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The sport of Supercross and Motocross can be brutal, and at times, a rider’s biggest hurdle can be just surviving a season injury-free. Each time a rider gets injured, he’s set back the healing time, but most of all, he’s set back all the momentum gained before the injury. A rider who has experienced more than his fair share of healing time and lost momentum is Jimmy Albertson.
Throughout Jimmy’s professional career, every good break he has gotten has seemed to be followed by a string of injuries. What is awesome about Jimmy, though, is that the kid just keeps on coming. Support or no support, Jimmy has shown he is willing to do whatever it takes to get to the races.
Now that Jimmy is healthy and after he put in a solid top-ten performance at the Monster Energy Cup, we gave him a call to find out what he’s been up to and what he may have planned for the upcoming 2012 season. As always with Jimmy, our conversation ventured over to bench racing as well. Here’s how our conversation went.
Mr. Albertson, what’s been going on?
Oh, not much. I’m actually just down in Puerto Rico right now.
Are you getting official for the Puerto Rico Des Nations team next year? (Laughs)
Yeah, I guess. I guess. I don’t know. The team manager got us a place down here for me and Zach [Osborne] so we’re just heading down and checking it out. It’s pretty cool.
What’s the weather like down there right now? We’re scraping ice off the windows here in the morning.
The weather’s pretty nice. It’s not been sunny the last few days, but it’s been hot. It’s been like almost 90 degrees, so it’s good.
Nice. That picture you threw on Twitter the other day of you and Trey looking golden, was that Puerto Rico? I think your shorts are a little on the small side there, Jim. (Laughs)
(Laughs) They looked like Goldmember shorts. Man, it was funny! And it wasn’t even costume store that we went into–just a regular, regular store. I was like wow. Who would buy this? For real?
(Laughs) Yeah, you guys worked it. So, are you all signed with Valli now for the 2012 season?
No, I’m not. I guess I’m for sure not going to be riding for Valli next year. You know me and the team owner, Chad Lanza of Valli, and I are really good friends, so he’s just been letting me borrow equipment from them in the meantime. But I’m definitely not going to be riding for them next year.
Wow, you’re still 100% free agent at this point, then?
Yeah, at this point. I’ve been talking to a couple of teams. I’ve only got one offer, but I’ve just been talking with a couple of teams, and they’re narrowing down guys and trying to figure out who they’re going to pick. So, I’m just kind of waiting on that.
It’s been a strange silly-season this year. A bunch of you guys are still waiting with two months before Anaheim 1?
Yeah, it’s insane. It’s definitely the latest year I can ever remember.
Is there a chance you might end up doing what you tried to do last year–just a little Trey Canard merge type of deal?
No, for sure not. I think that definitely I’m going to be on a team. It’s just which one of the two. Like I said, I’ve got a couple of little offers, so I’m definitely not doing the same deal I did last year, but who knows. Who knows what’s going to happen. I still don’t know which brand I’m going to be on or anything like that.
How did you feel 2011 as a whole went after your late season comeback? Were you ever really 100% healthy?
Yeah, when I came back with my knee, it still was pretty sore just because, you know, I had total knee reconstruction. It wasn’t just my ACL; everything else was gone and ripped out of it. And then, I also had some fractures up in my femor as well from the same injury, so it was like I tried everything. Even when I was back on the bike, it still hurt a lot to ride. But it was time to get back to racing, so we did. About the time that I had gotten the Valli ride with Valli Yamaha, my knee wasn’t bothering me anymore. It was back to 100%. I could run on it and everything like that, and things went good. I got a couple of top ten finishes, and then I went to Southwick and I was doing really well in the first moto. I was running up in 8th with some quick guys, and two laps to go, I had a big get-off and ended up fracturing the bone in my face–my orbital socket–so that kind of sucked. It was another little setback. You know, I don’t really think the fractured eye hurt me that bad, but when it happened it really knocked my head pretty hard. I didn’t really even think I got a concussion or anything, but then I took the week off and tried to ride the next weekend at Steel City, and it just wasn’t working out. So we just kind of had to take Steel City off, too. I came back for Pala, and Pala went well. I had a couple of falls in the first moto, but ended up getting top ten the second moto. It worked out good. It was definitely a good season for everything that’s happened, you know. After not riding for six months, just coming back and finishing out the season is good, but I still feel like I got more in the tank. I feel like I can do more than what I did. I feel like I just need a little bit of time and a good team behind me and, you know, some testing. Then I can go out and finish a lot better than I ever have.
