Between the Races: Jordan Motorsports’ James Casmay

James Casmay is the general manager for Jordan Suzuki and National Guard Jordan Suzuki—two distinct teams run by one very experienced crew collective. Though integral to the teams’ operations, Casmay tends to stay mostly behind the scenes while at the track. When we spoke to him, he was buying his young son a balloon before heading out to this weekend’s Road Atlanta event.

As Jordan Motorsports' general manager, James Casmay (shown here in an '08 photo with Michael Jordan) oversees both the Jordan Suzuki and National Guard/Jordan Suzuki efforts. Brian J. Nelson photo.

How is your organization feeling as you head into the third round of the season?
As far as the start of the season goes, it’s been kind of mixed. Our first race, I was quite disappointed with our results, but we found out after the fact that we made a few mistakes on our suspension setup that were causing us some issues, and we were able to resolve those between Daytona and California Speedway, so our results there were much better. Aaron [Yates] probably would have had two podiums and was even making a charge for the leaders on Saturday, and at that point in the race—ten or eleven laps in—the fact that he was still less than two seconds behind Mat [Mladin] and Tommy [Hayden], who were battling for the lead…. I mean, we’ve never been that close at that stage in a Superbike race ever, so that was exciting. And the fact that Aaron was trying to make a draft pass by Tommy on Sunday for second place, that was exciting too. So I’m encouraged by the possibility that we may actually be able to win a race this year, which is something that hasn’t really been realistic in seasons past just because of some of the technological differences. Like Jake Holden told you guys yesterday in the Tuesday Conversation, he could still see the leaders three-quarters of the way through the race. That’s not too bad.

We’re definitely excited about the possibilities; Geoff [May] is currently third in Superbike points, which is important for our sponsors and good for Geoff to see that he can step right into Superbike and do well. And as far as our crew goes, we’ve got some really, really smart people this year. We’re hoping to add Geoff’s current crew chief, Craig Spencer, permanently through the end of the year. He’s had Formula 1 experience, he worked with Ten Kate Honda, and yeah, we’re excited about some of the crew changes we were able to make over the off-season. And our sponsors—having the National Guard at the racetrack has been very important for us. It’s actually pushing us as an organization to become much stronger in our marketing presence not only on the racetrack but off the racetrack, too.

Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates is consistently one of the top AMA Pro riders not on a factory team. Andrew Northcott photo.

To return to the on-track part for a second, do you think the new AMA Pro’s rules changes are responsible the feeling you have that it’s now possible to win a race?
Yeah, I think that’s been a big factor. I mean, Tommy and Mat haven’t gotten any worse as racers, so the rules package has obviously helped close the field up. On Saturday, I really believe Aaron had a shot at challenging for the win on that thing; on a given day, I think it allows us to have a shot if Mat or someone else isn’t having quite as good of a day. It does give you a chance of getting a win here or there and maybe even gunning for a championship if they make a mistake somewhere. I honestly think the racing has been much better already. [Larry] Pegram’s in there, Jake was able to get in there, [Neil] Hodgson will be sticking it up front when he’s back in action, and that’s just early in the year. I think later in the year, when guys get their stuff sorted out more, you’ll see even better battles. I don’t have any complaints at all as far as any of the rules changes.

Has your team had much interaction with AMA Pro in other areas?
They’ve interacted with us quite extensively for the two-up program, as far as coordinating stuff with the tracks and media stuff. For sure there’s been a decent amount of communication. The only thing I’m really, really dissatisfied with is the lack of a production television truck at the racetrack, and the reason that’s a concern for me is that when you have sponsors or potential sponsors at the track, a lot of getting them to understand the marketing of it is helping them to visualize it, and when they’re standing at the racetrack and they can see the crowds and see the excitement, and you couple that with a television monitor that lets them actually see the motorcycle with their name on the side—or if it’s a potential sponsor, what it would look like with their name on it—it helps them see the value in what they’re getting or could get.

How do you feel about the television package itself?
Um, I watched the first couple, and it was interesting because I forgot it was going to be on a Saturday night and it just sort of popped up. So I think the time slot is good, and as far as the studio show goes, it’s just starting out, so I’d say maybe it doesn’t have all the interactive stuff you’d want to see in a studio-based show like the NASCAR shows. But since it’s new, I’ll give them some time to work that out before I pass judgment on that. Speed knows how to put on a good studio-type show—I watch their NASCAR stuff all the time, and it’s good—it’s just a matter of getting that level in the motorcycle world. So I think the time-slot’s good, but I really don’t like the time delay. If it was the Saturday night of a Saturday race day, that would be great.

National Guard/Jordan Suzuki's Geoff May scored a strong podium finish at Auto Club Speedway. Andrew Northcott photo.

How is your two-team setup working out?
It’s absolutely phenomenal. The second sponsorship from the Guard allowed us to bring a separate truck to the racetrack and basically throw out the old model. We took an empty shell and custom-built what Ammarr Bazzaz calls “the War Room,” which is basically a huge meeting center that holds eight to ten people for all of our technical minds. It’s temperature controlled, it’s got flat-screen TVs that let’s them bring up all the data from their laptops, it’s all wired into the table, there’s a printer, we have our own wireless servers that connect so all data becomes real-time … it’s incredible. So we really upped our level of interaction between the team members so they really function as one unit. They’ll overlay Geoff’s laps and Aaron’s laps, and it’s really phenomenal. That’s probably been the most impressive thing, because although we communicated well in the past, this is a whole new world. It creates an environment—and this was actually the vision of the National Guard—where people feel comfortable, and that’s the most productive place to work.

Let’s end with some of the non-racing activities your effort’s involved in at the track.
At the next round in Atlanta you’ll see a mobile H-D movie theater, plus what we call the National Guard Jordan Suzuki Race Experience, which is headed by Jason Pridmore and has been going phenomenal. That’s actually added more value than I even anticipated as far as getting people and media interested in it. Basically it’s a fully prepped race motorcycle that’s specifically tailored for carrying a passenger. It actually records the experience for the passenger, and those passengers are a combination of guests of the National Guard, media, celebrities, and anybody we feel can help raise the awareness of the sport. When you go around the racetrack, it records from the front of the motorcycle and it also has a camera that faces the driver and passenger so you can see their head movements and body movements as they go around each corner. Also, Bazzaz Performance hooked up a telemetry system that shows rpm, red line, mph, a lean-angle indicator, cool stuff like that. When we were at Daytona, Jason, with a passenger on the back, was getting over 180 mph, so it’s really, really impressive. We should have some videos on our website shortly. It’s also great to have Jason involved with our program again because he’s a great spokesman and can also help out Aaron and Geoff by pointing stuff out from a third-person standpoint. It’s really exciting, overall. Everything is, actually—there’s never been more to get excited about than there is for 2009.