http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2005/Aug/050815o.htm
:fact
Faster Than A New York Minute
disalvo currently one of the top young american racers
by evan williams Monday, August 15, 2005
Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo may be of small stature, but he certainly has a big heart. The New Yorker has proven to be one of the most aggressive riders in America in his stint with the factory team, and has managed to distinguish himself in the four-rider Yamaha squad virtue of winning races in Supersport and Superstock (and staying healthy). The 21 year-old is the company's best and only hope to retain the number one plate in Superstock this year. He's also won six straight poles on his factory R1 in the class.
DiSalvo entered Mid-Ohio trailing by ten points in Superstock, but some bike problems meant he had to settle for second place to points leader Aaron Yates and his late race challenge for the win never materialized. DiSalvo now trails by 14 with just two races to go.
"If it was just (ten points), I might be able to get it back with the differential between winning and second, pole points, and all that jazz," says DiSalvo. "It's not gonna be easy by any means. If I have any thoughts of winning the championship, I have to win the last two races and hope Aaron has some issues. I'm just gonna try to do what we do and win the last two races of the season."
This is just the second season DiSalvo has thrown a leg over a big bore behemoth, mind you. His early roadrace experience came courtesy of smaller displacement race bikes but has taken to the open class machines at an impressive clip. "I love riding the 1000. It seems like the more horsepower they throw at me, the better I've handled it. It seems like riding the 1000 is easier to me. You have the power to fix things. If you miss your mark on the 600, it is nowhere near the power to turn the bike with the rear wheel like the big bike. You can light it up—there are more options on the 1000," says DiSalvo of his Graves Yamaha R1.
"I think coming from a dirt track background helped quite a bit. My coach and I—Jeff Haney—worked on that bike almost exclusively last year," says DiSalvo. "Our focus was to get me riding well on the 1000. That's carried over this year."
DiSalvo also has earned a reputation as a hard, aggressive racer, much to the chagrin to some of his rivals. While some of the opponents have expressed disdain after a tight move or three, Jason has often been celebrating a podium finish at the time. For his part, DiSalvo says the criticism from other riders via the press doesn't bother him. "If someone doesn't like what I am doing, they can come talk to me about it. I'll listen and decide what course of action to take next. But the bottom line is that I'm not out there to make friends, I'm out there to win races," he says.
Jason DiSalvo is rarely, if ever, seen at the track without his parents and trainer/former racer Jeff Haney.
DiSalvo, the youngest of five children and the son of former racer Jim DiSalvo, says that's the way he likes it. "It all goes back to when I started racing. They were there then and now and I don't mind it at all. It's great to have them involved and Yamaha has been really good to have them feel they are part of the team. It's cool."
The four man Yamaha squad races for the factory squad in Supersport and Graves Yamaha in Superstock. "I do my own thing on the team. That's how I see it. Aaron (Gobert) and Damon (Buckmaster) get ready in the factory truck. Jamie (Hacking) uses his motorhome, and I have the Graves truck all to myself," he says.
"I like to focus on what I'm doing. The crew will try some other setup stuff from the other riders, but I've found my setup is a little different from what the other guys are doing. A different direction, never quite what other guys are doing," Jason explains.
"I have a great support system around me. My parents and Jeff, it's kinda like a team within a team."
While quickly cultivating an image as the last guy you'd ever want to see on your tail on the final lap, DiSalvo's off-track manner belies the racetrack madman team managers want on their machines. "I'm not really an aggressive individual off the track. I was never aggressive until I went to Europe," says Jason, who spent two seasons racing 125s and 250s on the Continent before coming back to the States. "I came in after the first race and the bike looked like it had been crashed. Those guys don't fool around over there. If you think I'm aggressive, you should see those guys in the European 125 championship. If you win it, you're pretty much guaranteed a ride in the World championship. Those guys are just out there to win."
The bad boy persona is a bit ironic, because when DiSalvo first joined Yamaha, he was the smallest factory rider on the tour. "It's funny because I weighed in yesterday at 145," he says. "When I won Daytona for Yamaha (in 2004), I weighed 118 going into that race."
