over several successful racing
seasons.
"Suzuki Motor of America,
Inc. is honored to have worked
with a premier racing partner
like Joe Gibbs Racing," said
Chris Wheeler, Suzuki's MX
Support Manager. "This part-
nership produced solid suc-
cess and many strong friend-
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 17, 2020 P29
ships over the past several
seasons and we would like
to thank the entire team at
JGRMX for their hard work,
passion, and dedication to
Suzuki racing."
Wheeler added that Suzuki
will announce its plans for the
upcoming 2021 AMA Supercross
and Pro Motocross racing sea-
sons in the coming days.
As for the JGRMX outfit,
however, its 13-year run in
Supercross/motocross is now
over. Shortly after the Suzuki
release came out, the JGRMX
team posted a short message of
its own on Instagram that read:
The JGRMX family would like to
thank all of our fans, riders and
sponsors for 13 great years.
Since its arrival in 2008, the
JGRMX team, which started out
using Yamaha motorcycles, has
enjoyed mixed success on the
track but failed to win any cham-
pionships during its 13-year run.
There were plenty of highs and
lows during that time. One of
those highs was signing James
Stewart for the 2012 season
as Yamaha's premier factory-
backed rider, which appeared
to be a match made in heaven.
But that high quickly turned into
a low when Stewart apparently
lost confidence in the JGRMX
Yamaha and the two severed ties
before the Supercross Champi-
onship was even over. Stewart
did give the JGRMX team two
Supercross wins before leaving.
Stewart signed on with the fac-
tory Suzuki team for the outdoor
Nationals later that year.
Other highs included Josh
Grant's win at the Anaheim 1
Supercross in 2009 and Davi
Millsaps' runner-up finish in
Supercross for the team in 2012.
In 2015, Justin Barcia gave the
team a couple of wins in moto-
cross.
After failing to sign rising
young superstar Cooper Webb—
who received JGR support as an
amateur—at the end of the 2016
season, JGRMX had a falling
out with Yamaha and switched
to Suzuki motorcycles in 2017.
Things looked promising for the
JGRMX outfit when it was later
given the reigns to run Suzuki's
factory racing effort in both the
250 and 450cc classes. Chad
Reed came aboard in 2019. But
the team was plagued by inju-
ries, including one to longtime
stablemate Weston Peick that
ended his racing career, and
was never able to secure a title
sponsor after Autotrader.com
pulled its support after the 2018
season.
JGRMX stood for Joe Gibbs
Racing MX and was run by Coy
Gibbs, the son of famed NFL
coach and NASCAR team owner
Joe Gibbs. The JGRMX team
was based near its NASCAR
headquarters in North Carolina,
and Jeremy Albrecht was the
race team manager from begin-
ning to end.
The JGRMX closure comes
on the heels of the Geico Hon-
da/Factory Connection demise
last month. CN
