MotoAmerica Racer Delivers Winning Message To Next Generation
Long-time REV’IT! rider PJ Jacobsen is using his international racing experience to help younger riders achieve their dreams. He believes children can understand and begin to employ competition concepts and strategies at a surprisingly early age. But he also knows from experience that kids just want to have fun on motorcycles.
Schooling future champions
Seven years after making his 125cc Grand Prix debut in 2008 at the legendary “Brickyard,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway, PJ Jacobson became the first American to earn a pole position and a victory in the FIM Supersport World Championship. That season, 2015, he finished second overall to five-time WorldSSP Champion Kenan Sofuoğlu.
Since then, Jacobsen has raced World Superbike, British Superbike, MotoAmerica Supersport and Stock 1000, and even American Flat Track Twins. This past season, he once again contested the MotoAmerica series, where he earned a Superbike pole position and three podium finishes on a Tytlers Cycle Racing BMW M 1000 RR.
Been There, Won That
“Working with kids, I know how they get frustrated. They’re kids, after all. So often, a kid is just there to do the lap time and to be fast. They get frustrated with themselves when they can’t do the lap time. I know how it is, and I can get in their minds, because I was in that very same place at one time.
“When I was going into the professional ranks at 16 or 17 years old,” Jacobsen recalls, “I was riding around with other kids. I saw the struggles and what parents do with their kids — all the stuff I didn’t do. I try to help the kids and their parents, steering them in the right direction. ‘I was in a similar situation, try this.’ Or, ‘You should probably go this route.’”
Guiding Light
“Some of the young kids I work with are super-fast. I try to do my best so they can believe in and catch their dreams. Eventually, they will be where I am. I guide them and not just with coaching on the bike. ‘Should we go to Europe? Should we do this? Should we do that?’ I can give them my input, because I’ve already done all that stuff.”
Forever Learning
Sometimes, students need help getting through a rough patch in their riding. “One kid that I coach was having a bad race weekend,” Jacobsen recalls. “He was really down. I was there, helping him refocus and forget about the crashes. I’ve been in those same situations. It’s hard. Mentally, as a rider, you have to be the strongest person.”
Jacobsen continues to grow as a rider, as well. He has studied and even replicated the aggressive, rear-wheel-in-the-air braking of 2021 Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. “When the rear end is up like that,” PJ says, “I have really good stopping power and more confidence in the front end. When the rear comes down, I can go right to the corner, not skate through it.
“When I’m sliding into corners, I don’t hit my apexes correctly. I work on that a lot with the Ohvale minibike, and there were a couple of MotoAmerica tracks this year with second-gear corners where I did it on the BMW. I did it in Turn 12 at Brainerd, and I was close to the top of the field in the last split. It gave me really good front-end confidence, and I hit my marks.”
Techniques developed on smaller-displacement machines ridden on kart tracks directly relate to what Jacobsen does in MotoAmerica competition on a 200-plus-horsepower Superbike. “Faster, more-developed riders can practice on an Ohvale or a 450cc supermoto bike,” he says. “If they need coaching, I can teach them that type of stuff.”
