Last season, his first full-year in supercross on a 450, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer was a breakout star. Collecting a podium in Phoenix in 2012 was a start and from there, Weimer would go on to get four more podiums and battle for third in the points before crashing out in New Orleans. He was up and down at times, but all in all, he took fifth overall with much talk about how he’s going to step it up in 2013.

And in a much deeper field this year, Weimer indeed looked to be stepping up, going 5-6-5 at the first three races. We all know his program is solid: great team, great bike and he’s aligned himself with Aldon Baker to put in the work off the track. But then in Oakland disaster struck as Weimer was forced to sit out the night with pneumonia. The next week, he suffered a rib injury following a crash in the main, which forced him to miss the next two races. Now, the train that was on the track all of a sudden derailed in a “Fugitive”-type crash.

It’s been tough sledding for Weimer since. He’s had a few good finishes but it’s been mostly underwhelming for the Idahoan. Once you lose that “edge,” that fine line between confidence and doubt, you end up where Weimer is right now. Which is just being another guy. He hasn’t had a standout ride since his return from injury, and there have been a few races where Weimer has declined to be interviewed because in his words “there’s nothing to talk about” or, at other races, he’s requested we talk about everything but his own race.

Weimer returned to his early season form in Seattle with a fifth.
Simon Cudby photo

There’s hope, though. Jake was fast all day in Seattle, he was on the board inside the top five in practice for a long time and he appeared to be putting in a lot of hard laps. In the main he was outside the top ten off the start and worked his way through some pretty good riders to end up fifth. It was a great race for Weimer, and finally he was back to where he was when the series began—inside the top five. He’s got two more supercrosses to try to end this series like he started it.

Weimer’s a great rider, he’s young and he does the right things on and off the track. He takes his career very seriously but like a lot of riders, the mental game is still something that needs mastering. He isn’t the first rider to get hurt and have the doubts seep in, but the Seattle result might point to a move forward. We’ll see soon enough if he can wipe this supercross season away and start anew with the 12 round Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.