Between the Races: Rich Alexander

The Michael Jordan Motorsports effort scored several podiums this year in AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike via their two teams, Jordan Suzuki and National Guard Jordan Suzuki. The new rules package seems to have been a benefit to the highest placed non-factory squad, and we were curious to know how the team felt about the 2009 season. Jordan Motorsports’ technical manager, Rich Alexander, took our questions.

RRX: Were Jordan Motorsports personnel happy with AMA Pro’s new rule package, and with how the season played out?
Rich Alexander: Yeah, the new change with DMG’s rules in some ways has worked in our favor, and I think has made for some tighter racing, obviously. You’ve seen the results this year. Are we happy with them? It’s more an issue of, they’re the rules and we’ve got to go along with it, and we’re making the most of it. Has it worked totally in our favor? In some ways it has, and in some way it hasn’t. We still have to go out and build a strong superbike and we’re still doing our own program, as opposed to being a factory program. It has kind of brought the factory teams more to our playing field. So I would say yeah, we are content on where the rules package is with the superbike class right now.

Do you consider ’09 to have been a successful season for your teams?
Yes. We came into this season with a new sponsor, the National Guard, and we’re real happy with that program and how it went this year. We had some podium finishes in the beginning of the season [and] we would have liked to be a little stronger toward the end, but it’s a tough field out there. The Michael Jordan Motorsports program overall, with both the Guard and the Jordan team, had numerous podiums, and came close to some wins, which hopefully in 2010 we will [get]. Overall, we’re pretty happy with the season; we got a new ’09 GSX-R1000 kind of late into the season—we didn’t race the bike until late April—so to develop the bike that late into the season and get on the podium with it numerous times, we’re pretty happy with that.

You’ve been a Suzuki-supported squad for years, but how does the departure of Honda, another major OEM, strike you? Does it make you concerned about the series itself, or do you see any opportunity there?
It definitely hurts the industry and the sport; you never want to see a manufacturer leave the racing series, especially a strong company like Honda. Understanding the issues of why they’re leaving, that’s just where their company sees the best direction. It doesn’t affect our program, but it definitely affects the sport, which we’re not happy about. As far as changes for us, we’ve been with Suzuki for five years now, and hope to continue with Suzuki. If that doesn’t happen there are some other manufacturers out there. It’s going to be an interesting year come 2010. Hopefully everyone will come out of it strong and it’ll just help the sport. That’s kind of the bottom line for all the teams, [and] I think 2010 is going to be a really important year for everybody.

Jordan efforts carry some of the biggest sponsors in the paddock, and the National Guard was obviously a big presence at the races. Were your sponsors happy with how the series and season went?
Yeah, absolutely! We’ve had quite a few military personnel come out from the Guard—all different ranks of generals and sergeants and so forth left the track with wide eyes open to the sport. They left with a great experience, and we tried to give them a good experience by doing the two-up program and the marketing that the Guard does with our program. We definitely try to give it 100 percent to get the word out there, and they seem to be really happy with our program, and we’re really happy to have them on board.

On the Jordan side of our program, we have some really strong sponsors with Gatorade, Hanes, and Upper Deck; those guys have all been really supportive over the years. Obviously, this year with Gatorade, we were able to get Aaron [Yates’] picture on a bottle and in a commercial, so we’re making strides forward in the mainstream. We also did a sweepstakes with Hanes—it’s great to get them involved in our sport, and hopefully we’ll bring more in 2010.

Was the two-pronged team approach successful?
Yes, absolutely. We had to basically go to a one-rider program going into 2009, per team. Ultimately we would have liked to have two riders per team, but with the economy and some cutbacks going into the season, we felt that running one rider per team would be the best way we could get the program accomplished, so it was a success. A lot of people don’t realize that it’s the same team from the outside, and that’s kind of what we wanted. We wanted to have two different identities so that we could give both sponsors the most exposure. The National Guard has their program; the Jordan Suzuki team has theirs. From the outside we accomplished that, but it still works as a tight group within the program.  We all share everything, we work together, both teams work out of the same shop. So basically, it was a success, for sure.

What would your team like to see change in the paddock or rules for 2010?
The biggest thing is probably consistency. There were a lot of problems this year with inconsistent rules and changes as we went along. There are all kinds of issues that have gone on this year, and it probably isn’t the best time to go bashing [the rules] or bringing up those issues. I think that there’s enough of that going on in the press. The main thing for us is just consistency: make a rule, stick by it, and that’s what it is.  We want to see racing in America prosper—we don’t want to see it bashed and brought down. DMG is the racing organization in America, and we have to basically go along with it and hope for the right changes. I think they learned a lot this year, the changes that are coming out right now are going more closely back to what we’re used to, and that’s a positive—to see that they did understand that some of the changes were wrong—and hopefully they’re going to make it right for next year. If we all go against the sport and the racing organization now, where is that going to put us in a couple of years? We’ve just got to hope that the DMG organization keeps looking forward and that they make the right changes for the sport and everybody. It sounds like they’re starting to listen to us a little bit more, which is very positive, so hopefully it continues.

Any idea what sort of presence the Jordan effort will have next year, and what riders you’ll run?
Honestly, we don’t right now, but we are going racing in 2010. Obviously over the next three or four weeks a lot will be decided between riders, manufacturers, and where we’re going to be in 2010. It’s a little bit early to say. All we do know is that we are racing.