AMA Flat Track: 2010 AMA GN Champion Jake Johnson Talks Racing and Hooking Up

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Jake Johnson, the 2010 AMA Flat Track Grand National Champion, sits beside one of his trusty Zanotti Racing H-D XR750s in the pits at the Springfield Mile on September 5. Johnson, who also has two AMA Flat Track Singles Championships on his resume for the '06 and '08 seasons, won the title outright this year with a season that was filled with consistency, great riding, and zero machinery failures. His Dave Zanotti-helmed team put together bullet-proof machinery not only in the Twins Series, but in the Singles Series as well, propelling Jersey Jake to three wins, three 2nd place finishes, two 3rd place finishes and eleven top 5 finishes on the year, in what ended up being a 16 round season. Jake's final tally over series runner-up Joe Kopp was 289-269 points. Not bad numbers, you say!?
The '02 AMA Flat Track Rookie of the Year, who calls Franklinville, N.J. home, hooked up with the Zanotti team during the off-season, and they proceeded to start off the season at Daytona with winning on their 'to do' list, getting a 3rd place at the season opening race and then winning the second race of the year on the next night. Johnson added the Springfield Mile win in May to go along with his season-ending win on the Yavapai Downs Mile in Prescott Valley to close out a very successful season for him and the Zanotti Racing team. The team's only finish on the year that didn't garner a double-point pay-out was a very uncharacteristic 13th place finish at the Gas City Short Track round in June. Along the way, Jake and the team also won the Twins Championship and they were also awarded the Team Excellence Award, as well as Dave Zanotti and Mike Hacker being awarded Mechanics of the Year by title sponsor K&N Filters.
Congrats go out to Jake Johnson and the Zanotti Racing team for such a stellar year.
Great job guys, and we can't wait to see the new season roll off in just shy of four months!
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Jake Johnson, the newly crowned 2010 AMA Flat Track Grand National Champion, won three races this year on the AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters presented by Motorcycle Superstore.com Grand National Championship schedule. While riding for Zanotti Racing and splitting time between his Zanotti XR-750 in the Twins Series (which he also won to go along with the newly re-combined overall championship) and his Zanotti Honda CR450F in the Singles Series (where he placed 4th on the year), Johnson and the team were the model of consistency, bullet-proof machinery and rider skill and ability.

This was the first year since the end of the 2005 season that AMA Flat Track had combined the overall championship, and Johnson and the Zanotti Racing team had what it took to add to their long lists of accomplishments throughout the years in the series. Johnson adds the overall and Twins Championships to his '06 and '08 Singles Class Championships, and Zanotti Racing adds to it's legacy and winning ways in AMA Flat Track to be the only father and son-run team to win the coveted #1 plate in the top form of American flat track racing. Dave's father, Mario, teamed with '76 Rookie of the Year Steve Eklund to win the 1979 AMA Flat Track Grand National Championship.

Jake got a chance to talk with the great folks over at RoadRacerX.com at the end of the season, and you can check out the chat with him below as he talks about hooking up on the track and the difference between the cushion and the groove, among other things.

Congrats again go out to Jake and the Zanotti team for a stellar year!

Super job, and I can't wait to see them defend their titles in the 2011 season!
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Thanks to the great crew at Road Racer X.com for putting this chat together with Jake Johnson, the 2010 Champ!

http://www.roadracerx.com/features/tuesday-conversation/tuesday-conversation-jake-johnson/
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