News 13 Nov 2020

JGRMX team set to cease operations prior to 2021 season

Image: Supplied.

JGRMX has split with Suzuki and appears certain to cease its operations prior to the 2021 season, ending a 13-year stint in operating its professional motocross and supercross team, still unable to fund the program into next year.

First hinted by PulpMX on Twitter, rumors have been widespread that the North Carolina-based team would be closing its doors and a post on the JGRMX social media accounts today has all but confirmed the news.

A sombre video has been posted to thank the fans of JGRMX following over a decade in the sport, beginning as a Yamaha-equipped program in 2008 and then transferring to run Suzuki machinery in 2017 and then took over the factory team from 2018. No official press release has been distributed by JGRMX at this point.

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) first entered the sport under the leadership of Coy Gibbs, expanding upon its iconic NASCAR organisation and immediately hiring Jeremy Albrecht in a team management position. Albrecht has led the effort since.

A wide range of top-level riders have been part of the JGRMX team through the years, including James Stewart, Chad Reed, Justin Barcia, Davi Millsaps, Justin Brayton, Weston Peick, Josh Grant, Justin Hill, Malcolm Stewart and more.

This year saw JGRMX Yoshimura Suzuki field Joey Savatgy and Fredrik Noren aboard the RM-Z450, as well as Alex Martin and Jimmy Decotis – who only completed a partial season – riding the RM-Z250. An injury-affected year saw Broc Tickle join the team in the later stages of 450SX, while Isaac Teasdale made a number of guest appearances outdoors.

In recent years, each off-season it has been in question whether JGRMX would have the funding to continue in the following season, however despite promise that a new title sponsor would be secured for 2021, it now looks certain that the team has made the decision to close altogether.

“Suzuki Motor of America, Inc. is honored to have worked with a premier racing partner like Joe Gibbs Racing,” commented Chris Wheeler, Suzuki’s MX support manager. “This partnership produced solid success and many strong friendships 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.”

It’s another severe blow for the sport just two months out from the opening round of 2021 Monster Energy Supercross on 16 January in Houston, with JGRMX to follow the Factory Connection-owned Geico Honda team in exiting competition. There has been no confirmation what Savatgy, Noren or Martin will be doing next year.

News 11 Nov 2020

Provisional 2021 MXGP World Championship calendar released

Image: Supplied.

A provisional 2021 MXGP World Championship calendar has been announced by Infront Moto Racing, confirming a 20-round schedule that will aim to reintroduce flyaway events.

Next season will begin at the beginning of April, however, organisers are prepared to adapt the schedule if coronavirus restrictions aren’t eased.

Four new venues will debut, including Muscat in Oman for the opener, Oss in the Netherlands, Itti-KymiRing in Finland – originally due to host its first event this season – and also Russia’s Igora Drive.

Additionally, the championship will also be returning to a host of familiar locations, including Agueda, Teutschenthal, Orlyonok, Kegums, Jakarta, Semarang, Loket, Lommel, Uddevalla, Afyonkarahisar, St Jean d’Angely, Xanadu-Arroyomolinos and Neuquen.

The season will begin on 3 April with the MXGP of Oman, before heading back to Europe for the MXGP of Italy, followed by the MXGP of Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Latvia. From there, the series will hold two rounds in Indonesia, before returning to Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden and Finland.

Towards the end of August, MXGP will return to Russia for the MXGP of Igora Drive, followed by Turkey, China, France, Spain and ending at Patagonia Argentina. The circuits in Italy and China are TBA, as is round 19 altogether.

Following a year’s hiatus, the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations (MXoN) is scheduled for 26 September at the famous Imola circuit in Italy, which is prior to the final four MXGP rounds of 2021.