DiSalvo says the muscle gain didn't come from a concerted effort to pile on the pounds, but comes from training on dirt bikes, plus muscling around a 1000cc Superstock bike in practice and testing. "I think it's more that the bike changed it. I had to do something," he says. "When I got on the 1000, I knew I definitely had to get some (more) strength. I didn't touch a weight all year but I put on muscle riding the bike and with my other training."
The Early Days
So what is DiSalvo's story? How did he end up as one of the top riders in America?
The youngest son of a former racer, he began racing dirt track at age four. He continued to race as a boy, but did it come naturally to him?
"Not really. I don't know ... you look at some of the other young racers and they were lighting the world on fire when they were four years old. Me, I was kinda out there riding around," he says. "I never took it that seriously until I was 12 or 13. Then I started working out and figuring out how to win, not just riding around. I had won races and championships, before, but nothing big. When I was 13, I won the amateur national, and I won a Canadian championship, and I thought I might actually be pretty good."
That's a recurring theme for DiSalvo—fighting his way to stay above water in the deep end, then flourishing and becoming ready for a deeper pool. It's an important trait for a racer who says his goal is MotoGP.
After dirt track success came the initial foray into roadracing. "My Dad had always had that in mind," says Jason. "I went out to Freddie Spencer's school in Vegas and had some 125s sent out to the West Coast. I got some experience in what we considered the off-season, then did some WERA stuff. We did the first race in Talladega, Alabama ... and got smoked! We didn't know anything about anything about roadracing. It was like I was just riding around again."
Perseverance kept DiSalvo focused and Jason eventually found the plot—and a riding coach that has been with him ever since. "I kept going back to Freddie Spencer's school and I got hooked up with Jeff Haney. Then the next year was my big year on 125s here in the states and that set the stage for going over to Europe to do the 125s." Haney, a former racer and a coach for the likes of Scott Russell and Kevin Schwantz, is a constant figure around Jason.
DiSalvo took an unconventional (for an American) path by leaving the US earning his stripes racing in an AMA roadracing series. "I have my sights set on Grand Prix, and at the time, that was the hot ticket to get in," he says. "Go do the 125s, and work your way up to 500s. That's why we did it. One day, Pops said 'We're going to put together a team and go to Europe. We have a sponsor and we're gonna do it.' So we did."
What did he think of his European days? "It was cool. And tough. It was a culture shock, and the learning curve ... at the time, I thought how are these guys going so fast. I was 24th my first race. It was a crazy deal. We got smoked again. As soon as you get good, you step up and get beat. That's the way it goes."
Jason quickly caught on, racing a hodgepodge of different championships on a 125 (the British, European, and some Wild Card rounds in the World Championship). He qualified well and won a race in England, and the second year moved up to a 250cc bike.
The time was ripe to come back to America after those two years, and the youngster raced a Honda 250 and a Suzuki GSX-R750 in Superstock. After hearing of his exploits in Europe, DiSalvo's first chance to race in front of the AMA fans and media was at Daytona. After running near the front in the 250 race, DiSalvo crashed out in the infield, then looked as if he wanted to fight with a fellow faller as the TV cameras captured it all. What was the deal with that? "I blocked that out of my memory," says Jason, clearly embarrassed when asked. "Every time someone brings that up, I gotta say 'Why?' They say first impressions are everything, but that was a heckuva first impression."
DiSalvo quickly regrouped and raced a solid season on mostly new-to-him circuits. It was widely assumed Honda would scoop up DiSalvo for a support deal after he won a Supersport race at Elkhart (via his Spencer connections) but Yamaha stepped in an inked DiSalvo to a deal with their factory team.
At 19, he completed his first year on a factory bike, racing the R6 in Supersport and Superstock. The theme of Jason's career returned -- tough times and learning, followed by success. "We had some podiums. We weren't lighting the world on fire, though," he says. "I was really happy being a part of it all and learning.
OLD SkOOL PIX...
