PJ Jacobsen can ride pretty much anything. Whether it’s flat track, ice racing, Supermoto, or road racing, the 30-year-old New Yorker is one of MotoAmerica’s most versatile riders. He won the 2006 USGPRU GP125 Championship at the tender age of 13, and when he was 15, he raced in the 125 Grand Prix World Championship round at Indy and was the youngest American to ever take to the starting grid in a 125GP World Championship race. He competed in both World Superbike and World Supersport, as well as the British Superbike Championship, AMA Pro Racing, and MotoAmerica. In 2015, Jacobsen finished as runner-up in the World Supersport Championship and was runner-up again in 2019 when he competed in the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship.
After riding for Tytlers Cycle Racing in MotoAmerica Superbike for the past two years, he was given the opportunity to return to MotoAmerica Supersport with the newly formed Rahal Ducati Moto team. For Jacobsen, it’s a chance for him to take care of some unfinished business in Supersport, in an attempt to finally win the Supersport title that has eluded him in the past. He expects to return to MotoAmerica Superbike in 2025 in his second year with Rahal Ducati Moto.
Jacobsen is arguably the most introspective and enigmatic rider in the MotoAmerica paddock, and I recently had a chance to talk with him about his career thus far and his immediate future racing for one of the most famous father-and-son teams in all of motorsports.
Q:
You’ve had a lot of success over the years, and last year, you had eight podiums, including a Superbike win. How do you rank last year in terms of your overall career success? Do you think it was one of your better years?
Jacobsen:
I think last year was pretty good for me on the Superbike. I rode pretty well, especially moving forward halfway through the season. I guess Road America, from that point on, it all kind of clicked for me. I started to do a lot better. The start of the season last year didn’t go as well as I planned, with just some fifths and sixths and a crash. But the rest of the season went pretty well, and I was pretty pumped on my season. I feel like I should have gotten second in the championship, but it is what it is. I ended up getting third.
Q:
Thinking about the two years you were with Tytlers, I would say from the first year to the second year, your development was always going up. It seemed like you were always getting better and better. You had that amazing pass on Petrucci in that last turn at Barber to get on the podium at the final race of the season. Then last year, to get on the podium as much as you did and also to get that win, to me, you look back at that, and it was a matter of growing success the entire time. Would you agree with that?
Jacobsen:
Yeah, for sure. I think halfway through the season of the first year, as well, it really started clicking for me. As we started getting more comfortable on the bike and finding a lot better things in myself, as well in my riding. So, I feel like the first year was pretty good, too. That also didn’t prove to be where I should have been in the championship. I could have been a little bit further up in the first year, as well. I feel like I rode pretty good both years, and definitely my second year.
Q:
I’m sure some people were surprised by the announcement that you’re going to be racing in Supersport, but both Graham Rahal and Ben Spies have made it clear there is a plan to move up to Superbike after the team gets its sea legs, so to speak. How and when did this whole thing develop? I assume it was sometime during this past season. Did it start out with you having conversations with Spies? How did it all come about?
Jacobsen:
Through some sources, I heard about them possibly coming into the paddock. Then, Ben got in touch with me through Barry Gilsenan from Celtic Racing, who is my long-time mentor. He helps me out with a bunch of stuff. He’s always been there for me. So, Ben contacted him, and they started talking. It all came about that way. So, I knew they were coming into the paddock, and it would be a great opportunity to be able to see what they had going on, moving forward for the future of their team coming into MotoAmerica.
Q:
I assume you’ve had conversations with Ben in the past, maybe even when you were racing in World Supersport or being over in Europe. Have you talked with him over the years?
Jacobsen:
I only really spoke to Ben one time. That was when I was racing in USGPRU 125, when he was racing against Mat Mladin. I was sitting down with him and Barry in the motorhome one time, just talking about the track or something. I was going out in one of my races because we were there the same weekend as AMA Superbike. After that, though, I didn’t really have too many discussions with Ben or speak to him much. I know he was at Misano one time, I think, when I was racing World Superbike there. But I never really connected or spoke to Ben too much over the years, except for now.
Q:
In the conversations I’ve had with Ben over the years, they’re always interesting because he definitely is well-connected, and he really knows what a lot of the riders are doing. So, whether he had a conversation with you or not, he was very aware of what you were doing. I’m sure he talked to people who know you well like Matthew Miles and some others.
So, you’re going to be back on a Ducati again, but it’s a different team. Obviously that brand…you know how well-known and popular that brand is and how those fans are about that brand. How do you feel personally about getting involved with the Ducati brand again?
