1998 Daytona 200 podium

Throughout that season Jamie was a front-runner. He focused on tuning his style, making progressive gains, and learning the subtle nuances of the Superbikes. Toward the end of the season, he was third in points going into the race in Brainerd, when the bike high-sided due to a malfunction. He was thrown and the bike landed on top of him, breaking his pelvis, putting him out for the rest of the year. Despite the injury and his fall from points contention, Jamie had earned the title “1998 AMA Superbike Rookie of the Year”.

In 1999, after a full recovery from his injuries, Yamaha invited Jamie to participate in the famous Suzuka 8 Hour race in Japan. This team race begins at 11:30 am and runs all afternoon under the hot summer sun into the evening until 7:30 pm, after darkness has fallen over the circuit. Each team consists of 2 riders. Although Jamie had never ridden the circuit before, he and his teammate Norihiko Fujiwara finished a respectable 16 th out of 75 teams.

1998 World Superbike Laguna

That season Jamie made marked improvements in his riding. He achieved several podium finished in Superbike and got his first two 600 Supersport wins.

In 2000, Jamie continued to impress with wins in the 600 class. At the same time he was translating his new found skills to the Superbike and making definite improvements there. He found himself constantly up front but always straddling that fine line between success and crashing out. Reflecting back on this period and hindsight being 20/20, Jamie realizes that he had a difficult time translating what the bike was doing for the team. He didn’t have knowledge to tell them how to set the bike up for the win and found himself consistently overriding the bike.

However, Jamie’s performances and finishes had again increased his visibility and notoriety making key people take notice. At the end of the 2000 season, he was approached by Yoshimura Factory Suzuki, the defending championship winning team, and was asked to join for a 2 year stint. Jamie was honored and thought that it would be a great opportunity to partner with a solid team with excellent equipment.

The 2001 season was a great learning experience for Jamie, but it was a difficult period for him as well. Jamie has a smaller body build than his teammates and the Suzuki GSXR750 was a physically larger bike than the bikes he had been winning on with previous teams. He felt stretched out on the frame and had a difficult time adjusting to the new position he was forced to ride in to be fast. He also had a difficult time describing to his engineers what the bike was doing on the track. He had moderate successes during this period but felt like the performances didn’t live up to the potential.