08-01-2006, 12:42 AM
Here's a little excerpt from my interview with Jake Z at Laguna. The full interview will be posted at vtec.net pretty soon here. I'm just happy I got this interview transcribed about 3 times as fast as I did last year's interview with Al Luddington (crew chief).
NOTE: This is unedited so I'll clean up things a little bit before the final posting
G: Has it been an enjoyable challenge developing the bike yourself because back when you had HRC bikes you were winning more but, just like you said they came off the crate and that's it.
Jake: I think its more gratifying for all the guys at the shop for sure. I mean, you know they're actually the ones putting in hours and you know they're the ones that are developing everythign. We've got our own R&D department in house now, um there's three guys that are involved with that.
Its...definitely more gratifying for the guys I'd say, I mean you know its their work that's getting the bike to the front. And uh, instead of just changing parts out they're actually making stuff, developing stuff, throwing all of their ideas at it, seeing what works and what doesn't ITs definitely more gratifying for the guys.
G: How about the difference between the 06 and 05 CBR[1000RR] because there was a mid cycle update and you guys were racing the 05 and now you're [campaigning] the 06, what are the big areas where the 06 is better?
Jake: You know from the racing the standpoint its a little bit harder to say because we've changed so much from last year to this year. We've changed suspension manufacturers and we've actually changed so much stuff on the bike.
A lot of the areas that they worked on from the 05 to 06 on the street bike was you know, losing some weight, gaining some mid-range power and a lot of that stuff doesn't carry over to our side because our bikes are already [at] minimum weight, they've already stripped them down completely and a lot of the areas where they did save some weight...you know if they go to a little bit lighter wheel on the production bike that won't help us. It'll help the guys in the Superstock class quite a bit but its not gonna help us on the Superbike as much because we already changed all that stuff anyway.
So a lot of the areas that got improved from 05 to 06 it will help the guys on the Superstock bikes [and] the guys on the Erion bikes but its definitely not so much of a help to us.
G: So its kind of wash?
Jake: For us yeah, but like I said for the Superstock guys it helps and obviously on the street end of it, it was a huge improvement from 05 to 06
G: So ah, I'll ask you a couple rider questions, you were originally on the [X-Games Supermoto list last year and then you decided to opt out. what happened, did you decide you need to focus [on Superbike]
Jake: Wellll it really came down to a timing issue. We didn't really have the proper amount of time to go out and test the bike and get it dialed and set up. If we were gonna go to X-Games we're going there to win it, we weren't going there to you know
G: Podium or get fifth place...
Jake: Yeah we weren't going there to just be a field-filler, we were gonna go there to win the thing. And we didn't really have the time and opportunities with our racing and testing schedules and you know, trying to put the thing together...it was just a bit too late to do that. After last year we were like, we couldn't do it, but we really wanted to so for this
year we were on board to do it but unfortunately scheduling conflict, we've got an AMA road race that same weekend so we'll be at Mid-Ohio instead.
But we're sending MC [Jeremy McGrath] back there and he'll carry the flag for Honda I'm sure. He does a really good job at it and I'm pretty sure he's doing the step up and the Supermoto both so he'll be back out there. The pace he was running last year after that crash, he had the pace to win. I know he's fired up, he's here this weekend, I'm sure you'll probably run into him
NOTE: This is unedited so I'll clean up things a little bit before the final posting
G: Has it been an enjoyable challenge developing the bike yourself because back when you had HRC bikes you were winning more but, just like you said they came off the crate and that's it.
Jake: I think its more gratifying for all the guys at the shop for sure. I mean, you know they're actually the ones putting in hours and you know they're the ones that are developing everythign. We've got our own R&D department in house now, um there's three guys that are involved with that.
Its...definitely more gratifying for the guys I'd say, I mean you know its their work that's getting the bike to the front. And uh, instead of just changing parts out they're actually making stuff, developing stuff, throwing all of their ideas at it, seeing what works and what doesn't ITs definitely more gratifying for the guys.
G: How about the difference between the 06 and 05 CBR[1000RR] because there was a mid cycle update and you guys were racing the 05 and now you're [campaigning] the 06, what are the big areas where the 06 is better?
Jake: You know from the racing the standpoint its a little bit harder to say because we've changed so much from last year to this year. We've changed suspension manufacturers and we've actually changed so much stuff on the bike.
A lot of the areas that they worked on from the 05 to 06 on the street bike was you know, losing some weight, gaining some mid-range power and a lot of that stuff doesn't carry over to our side because our bikes are already [at] minimum weight, they've already stripped them down completely and a lot of the areas where they did save some weight...you know if they go to a little bit lighter wheel on the production bike that won't help us. It'll help the guys in the Superstock class quite a bit but its not gonna help us on the Superbike as much because we already changed all that stuff anyway.
So a lot of the areas that got improved from 05 to 06 it will help the guys on the Superstock bikes [and] the guys on the Erion bikes but its definitely not so much of a help to us.
G: So its kind of wash?
Jake: For us yeah, but like I said for the Superstock guys it helps and obviously on the street end of it, it was a huge improvement from 05 to 06
G: So ah, I'll ask you a couple rider questions, you were originally on the [X-Games Supermoto list last year and then you decided to opt out. what happened, did you decide you need to focus [on Superbike]
Jake: Wellll it really came down to a timing issue. We didn't really have the proper amount of time to go out and test the bike and get it dialed and set up. If we were gonna go to X-Games we're going there to win it, we weren't going there to you know
G: Podium or get fifth place...
Jake: Yeah we weren't going there to just be a field-filler, we were gonna go there to win the thing. And we didn't really have the time and opportunities with our racing and testing schedules and you know, trying to put the thing together...it was just a bit too late to do that. After last year we were like, we couldn't do it, but we really wanted to so for this
year we were on board to do it but unfortunately scheduling conflict, we've got an AMA road race that same weekend so we'll be at Mid-Ohio instead.
But we're sending MC [Jeremy McGrath] back there and he'll carry the flag for Honda I'm sure. He does a really good job at it and I'm pretty sure he's doing the step up and the Supermoto both so he'll be back out there. The pace he was running last year after that crash, he had the pace to win. I know he's fired up, he's here this weekend, I'm sure you'll probably run into him
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com