2021 MXGP World Championship calendar (provisional):
Rd1 – 3 April – Barka, Oman
Rd2 – 25 April – TBA, Italy (Women)
Rd3 – 9 May – Agueda, Portugal
Rd4 – 23 May – Oss, The Netherlands
Rd5 – 30 May – Teutschenthal, Germany
Rd6 – 13 June – Orlyonok, Russia
Rd7 – 20 June – Kegums, Latvia
Rd8 – 4 July – Jarkarta, Indonesia
Rd9 – 11 July – Semarang, Indonesia
Rd10 – 25 July – Loket, Czech Republic (Women)
Rd11 – 1 August – Lommel, Belgium (Women)
Rd12 – 8 August – Uddevalla, Sweden
Rd13 – 22 August – Iitti-KimiRing, Finland
Rd14 – 29 August – Igora Drive, Russia
Rd15 – 12 September – Afyonkarahisar, Turkey (Women)
Rd16 – 19 September – TBA, China
Rd17 – 10 October – St Jean d’Angely, France
Rd18 – 17 October – Intu Xanadu-Arroyomolinos, Spain (Women)
Rd19 – 31 October – TBA
Rd20 – 14 November – Neuquen, Argentina

News 6 Nov 2020

Enhanced Australian Supercross Championship in the works for 2021

Image: Foremost Media.

The Australian Supercross Championship will be enhanced from 2021 by series commercial rights-holders AUS SX Holdings in a bid to solidify the sport, which could see the AUS-X Open organisers promote multiple rounds on the calendar.

Since becoming involved in 2018, AUS SX Holdings has taken an arms-length approach in the series operation while utilising an assortment of individual promoters, but will elevate that involvement from next season.

Last year, Troy Bayliss Events hosted the Brisbane, Gillman and Wollongong rounds before the S-X Open International FIM Oceania Supercross Championship events in Auckland and Melbourne completed the calendar. However, from 2021, expect AUS SX Holdings to promote at least one round internally and will potentially partner with incoming event promoters for additional rounds.

“We’re definitely looking at it, whether we expand the amount of events that we run, although there will still be only one AUS-X Open event,” confirmed AUS SX Holdings co-founder Adam Bailey. “If there’s the potential for another Australian championship round or more, we’re evaluating that.

“The plan is five rounds in total for next year. That seems to be the general consensus within the industry – the manufacturers and brands – that they’d rather have five good ones than stretch to more than that until we can. That gives us the platform to build from and hopefully it might grow further again in 2022.”

AME Management, which is the operated by the same team behind AUS SX Holdings and the AUS-X Open, will takeover the commercial and sponsorship elements of the entire championship, which will add integral consistencies and opportunities across all rounds. The series will be rebranded altogether as part of this broad overhaul off the back of the 2020 series’ cancellation.

“Since we bought the rights to the series from MA, it’s been a staged approach,” Bailey explained. “When we first got involved, we were very gently involved, because we didn’t want to make any drastic changes, but slowly over time we are becoming more integrated, giving it more time and also focus.

“Last year we were more heavily involved in the background, which highlighted some areas that needed even more attention. AUS-X Open at Marvel Stadium had been such a huge focus for us, but now that we’ve been through that and done it, we can now ensure the rest of the series continues to move forward and grow as well.

“The next stage is for us to completely rebrand the series, which we had planned for this year, but it will obviously now roll out next year. All sponsorship elements will be managed internally by us, which allows us to have a consistent message across the whole series, to ensure that the delivery of sponsorship is done properly and that’s such a crucial, super-important area.

“That’s what we do full-time at AME Management – that’s our specialty in a lot of ways. For us to be able to bring that in-house, it will help other promoters, but will also help us attract new promoters that may not have experience or contacts in the motorcycle industry. A concert promoter, for example, could get involved in Supercross not having to handle any of those elements.”

A post-produced television broadcast is being targeted for all rounds in addition to the live AUS-X Open event in Melbourne, while AME Management will also continue to produce its behind the scenes ‘Supercross Life’ program in order to further showcase the personalities of the sport, according to Bailey.

“We obviously need to make sure that we will have the commercial support, which we have already started working on, but that’s definitely the goal to have a post-produced TV package for the whole series,” he added. “That will include at least Fox Sports and Kayo, perhaps a free-to-air network as well, to increase exposure for the series and value for the sponsors so we can lift the sport.

“Supercross Life is our behind the scenes series away from the racetrack, which we definitely want to do because we feel that’s the best style of content to show who the athletes are and get non-hardcore fans engaged with who our riders are. Unless they really know their stories and what goes on behind the scenes, it’s really hard to expect them to become true fans, so that will be in addition to the highlights packages.”