Jamie with friend and #1: 1995 Yamaha YZF win

In early 1995, Jamie found a stock Honda CBR600F2 at a local salvage yard, scrounged enough parts to get it running and entered his first full year of Amateur CCS racing. He took a completely stock bike and won every race he entered--stock and modified. He also raced the last half of the WERA Championship series and won every race he entered in that series as well. What makes Jamie’s rookie winning record even more mind-boggling is the dismal equipment he had to work with. He recalls putting his bike on the dyno after installing a new jetting kit (which was supposed to produce more power). When he got the results back, he found that the bike actually produced less horsepower than the stock version. Unfortunately it was too late to change things back but Jamie went out with that underpowered bike and won the race anyway!

During that time, Jamie was asked by the owner of Buzz’s Psycho Cycles to ride a YZF 600 in the Yamaha YZF Challenge at Road Atlanta. There were two races left to qualify for the event, and Jamie won them both. He started the race in 74 th position in the 3 rd wave. By the second lap, after an incredible launch, he was leading the race and went on to win it. Yamaha’s Tom Halverson (his current race team director) and Colin Edwards presented Jamie with his first place trophy.

On the pole @ Pheonix in 1997

That year was a challenge both on and off the track. As any amateur racer knows, fielding your own bikes is a drain on both your time and financial resources. Working long hours at his day job painting cars at a body shop, Jamie struggled to make ends meet and spent most of his earnings just to make it to the next race. After a lot of hard work and determination, Jamie ended the year with 7 national amateur titles.

In 1996, John Ulrich of Valvoline Racing gave Jamie a sponsorship for the WERA series. Showing speed and natural talent, Jamie’s hard work was about to pay off, and it wasn’t long before Jamie was heading for professional AMA racing.

His first AMA ride was in 1997, with the Kinko’s Kawasaki owned by Robert Nutt. In his first-ever AMA 600 Supersport race, on a semi-factory bike, riding against the superstars of the day, he qualified on the pole at Phoenix. This very rare achievement really made people sit up and take notice.

By 1998, Yamaha approached Jamie and offered him his dream ride with the Factory Yamaha Team on a Superbike with a three year deal. In his first Superbike race, he finished 3 rd in the Daytona 200, a feat no other rookie has ever achieved.