Jeremy Albrecht Discusses Changes At JGRMX
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Last week I heard the news that a handful of employees and riders of the JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing team would be laid off at the conclusion of the Supercross season. The North Carolina-based operation has been the midst of a challenging year both on and off of the track, due to rider injuries and a lack of title sponsorship, and team owner Coy Gibbs expressed that the expense of running the team was beginning to wear on all involved. With all of that said, it was still a surprise to hear that the 250 class operation was going to be cut to just one rider.
It’s no secret that when compared to other factory teams, JGRMX team has faced majors issues with sponsorship funding. The connection to the NASCAR division of JGR has not resulted in a substantial amount from non-endemic brands the way one would expect, but the motocross operation has remained on the circuit and forged a relationship with manufacturer Suzuki; they are now the only factory motocross race team of Suzuki in the world. The loss of AutoTrader as title sponsor ahead of the 2019 season was a massive blow and the lack of a replacement supporter is the cause of the layoffs.
JGRMX has made quite the impression on the sport in a rather short time. They used two different OEMs, won a number of races, employed Josh Hansen/Josh Grant/James Stewart/Davi Millsaps/Justin Barcia/Weston Peick/Chad Reed during some of the most important times in each one’s career, and grew from two-rider operation to a six-rider deal.
Just before the last Supercross of the year, I caught up with team manager Jeremy Albrecht and discussed the status of the team. Albrecht is known for perfectly explaining a situation in detail, maybe to a fault, and our talk revealed how difficult the decision was and what happens next for all involved. The outdoor team will consist of Alex Martin in the 250 class and Justin Hill in the 450 class.
On Tuesday it was announced that JGRMX had re-established a relationship with tire supplier Pirelli that will start at the upcoming Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. Pirelli and JGRMX have worked together before, dating back to Stewart’s stint with the group to Barcia’s single-season on Suzuki, and the new deal will run through the next few seasons.
Coming out of our own layoffs a few months ago, I know how hard it is to go through. What was it that led to the decision and what was the course of action?
Losing our title sponsor last year was our biggest hurdle all year, just trying to recover and find sponsors. It’s been difficult. I put it out there everywhere, because usually you sit back and act like there are no problems when there really are. I wanted to get it out there because I figured the only way to get it fixed was for people to know. We were already short for Supercross, but we wanted to do what we committed to and what we told Suzuki we could do. Their biggest focus was on Supercross and to have all of the guys we had last year because it was a new 250. We did good in Supercross and I’m really happy with the 250 effort. The bummer is that we are going to one truck; we were going to do that anyway, but we were going to keep all of the staff. But right now we are digging a hole and if we get the sponsor, we’re going to be in too big of a hole and the sponsor would just fill that. We decided that we had to be smart and to do this long-term. It was a tough decision and I am super bummed. It will actually happen next week, but we told the guys as soon as we knew so that they could look around a little bit.
From what I have heard the team will be Alex, who has had a guaranteed deal for the whole year, and Justin, because Weston is nowhere near racing yet and Chad is still injured.
Yeah, pretty much. We haven’t got it fully set yet, but we are going down to one truck. I have enough staff for us to do what we need to do and be competitive, and I feel like we will be fine. We know what our smallest team will be next year, but we want to get it back to where it was. We have some good leads and have a little carrot dangling there. Coy is just tired of us waiting. It’s tougher than it has been in the past to fix, but we’ll be fine. I just didn’t want to lose anybody, especially because we have such good people. If we could get this fixed, I would hire them all back. They are really solid.
Knowing how you are and how the team is, with everyone living in North Carolina and spending Christmas at Coy’s house, there is a huge family element to this. It was not a case of crunching numbers and trying to find where you could save a few bucks. There has to be something serious to make this decision.
Yeah for sure. And it’s not like on Monday they won’t be paid anymore, they’ll have a fair deal. We feel really bad and in my mind when I told them last Monday I thought, “Well I have a week to fix this until it really happens.” We ratcheted up some stuff we have been working on to come in quicker, but it’s still looking like it won’t happen until the offseason. It’s just had to get people to move and get money in the sport. Our Suzuki relationship is really good and it’s the best deal that we’ve ever had. The hard thing is that we are trying to do two teams when most people are trying to do one. We have way more overhead and staff and it’s great when you have the money coming in. But we’re really big at the moment. And that’s the thing I hate. We got to hang on this long and knew in November we were in trouble. Coy let me keep it going until the end of Supercross and it gave us more time, but I ran out of time for some of the guys that have done a great job. It’s more of a reduction in staff and I hope we can get them all back soon. But this is what I have to do.
What I gather from this is that 2020 will still happen.
Oh, yeah. We’re racing in 2020. Basically, I can do it forever as long as I don’t go in the hole. Coy doesn’t want to make money out of this, it’s not a money maker. If we can do this and help Suzuki and do it so we bring in enough to cover all of the expenses, I can do it forever. But if I lose millions of dollars every year, that won’t happen. My goal is to do what we have to do to be around a long time. That’s the motivation. And if I was trying to look back right now, I would have scrambled more, even though I tried everything that I could. I just know for the long-term, we cannot keep digging holes.
I watch what Suzuki does and these last three years have been pretty unique. They ramped up the MotoGP effort and are a race-winning team for the first time in a while, but that came at the cost of money spent across the board in motocross through Europe and Japan. One thing I have noticed is that Suzuki doesn’t have a title sponsor there either, it’s mostly self-funded. JGR, on the other hand, has this huge connection to NASCAR and other companies. What do you think is the massive roadblock? Does Suzuki not want to go for a title sponsor that would cover all parts of their racing efforts like Monster does for Yamaha? And what do NASCAR level sponsors not see as a worthy investment?
The NASCAR side, they don’t know this and we have to educate them on our sport. I think the problem is they think it’s reasonable. And compared to car racing, it is reasonable. But they think that it’s not as good, like, “Hey this is cheaper, so there’s no way it’s as good or better.” The other thing is the economy was so bad for so long and people are scared to try something new. All of the car team sponsors are trying to keep a hold of what they had. They aren’t looking to spend more money. We are in a tricky spot because we can’t go in there and tell them it’s better, because for them it might not be. We’re in a unique spot with that. Our sport is growing, but it’s not growing as far as riders. It’s growing as a whole, which isn’t helping us yet, because the people that support our sport are the ones that sell gear or motorcycles. And right now people need to ride to help support them. I think we are in a weird transitional period of where the support will come from.
We thought AutoTrader might have stayed, so we weren’t looking actively as hard as we maybe should have been or as we did after we found out. This stuff just takes forever. Any sponsor we have usually takes a few months, it takes quite a while. But we have good leads and I think we will fix this, it’s just taking longer than it should. I think we need to educate people on the sport. To get new money, they have to come to check this out a few times. We had people at Indianapolis, Denver, and some in Las Vegas. So we’ll see.
