MotoAmerica | 2022 | Round 3 | Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta | Braselton | April 22 - 24

All but one, Cody is 28 or 29.

 

T

Thats interesting because if I’m not mistaken age limit for Jr Cup is 25??

 

14-28

 

Age is not what has many Jr Cup teams frustrated, it's this clause.



He raced Supersport for about 5 seasons years ago, raced in the 200 this year which means his Supersport license is current.

That pesky word "may" makes another appearance.

 

. The MA site says otherwise. Focus on the Junior Cup section

http://www.motoamericaregistration.com/PDF/Bulletins/MotoAmerica Team Sponsorship Deck G.pdf

 

I guess the sponsorship deck is out of date. 2022 rules say 14-28.

1.10
License Type
Junior Cup
Minimum Age
14 years
Maximum Age
28 years

 

he is 28, he has a November birthday, the age limit is also 28, so this is his last year of eligibility

 

I still think he being in the class doesn’t really go with the spirit of the rules for that class. If he was 28 and a 2nd year racer, sure as it’s a development class. It’s like being a novice forever. That being said the rules need to be more clear and he’s following the rules.

 

Favorite sons to MA. They bring quite a bit of sponsorship / social media presence to the show. However I do cringe whenever I see the celebrations when he hits the podium. It's like a man amongst children. If you were to define a cherry picker...

 

id feel a bit different if he won a ton or was running away with everything every year. hes finally working it out, in what his 3rd year. idc really, he is experienced and if anything is going to push the kids like we see with Herrin in SS. Cest la vie

 

Cody has never raced what is now considered Supersport. He raced MA Superstock 600 and DMG Supersport which at the time was the support class to Daytona Sportbike. This year's Daytona 200 entry did not require a Supersport license. It was a one-off event.

Story time:

When the Westby seat opened up on the R3 in 2019, Cody came up as a potential fill-in to finish the season. Cody had not raced since 2015 when he was on my team and we had all three of us at KWR for the only instance. Cody didn't want to do it because he was 25 years old and felt that it would be a bad look, but I encouraged him and convinced him to do it. He could not afford to ride a 600 anymore and there simply wasn't enough resources to get him back on a bigger, more expensive bike. He was working full-time at the Apple store in Las Vegas and teaching car instruction on the side. I wanted to see him racing so we could enjoy what we do as a family all together. I had barely seen him in those years he wasn't racing.

I told him to go race, have fun with it because you never know where it leads. He ended up doing a full season in 2020 for Westby and then him and my Dad went and did their own Kawi program in 2021.

Really since the RC cup became Junior cup, I had always been encouraging MA to raise the age limit far before Cody was involved in the series, because I've coached a lot of late teens/early 20's riders who were getting into the sport with small displacement bikes. I've met so many guys that are 20, 22 years old who got into track days after they got out of the house or school, and were not able to go racing in Junior Cup because the age limit used to be so low. Eventually they cave in to track-day peer pressure of getting a 600 and then a year or two later they are either broke or have crashed themselves out of the sport.

Cody could be an inspiration for those who weren't gifted a dirt bike at 5 years old (like we were) to go get out and do some professional racing. More people should put their pride aside and get out in Junior Cup IMO.

Since he got back into racing, Cody has been included in YCRS schools and has worked hard to become now a Senior Instructor, and he is also a contracted Factory test rider for Harley-Davidson. He quit is job at Apple last year, all because he had the opportunity to do some cheap racing.

For those who want to make a stink about it - here's my suggestion: Go beat him. You'll have done something.

 

I want the age raised to 60. Then Ill grid up!!

 

Interesting, thanks for the back story.

Was not aware he raced in these classes. But it kind of sounds like he is quite a bit more experienced than the current competition in Jr Cup. Majority of the that field came from mini's. Whom have been putting in the work since a very early age at kart tracks.

That is kind of how I felt along with others. Opinion of a enthusiast and someone grinding putting his kids on the track.

Another counter point would be to direct them to club racing? Going from track day to MotoAmerica is a huge risk mentally and financially. Just kind of seems like a recipe for failure?

Awesome, not often we hear success stories of making a living in this industry!

We would love to! Unfortunately the cost to be competitive in a entry level class has many of us sitting on the sidelines looking up at the likes of Cody.

Kyle, I'm not hear to argue. I have the utmost respect for what you have done in this sport. My daughter looks up to you / Hannah and we are always sending you messages via Instagram. Just a small counter point from us little people.

 

On the flip side MA could do a Senior Cup if enough age inappropriate Jr. Cup entries appear.

 

I agree. I don't know Cody, but I do know he's playing within the rules and I say to those who don't like the rules: You always have the choice to go somewhere else. No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to race Junior Cup. Same thing with people bitching about the high dollar Ducatis in CCS twins when they're racing an SV and saying it's unfair. Go somewhere else if you don't like the rules.
I'm 58 and I decided to stop racing last year but if the MA rules allowed me to race in Junior cup, I would seriously think about it. I know that I wouldn't be contending for wins (that wouldn't be the point for me) but I'd still be dicing with mid pack riders and those younger riders would be getting more experience with racecraft. It would be a ton of fun and relatively cheap with large grids. I think the opportunity to talk to these kids about their racing from an on-track perspective could be of some value.
Yes, the idea of "Senior Cup" would be cool!

 

I think a Senior Cup using JR Cup tech requirements is brilliant! Mix them in the same race with red plates like was done with SBK and Stk 1000. Possibly might reduce cost of the class.

 

I was thinking of 2 seperate classes as qualifiers then make a combined race off the top 10 or 15 in each class.

 

So, if I'm getting all of this right, participants in the Junior Cup range from 14-year-old girls to 28-year-old men? Maybe they should change the name of the class. I find it confusing. But then again, I never got the Senior TT either.

It's a hell of a lot of fun to watch, though.

 

I’m not sure what year they raised the age limit, but I do know that the first few years of JC had huge grids due to what I assume was pent up demand for the class/series. Over the past few years many of those racers have moved up to Twins, Supersport, Stock 1000 and SBK and there was not the same bow wave of young racers behind them. So we are seeing more modest grid sizes in JC now and it makes sense to open the aperture a bit to get some more racers.

But let’s talk more about Twins and Kyle on that BMW!

If you haven’t watched it, the battle between Teagg and Jody in Twins was phenomenal. And it was really cool watching Kyle show some pace on a new bike with no real testing. I wonder what he could do there if he tried!

 

@KWyman133 Thank you for the clarification