Jacobsen:
It’s great. Ducati is like the number-one manufacturer right now in motorcycle racing. They’re dominating on all levels. It’s good to be back on a brand like that. For sure, even on the street side, they have so much stuff that they’re always coming out with and making new things. They’re improving stuff all the time. It’s a great manufacturer to be with. It’s just good to be back with Ducati. I’ve already done some Ducati PR stuff. Josh Herrin and I had our own private day at Jennings a couple weeks ago with Ducati Tampa Bay. So, I think there are a lot of good possibilities with them. I just think they’re a really good company to be associated with and to grow with.
Q:
How about the third part of it? Not only Ben Spies and Ducati, but let’s talk about Bobby and Graham Rahal. Obviously, you know the Rahal name and are familiar with them. They’re iconic in four-wheel racing and especially open-wheel racing. What are your thoughts about racing for a team as well-known and powerful as Rahal?
Jacobsen:
It’s awesome. Not only do they have a ton of experience and success in IndyCar, but they’re involved in so many other growing businesses. It’s a great family and group of people to be around. I was just visiting their shop there in Indianapolis. I went out to their holiday party. So that was pretty cool to meet people from all the different companies that they’ve set up, and then to see their IndyCar BMW car place where they work on everything and the racing stuff. That was pretty cool to go see. Really, it was a huge eye-opener. It’s like a dream shop. It was cool. Graham has been super nice about everything. He’s a pretty easy guy to get on with. So, I think it’s another good opportunity to be with the right people.
Q:
You’ve raced a lot of different kinds of bikes. You mentioned GP bikes. I know you’ve raced flat track and a lot of Supermoto, but also Supersport and Superbike. You’ve got a lot of experience on Supersport bikes. Is it fair to say you’ve had your most success in Supersport racing over your career?
Jacobsen:
Yeah, I for sure have. I was a runner-up to Kenan Sofuoglu in 2015 in the World Supersport Championship. Almost winning that. I’ve had a lot of wins, podiums. Being in World Supersport for a long time, and even BSB. I won Supersport races. MotoAmerica, I was runner-up in that. I won some MotoAmerica Supersport races, podiums. So, I think the Supersport bike goes pretty well with me. I’m pretty small and stuff. I feel like I can ride a 600 pretty well. So, I think it’s good to be back in Supersport for sure and just kind of go and see where it grows from that point on.
Q:
You mentioned a couple of times that you’ve come close. You were so close to winning the championship. Do you feel like you have a little bit of unfinished business in Supersport? You get to go back and hopefully win a Supersport championship after you came so close a couple times before.
Jacobsen:
It’s been pretty tough in my career. I just feel like I’ve always been runner-up all the time. It’s gotten to the point where it gets annoying after a while. That’s one thing on my resume that I don’t have yet is a championship. So honestly, I would literally take any championship just to put it on my resume right now. It would be pretty interesting. I don’t want to talk too much or jinx myself, but it would definitely be good to add a Supersport Championship to the resume because I feel like it’s a long time coming–a championship for me–and I definitely deserve it and I’m going to put in the effort to make sure that I come close or can finish the job.
Q:
You’ve raced in Superbike the past couple of years and gotten great results. So, when they presented this Supersport opportunity to you, did they tell you, “Race in Supersport in 2024, and then, we want you to go back to Superbike in 2025.”? Did they present that to you as an incentive?
Jacobsen:
Yeah. It was kind of like that. So, it would be great to do this coming year in Supersport and do the job that we want to finish, and then move up to Superbike in 2025. That would be the ultimate goal. But first, we’ve got to kind of see where things are. They’re a new team, obviously. They have a lot of the right people there to make it grow, but you don’t want to move things along too quickly if you’re not ready. I think the whole point is that I’m with this team that’s very stable and built on a solid foundation, that will, I think, be here for a while. I think they have all the right people on this team. I think in the future when they move up to Superbike, they’re going to do a pretty good job.
Q:
The other thing with you that’s really picked up over the past few years, and a thing I admire a lot about you, is how much you’re involved in helping to teach younger riders, the riders you’re involved with, and the coaching and everything that you do. Regarding the situation with Kayla, she’s obviously got a lot of talent, especially at such a young age. But she’s clearly still learning. Are you looking at part of your role as maybe a little bit of mentorship for Kayla? Obviously, the first rider you want to beat is your teammate, so there’s kind of a double-edged sword there, isn’t there? You’re probably going to help her, but you also want to make sure you beat her. Is that right?
