he management at American Honda is always on the lookout for new racing talent, but nowhere are their eyes focused more intently than at the Erion Racing program.
Eleven years ago, Kevin Erion—a former AMA Pro Twins champion—put together a program with Honda to create a factory-supported race team separate from the factory team. The goal was to provide an environment to develop future factory riders for Honda by putting new talent in the saddle of factory-level race bikes and see what they can do with them.
Based on results, Erion has certainly delivered for Honda. In recent years a number of Erion team riders have won AMA National races and championships. They include Nicky Hayden and Kurtis Roberts, who have gone all the way to the MotoGP level, plus there is the success story with Team Parts Unlimited/PJ1/Erion Honda’s latest star rider: Jake Zemke.
     Until 2004, Formula Xtreme was a class in AMA roadracing for 1,000cc race bikes. This year the rules for the class were completely changed, however. Borrowing from the original format in Superbike competition where twin-cylinder machines were given a displacement allowance over the four-cylinders, the new Formula Xtreme rules called for 600cc four-cylinder machines to compete against 750cc twins.
     In 2004, with support from Honda, Parts Unlimited, PJ1 and other sponsors, the Erion team entered Zemke and Alex Gobert in this all-new Formula Xtreme class aboard Honda CBR600RR sportbikes modified to the limits of the new rules package. In addition to teammate Gobert, Jake had more than just formidable-competition in the Formula Xtreme events with veteran Miguel Duhamel who rode an official Honda factory CBR600RR.
     When the season was over, Duhamel had won the championship as well as the most races in Formula Xtreme, but the young Jake Zemke gave Miguel all he could handle race after race. Jake ended up with two Formula Xtreme race wins and a runner-up finish in the points to Duhamel.
     Looking ahead, the Formula Xtreme class will play a major role in the 2005 AMA roadracing story. For the first time ever, Superbikes will be replaced by Formula Xtreme machines in the prestigious Daytona 200-mile race when the green flag drops in March.
     You can bet the Erion race team will be right in the thick of the action.

Photos by Kinney Jones