They say its tough to break into America, well it’s even tougher to break into the top two in the AMA Superbike series. For the past three seasons those positions have been dominated by the all conquering Suzuki’s of Ben Spies and Mat Mladin. Many rider’s have tried to shatter the dominance of the top two and the only rider who has currently come close to doing so on a regular basis is Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking.

Jamie, who rides with his trademark #2, is one of only two riders in AMA history to win both the Supersport and Superstock titles in the same season and this is one of the reasons why he is held with such high regard around the AMA paddock.

The 2008 AMA Superbike season started off promisingly enough for “the Hacker”. Fifth at the opening race at Daytona saw Jamie net some healthy points and kept him in touch with the early pace setters. He then managed to continue his good form into race one at Barber with a fourth place finish, before a problem in race two left him down and out in twenty-first place.

Determined to get his Championship back on track he battled back into the top ten in both races at Fontana, with a sixth and a seventh respectively, before stamping his authority on the championship campaign with six back to back podium finishes at the next three rounds at Infineon, Miller Motorsport Park and Road America.

Jamie’s form was impressive and it wasn’t going unnoticed. Kawasaki honored his achievements by asking him to deputize for the injured John Hopkins in the MotoGP round at Laguna Seca. It was an opportunity that he wouldn’t waste.

After a hard fought battle with several of the MotoGP regulars, Jamie came away with a very respectable eleventh place finish, managing to pick up a handful of points and finish ahead of such seasoned veterans as Loris Capirossi and Colin Edwards.

In the AMA Superbike race, Jamie just missed out on a podium, finishing in fourth. However that proved enough to move him ahead of Neil Hodgson in the Championship standings into third place.

When the AMA field resumed duty at Mid Ohio “the Hacker” was back on it with an impressive double podium, taking two third place finishes which helped him to extend the margin over his rivals in the battle for third.

For most competitors there is a point in the season when Lady Luck will stop smiling and nothing seems to go right. Unfortunately for Jamie this struck him at the worst time and after battling so hard through mid-season, suddenly he couldn’t buy a podium, in fact in the next four races he only managed to score one top ten finish with a fifth place at the Virginia International Raceway.

Jamie now has eight podiums to his name in the 2008 season and with one round of the AMA Superbike season to go, Jamie, will be hoping that the return to Laguna Seca will reignite his campaign as he attempts to finish in a very impressive third overall.

Jamie will compete at the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca on September the 27th and 28th.