Jacobsen:
Yeah. She’s coming into this, as well. She’s super young. She has a lot of stuff still to achieve and things to learn. So, I think it’s really good for her to be a part of that, this whole opportunity with great people and a great team. Ben Spies is there to help us with everything. Kayla has been there the whole time, so he’ll definitely be helping her with a lot of the stuff that she needs help with, but I think she’ll probably really grow as a rider, just being with a really good team and having the right people around her. I think that she’s going to really grow as a rider and become a lot faster and learn a lot more things moving forward. I think it’s a really good opportunity for her career that she has this ride.
Q:
I’ve seen this happen a couple times in my life. I wasn’t very good at hockey or tennis, but I liked playing both. I went to college and intended to play intramural hockey, but I quickly realized the other guys were all serious hockey players. Growing up, I only played on a frozen farm pond. Also, I had a friend in college who was a really good tennis player, and I would try to play tennis against him. I faced opponents who were so much more talented than me. But even though I couldn’t beat them, I actually played better than I ever had before just by competing against that kind of talent. You started racing at a very young age, and I’m sure you faced stiff competition at every level of your racing. Did that help you in your career? And also, do you see that with Kayla? She’s going to be in a very competitive class. Not that the other MotoAmerica classes aren’t also competitive, but Supersport is no joke. Obviously, Xavi Forés won it last year, and he’s a world-class rider. So, not only with you as her teammate, but this idea of being around people who are highly talented, it actually helps your career, doesn’t it?
Jacobsen:
I think it’s going to be really good for her to face all the talent that will be in Supersport this year. She can learn a lot of stuff. For me in my career, my dad always threw me in the deep end of things. I was never in a race class that was like, it’s an easier class, let’s see if we can win here or something. I was thrown into the deep end with a stacked class all the time. So, you learn a lot more. You’re just a fish in a tank and you’re trying to swim. You gotta figure everything out and move forward. You’re going to have a lot of bad days, probably more bad than good, and you’ve just got to not get down on yourself. Just keep learning and keep building. You’re like, “Next time I know to do this, and do this. I looked at the data, and this is what he’s doing compared with me.” So, it’s all a learning thing. I feel like she has a lot more things to learn right now at this stage of her career. So, I think that it will be rough but it will also be really good for her.
Q:
Have you ridden a Ducati Panigale V2 yet? Not necessarily your race bike, but have you ever ridden that motorcycle before?
Jacobsen:
I actually raced one at Loudon. I did the Loudon Classic for the Ducati New York guys. So, I already kind of know what the bike is like. I know it’s a little difficult, but also, the Streetfighter and the Panigale V2 streetbikes, I ride them at Jennings and Homestead, so I’m pretty familiar with the bike.
Q:
Then, you’re familiar with the powerband and the way a big-displacement V-twin like that produces power and torque. Obviously, the handling is a little different with how narrow and small the bike is. It probably suits you because of your size, right?
Jacobsen:
Yeah. It’s definitely pretty aggressive right off the corner. I think that’s a strong point on it. I think it will be pretty good. We have a test coming up in January. So, we’ll have enough time to keep dialing things in and make sure we’re comfortable on the bike.
Q:
That’s what I was going to ask you. You do have a testing program set up before you go to race, to start with, the Daytona 200. So, you guys will be busy after the holidays, it sounds like.
Jacobsen:
Yeah. I think January and February and then maybe right before Daytona again, we’ll be testing. I think we’ll have enough days on the bike. Again, it’s a Supersport bike, so you can’t make it too complicated. I feel like on a Superbike, it can get a bit complicated with testing and stuff. I think a Supersport bike is just a little bit easier and it’s more about getting comfortable with the suspension and stuff like that. So, I think it should be pretty good by the time we get to Daytona.
Q:
You mentioned Celtic Racing owner Barry Gilsenan earlier. I know Barry is always a part of your program in some way. Will he be integrated into the team, or will he just be involved with you? Will he be coming to the track? Will we see him in your pitbox next year?
Jacobsen:
He’ll definitely be at the track for some of the races. He comes to a few races every year. He was at New Jersey this past year. So, he’ll be at some races. Of course, probably if I get invited to IndyCar or something to go watch Graham race, then Barry will probably be at that race and not my race (laughs).
Q:
Do you think Graham is going to at least let you take a couple laps around in his car?
Jacobsen:
Yeah, actually somebody brought that up. I was like, that’s a pretty good idea. If I did half a day in his IndyCar and he did half a day on the V2, it would be pretty cool.
Q:
I would love that. And we can’t wait to see what you can do on the Rahal Ducati Moto Panigale V2 in the MotoAmerica Supersport Championship. As we talked about, you have a lot of experience racing in Supersport, so we expect you to be at the pointy end of that class next year, for sure. Good luck in 2024, PJ.
Jacobsen:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
