer – Scott Jensen
Chasis Engineer – Danny Anderson
Chasis Engineer – Evan Steel
Manufacture – Yamaha
Official Team Name – RoadRace Factory
We’ve paired down the size of the team as well as consolidated our program to focus on one class.
As a result, we will no longer be running in the Supersport class. However, we will be retaining a Supersport bike if we see an opportunity to help a rider who we feel has the right potential and can represent our program correctly. Cutting the program that has been our bread and butter wasn’t an easy decision but we felt it was time to step up and run in the premiere class. Well will be maintaining the capacity to also help with up to two KTM Cup riders should the conditions become favorable.
Danny Walker – Team Principal
“Well we took a good look at our program and how it’s worked for us in the past. We saw how big our operations can get and we knew we had to really tighten our belts if we were going to go after the premiere class championship. The decision to run in the superbike class is a major commitment and it wasn’t possible if we kept this large, multi-class effort going.
“When it came time to make the call with respect to the rider, it was actually pretty easy with Jake. We approached him about running a superbike and he was all in! We saw at times last year on the superstock 1000cc that Jake was running up near the factory superbikes. It’s hard to tell him that he doesn’t need to race those guys because Jake is a racer and he wants to beat anyone that’s in front of him. This is really the culmination of our relationship with Jake. We’ve been with him since his Red Bull Rookie Cup days and we know he’s one of the most talented riders in the US. This is our chance to really prove that. We needed to take the reigns off Jake and just let him run to show his true capabilities.
“This is a big step-up for our program. Anyone who’s tried to run a full up superbike program can attest to how big of a deal it is. We’re going to do this as a self supported effort so the pressure is going to be on our team to build and prep a bike every weekend that is capable of taking on the factories. I’m confident though that we have the right guys in place to make that happen. We are really looking forward to this season and I’m thrilled to be able to make this happen for Jake and for our team.
“We will be releasing more information over the next few months as we run up to the opening round of 2016. We want to thank everyone for their support and we encourage everyone to make it out this season and see the action unfold for themselves at any of the MotoAmerica rounds!”
Jake Gagne – Superbike
“I’m so stoked! The whole crew has been working incredibly hard this off season to do everything we can to get us on a superbike and now we got the green light. Our first year on the new Yamaha R1 was pretty amazing and I’m really excited to swing a leg over an R1 with some more juice this year! We have a lot of work to do but I have no doubts, I have the strongest crew around and those guys will be working just as hard as myself to get everything we possibly can out of that R1 superbike. Bring on 2016!”