Joe Gibbs Racing throws in the towel!
After 13 years in the American motocross world, the Joe Gibbs Racing team is calling it quits. The American team of 'Coach Gibbs' who made his fortune as a coach in 'American Football', where he won the Superbowl with the Washington Redskins. After this career, Joe Gibbs entered the motorsports world in 1992, founding his own NASCAR team. The name Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) quickly grew into a quality brand in NASCAR. From 1992 to 2020, the team achieved no fewer than 5 Cup titles, 2 Xfinity titles and many victories, including 4 times the legendary Daytona 500. The motorsport activities expanded to the NHRA (drag racing) and in 2008 also to the AMA Motocross and Supercross .
Due to the bond between Toyota, the engine supplier of the JGR NASCAR team, and Yamaha, the team will start at Yamaha in 2008. The team is starting to expand with experience in their framework and they find that in Jeremy Albrecht, who has already learned a lot as a mechanic for Jeremy McGrath, Jeff Emig and James 'Bubba' Stewart. Albrecht together with David Evans (known as agent/manager) and Joe Gibbs' son Coy, they have to make the team as successful as all other projects.
In the first season, things do not go smoothly with the duo Josh Hansen and Josh Summey. The latter will complete his entire contract period and finish eleventh in the Supercross championship. Josh Hansen, on the other hand, quickly sprints out of the team. The following year the team comes with New Zealand's Cody Cooper and Josh Grant. This shows the team that it has ambition. Josh Grant comes with some interesting credentials from the 250cc class and New Zealander Cooper managed to finish fifth in the American Motocross Championship the previous year. The team's second season starts with a bang, the newly recruited Josh Grant wins Anaheim 1. In the final reckoning, Josh Grant finishes fourth in the AMA Supercross championship.
After this great victory and solid second season, we have to wait for another big victory. The question is whether this is due to the radically renewed Yamaha YZ450f that will be launched in 2010. The team is far from doing poorly. But apart from 'King of Bercy' and two podiums (SX Seattle 3rd & Steel City 3rd) for Justin Brayton and the gold medal in the X-Games Supercross for Josh Grant, the team will not appear in 2010. Josh Grant is also often in the rag basket and that causes a breach of trust, for the year 2011 Davi Millsaps takes the place of Josh Grant. Davi Millsaps, who had a bad year on the Honda in 2010, is having a disastrous year on the Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha and cannot come close to his results from the year before. Davi Millsaps will join his teammate Justin Brayton in eighth and ninth respectively in the final standings of the supercross championship.
After such a season, the team wants to present itself with a big name. None other than James Stewart will be Davi Millsaps' teammate. The multiple supercross champion comes from the San Manuel Yamaha team. Expectations are sky high for James Stewart, because he has already proven that he can win on a Yamaha. Side note, on the 'new' Yamaha, James Stewart had only completed 4 races the year before and only won one of them. It soon becomes clear that there is no match between the YZF450f post 2010 and James Stewart. The African-American supercross wonder managed to win two more races and also finished on the podium three times, but put an end to his SX season after a crash in Houston and at the end of May that year he will also terminate his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing. In the shadow of James Stewart, Davi Millsaps unleashes all his devils and with a whole series of podiums he manages to finish second in the championship. Davi Millsaps is not achieving great heights in the motocross championship, he leaves the team after the 2012 season.
For 2013, the team will again come up with two old acquaintances: Justin Brayton and Josh Grant. That season and the next one will be two to quickly forget, in addition, people note that Justin Brayton's results are a lot less than on the HRC Honda and the same also applies to Josh Grant and his Kawasaki. A certain image that already began to emerge during the collaboration between JGR and James Stewart is now starting to take on a life of its own. In 2014, the same pilots remain in service and are joined by Phil Nicoletti. However, it will have to wait until 2015 when Justin Barcia, Weston Peick and Phil Nicoletti will make up the line-up, that some success will come again. Justin Barcia managed to win two AMA Nationals for the team and score several podiums that season, and he scored podiums again in motocross in 2016. Alone, two-time 250cc East Coast Supercross Champion Justin Barcia just can't get the Yamaha close to a Supercross victory!
This, together with what Joe Gibbs Racing teams consider to be a bad move by Yamaha to return with its own Factory team, thereby snatching Cooper Webb from North Carolina from under the nose of the North Carolina team, makes JGR decide. to switch from Yamaha to Suzuki in the 2016-2017 off-season. This switch means the team will no longer only compete in the 450cc class, but also in the 250cc class. Unfortunately, this switch does not bring the hoped-for success. In addition, Justin Barcia leaves after one year at Suzuki and signs a contract with Factory Yamaha…
Pilots such as Justin Bogle, Phill Nicoletti, Matt Bisceglia, Justin Hill, Jimmy Decotis, Kyle Peters, Weston Peick, Malcolm Stewart, Chad Reed, Alex Martin, Enzo Lopes... have all been reviewed in the last three years in search of a constant factor of success . Unfortunately, it remains with one outlier on February 10, 2018. That day the team scores its first and only victory over Suzuki in the 250cc West Coast Supercross race in San Diego with Justin Hill.
The Joe Gibbs Racing organization is now closing down because it was unable to secure a main sponsor for the upcoming 2021 season, this combined with Suzuki's attitude of making less and less funds available for motocross makes running a team impossible. In addition to the Factory Connection organization that was responsible for the Geico Honda team, this is already the second major team that we see disappear in America.
The JGRMX family would like to thank all of our fans, riders and sponsors for 13 great years. #JGRMX
Placed by Jgrmx op Donderdag November 12, 2020
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven – Photo Justin Hill: Suzuki Racing – Photo James Stewart: Red Bull Content Pool
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