Rockstar Energy Racing Team’s Jason Anderson has come a really long way since his 2011 pro Supercross debut. Unlike some of his contemporary racers who had some sort of immediate success in the pro ranks, Anderson has clawed his way to the top over the course of a few years. It’s not an opportunity many racers in his position actually get in today’s racing market, where teams tend to search for the next hot amateur to take a struggling racer’s place after a year or two.
Although the professional stage was a bit too big for young Jason Anderson when he hit the ranks, he’s grown into it, and now he has become a dominant force in the 250cc Western Regional SX Series.
Even though it seems as if he became a contender overnight, nothing could be farther from the truth. His rise has been deliberate, calculated, and steady. And he’s not going anywhere.
Making A Name
Anderson was never an Adam Cianciarulo, Ricky Carmichael, or James Stewart type of amateur. Very few people were talking about Jason Anderson while he was racing 85s or even 125s. But people definitely started talking about the small-town New Mexico-native when he started racing 250Fs in the B class, and eventually the A class, at the biggest amateur events in the country. He was 16 before most of the industry began to take notice, and he didn’t have his first pro Supercross until he was 18, which is a year or two later than many amateur standouts.
“I would say when I was about 16 or so, for my first B-class year, people started noticing me a bit more,” Anderson said. “I was doing good and I was on big bikes. Just making the transition from little bikes to big bikes and still doing good is kind of like a big deal. A lot of good mini racers never make that transition work. And then I went into my first pro year and I got a ride and everything, and thought I was all-good.”
Anderson was actually a top KTM-supported amateur from late 2007 through 2009. The plan all along was for him to move to the factory KTM outfit, but the KTM factory effort in the USA was waning in those years, with basically one racer on the team by 2010 because he had a multi-year deal. The future of factory KTM was up in the air, so Anderson ended up taking a new amateur ride from Kawasaki Team Green.
To read more of the Jason Anderson Interview in this week’s Cycle News, click here