Yesterday, February 3, Honda Pro Racing issued a press release that, on the surface, just appeared to be a re-affirmation of what had already been announced, that American PJ Jacobsen would be riding in the 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship on an official Honda.
That’s because in October 2015, Honda Pro Racing announced Jacobsen would be riding a Honda in the Supersport World Championship, and that effort would be a partnership between CORE” Motorsport Thailand, the team Jacobsen finished the 2015 season with, and Ten Kate, Honda’s long-time partner in the Superbike and Supersport World Championships.
But yesterday’s announcement from Honda Pro Racing wasn’t repeating what we already knew. It was announcing that Honda was stepping up to save Jacobsen’s ride after sponsor CORE” Motorsport Thailand backed out on the original deal, nearly leaving Jacobsen out in the cold.
“I went to Spain to go testing last November,” Jacobsen told Roadracingworld.com Thursday, “and the whole group found out on our way to the test that the main sponsor, CORE”, decided they didn’t want to go racing anymore and pulled the plug on the whole program. That’s why the bike had no sponsor logos on it at the test.”
That was at the end of November 2015, and the new deal was announced yesterday, February 3, which means Jacobsen has been hanging in limbo for over two months.
“I’ve been crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, hoping my second place in the Championship last year was going to pull me through and get me a ride, you know,” said Jacobsen. “I was with Ten Kate, and Honda has stepped up and now we have an awesome program for this season. Truthfully, it couldn’t have worked out better. I’m with the Honda factory team now. It’s not a B team. It’s a factory team, the same team as Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark. So it’s going to be an awesome opportunity.”
Jacobsen will be back in action on his factory Honda CBR600RR on February 22 during an official test at Phillip Island ahead of the season-opening event February 26-28 at the same venue.