Jake Zemke is riding an Erik Buell Racing (EBR) 1190RS Superbike today during Day One of an official two-day AMA Pro Road Racing test at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and he is not testing the Ducshop Racing Ducati 848EVO he raced this past weekend at Daytona International Speedway. But rather than a sudden defection, Zemke’s move is one of mutual benefit for him and the two privately-owned teams involved. “There’s no story really,” Zemke said, laughing. “My [Ducshop Racing] guys had to get back to work, and I had never been to Homestead. I had conversations with Erik Buell previously, and he was real interested if there was ever an opportunity for me to throw a leg over one of his bikes and just give him my input and feedback on it. He really wanted to do that if the opportunity ever arose. My team wasn’t coming down here, so the opportunity presented itself for me to come down here and do a few laps on their bike and just give them some feedback on it. I’m sure having a little more information isn’t going to hurt anything. Just from experience in the past, it helps when you have more opinions on a direction with a motorcycle.” According to Zemke, Erik Buell had contacted him during the off-season about possibly riding a third EBR 1190RS during 2012. Whether or not there would be a third bike depended upon Hero Motorcycles deciding to fund title sponsorship for two bikes. As it turned out, Hero elected to fund title sponsorship for one bike and become the co-sponsor on Geoff May’s existing Amsoil-sponsored program. When asked for his thoughts on the EBR 1190RS, Zemke didn’t have much to say. Before that could be taken as a negative against the American-engineered Superbike, Zemke explained that by not into detail about the EBR he was repaying the courtesy that Ducshop Racing extended him by allowing him to do the test. “Normally, you would do this outside of an open test like this,” said Zemke, who was 11th-fastest out of 19 testers who rode during the second Superbike session Tuesday. “The fact is we’re here and this is what we’re doing. My guys were gracious enough to let me come down and ride a different motorcycle, and they’re OK with that. It’s good for me, too. I always like getting on as many bikes as possible. The more information a rider’s got the better off he is, too. So for everybody involved it’s kind of helping them out.” Asked for his first impression of the 2.2-mile infield road course inside of Homestead-Miami Speedway, Zemke said, “As far as the track goes, it’s a track inside of a speedway, it’s not a classic road course or anything, but the racetrack seems to be pretty decent. I think there are some good passing zones and some areas where you’ll see some good racing. All and all, I think it will work out fine. “Homestead as an event has the potential to be very big. There’s a huge sportbike population here in South Florida, and there’s a strong club racing scene down here, as well. That could go a long way to get people out here to the race. And obviously, M1 [PowerSports] is promoting it, and they’ve always done a great job with their other events. So I’m really looking forward to that. It bodes well for our sport to have an event in this region.” According to AMA Pro Racing’s David McGrath, officials allowed Zemke to participate in the Homestead test with EBR because DucShop Racing is not in attendance and because Zemke has pre-entered for the year. AMA Pro Racing had previously announced that the Homestead test was only open to riders who had pre-entered the AMA Pro event scheduled for September 21st-23rd at Homestead-Miami Speedway.