Motorcycle Maketplace Magazine

The NonStop team have been following young Jake Whitaker closely over the past few months as he has taken on the best in the trials world.

From a very young age Jake has wanted to live his dream of being a top rider and has proven this desire beyond a doubt as he moved quickly through all the grades on offer in NZ, becoming NZ Expert champion in 2007. Jake was the youngest rider ever to have won this prestigious title.

While his competitors had the luxury of riding larger 250cc bikes, to Jake’s credit he took the title on a smaller 125cc machine, which is the largest capacity allowed in the world youth grade he is competing in this year.

After many hours and many phone calls, before we knew it Jake was packing his bags and flying off to Europe to join one of the biggest and best-run teams on the world stage; the very professional Future Trial Racing Team.

Jake was asked to ride the newly developed TRW 125 four-stroke, derived from the tried and proven Honda 4RT trials motorcycle. TRW also produce a 300cc version of this machine, which Jake’s team mate James Dabill is currently campaigning.

At NonStop we considered that involvement with TRW was a good option for Jake as the team is very solid and professionally run. However, we also knew that as the only rider campaigning a four-stroke bike in this 125 class, Jake would not only have to overcome the challenges of being away from home and family for the first time, but would also have to adjust to a machine that even more talented riders such as Patrick Smage chose not to compete on.

Josh stressed the importance of staying focused.

The TRW 125 has proven very reliable to date as Jake has competed in and finished all of his scheduled rides both in Italian championships and world youth championships. Having ridden four-stroke machines myself, however, I was aware that Jake was going to have to change his riding style on the new machine, as the four-strokes have always been heavier. Since the engine only fires half as often as his competitors’ two-stroke machines, he is also faced with totally different power characteristics. This all equates to the rider having to work harder to achieve the same result as that achieved on a 125 two-stroke.

Even top senior rider and 7-times World Champion Dougie Lampkin took a couple of seasons to adjust to his new four-stroke machine after having ridden two-strokes his entire career. Honda Racing Centre (HRC) have spent huge sums on development over several seasons to make their four-stroke competitive against two-strokes, in order to win back the world title on their works HRC four-stroke machine.

We believed it would be a huge achievement for Jake, as one of the youngest competitors, to finish consistently within the top 15 in the youth world championship in his first season. Many of his rivals this season will be leaving the youth grade at the end of the year, making Jake a top contender for the 2009 season.

When Josh Coppins visited NonStop to speak with Jake before his departure, he encouraged him to focus on his riding as much as possible, since it is easy to be side-tracked by the environment, language and details of the events. Josh is based quite near to Jake’s Italian home and encouraged Jake to contact him about any difficulties he encountered either with language or protocol, as he has spent many years learning the ropes himself. Josh has invited Jake, his minder Karl Clarke and other members of TRW to his motocross events when a gap in competition has allowed them time out.

Jake goes through his paces while Josh & Karl observe.

To our delight, Jake has far exceeded our expectations and is currently running in the top ten with an outstanding ride in Japan putting him in 4th position as he ended round five. He was also very popular with the Japanese crowd, who held up banners cheering him on. Slogans like ‘Go Jake’, ‘Get psyched Jake’ and ‘Go kiwi’ all added to the wonderful atmosphere at Motegi in Japan . Jake commented how encouraging this was, and in part he attributes his great result to the enthusiastic fan club he had all that weekend.

We at NonStop would like to take this opportunity to wish Jake all the best for the remainder of the season and congratulate him on his efforts so far. He is an asset to motorcycling in New Zealand and a great ambassador for our sport and country.

This would not have been possible without the support of his parents Michelle and Pat Whitaker and his minder Karl Clark and his family, who are acting as a home away from home. Great Effort Team! We look forward to the coming months.

Press Release July 2008:
News Update on Black Thunder Racing NZ and Bonneville 2008

Black Thunder Racing have completed the first phase of their testing in preparation for an attack on a world land speed record at Bonneville Speed week 2008 on the Salt Flats in Utah USA.
Sunday the 6th of July saw Alan Thoresen and the Black Thunder Racing team at Hamilton Airport with the Kawasaki ZX-14 “Black Thunder” carrying out some high speed runs to check some new modifications and ensure good stability at high speed. Initial runs were carried out up to around 300kph, with Alan and the Kawasaki ZX-14 “Black Thunder” working the runs under Hamilton Air traffic control, and the Hamilton International Airport Rescue Fire team who sequenced the runs between a reasonably high volume of air traffic.
Alan said that the runs were only possible with the valued assistance and support of Hamilton Airport, and the fact he had spent many years in the aviation industry, and flown out of Hamilton as a pilot, gave him experience to understand and comply with the requirements of an operational international airport.
Alan advised “The team from rescue fire and the control tower were great and were very supportive of our testing and understanding of land speed racing testing in preparation for Bonneville.”
The Black Thunder Team consists of Alan Thoresen as owner and rider, his wife Violet Thoresen as Team Official, Neil Powell, a Motorcycle Technician from Cambridge who is Team Crew Chief, and Andy Goodridge from Te Awamutu, who works with Hamilton City, as Assistant Crew Chief, all of whom will be travelling to Bonneville from Las Vegas on the 16th of August to be ready for Technical Inspection on the 17th and to start Racing at Speed Week 2008 on the 18th of August.
This is the same Black Thunder Team which attempted a Land Speed Record at Bonneville Speed Week in 2007, as well as being the only team which travelled from New Zealand in that year.
Fighting to overcome traction issues on the salt with wheel spins at 160 to 180mph, Alan Thoresen and his ZX-14 “Black Thunder” came with in a few miles an hour of the Land Speed record they were chasing, when he hit some debris at around 180mph, causing the rear wheel of the bike to slide out, and causing the bike to run off the course and impact two timing towers, damaging the bike and thus ending the attempt for a record prematurely.
Despite this accident it has simply given Alan and his team more determination to try harder this year in at Bonneville in 2008.

For more information contact: Alan Thoresen
Email: thor7@xtra.co.nz
Phone: 0275-474-401 or Afterhours 07-843-4357