Do you see yourself possibly getting up into that group of top five?
Yeah, it’s tough to say in Supercross because when you’re talking about being a top five guy in Supercross… I mean, there are five guys that can win. By the time, you go through Chad Reed, Trey Canard, Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart, I mean, that’s barring anything happening, I’d say that those guys are going to be the top five. But I feel like I’m a pretty consistent guy when I race, and if I get a good start, I can pretty much stay where I’m at and run that pace. And you know, there’s no doubt in my mind that at the end of a 17-round season that I can be top ten in the series. There’s no doubt in my mind that I can get top tens every weekend. So, like I said, being consistent and being up there, if something happened with two guys in a race and a top five gets thrown my way, then yeah, I think I could take it, no doubt so. It’s hard to say. I really think that a lot of people underestimate my Supercross skills because I’ve just been out of mind, out of racing for so long. I haven’t ever really raced 450 Supercross because I was a Lites Supercross guy before then, but I really feel like I’m good on the bike in 450 Supercross, and I can’t wait for this year. Regardless of what I do, I’m still going to be lining up, and I can’t wait for it.
Yeah, you know it’s just like anything else–out of sight, out of mind. And last time you tried Supercross–before you even got to the first heat race at Anaheim 1–you used your knee as a kick stand, and it didn’t work out real well. I remember you describing the pain after it happened when we talked before.
Yeah, it really didn’t work out well. And, you know, a lot of people that aren’t in Supercross probably think it’s something that they couldn’t do. It was just such a stupid little fall. Basically, first gear in the corner, I just slid out–a fall that I do probably once a week when I’m riding and pushing it–just sliding out. It was the same thing. My foot just happened to get caught funny beneath my bike, and it just tore it to shreds. It’s just one of those things. You can try it a million times, and it wouldn’t happen, but it happened to happen. And you know, if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t have changed anything. It was just a stupid little tip over. But it’s behind me now, and we’ve got a whole brand new season coming up. I’m healthy and ready to go, so I’m just excited.
Nice. Well, we talked about the top five guys, and you obviously ride with Trey a bit. What’s the difference just to get from top 10 to top 5? It seems so small, but at the same time so huge. Is it just balls? Is it all mental? Is it talent?
It’s not all mental. I mean, those guys are just doing certain stuff, certain obstacles. I’m not going to say it’s talent. It’s just those guys have worked at it for a long time. It’s comfort. That’s all it is: comfort. All those guys are more comfortable with what they do on a bike. As soon as you are 100% comfortable going around a track and running tenth-place speed, as soon as you’re 100% comfortable doing that, you’re able to work towards getting faster. And right now, those guys can go out there, and let’s say their fastest lap time around the track is a 50-second lap time. That’s the fastest lap time. They’re comfortable doing that 50-second lap time, and I’m comfortable doing a 52. Not to say that I couldn’t go out there and hold my breath a whole lap and run a 50-second lap time, but that’s just where their comfort level is. I believe that there are a lot of guys out there that have it in them, but it’s just hard to get comfortable. It’s like you were saying with that mental deal. The only thing that’s going to fix that is going out there and riding and racing. And for me, I think that I get a whole season under my belt riding and racing and good training, and yeah, maybe I can break up into that level, but it’s just hard to say. You never know if you can do it until it happens. All you can do is work as hard as you can work and do everything you can possible, and if it happens to work out and you make those gains and all of the sudden, hey, you’re up there with those guys, great! You know, that’s awesome! It worked. If not, that’s just how it is. I guess you can say it’s all talent at that point.
Yeah, if you look at it from the outside looking in, one second doesn’t seem like that much, but at that level it’s huge.
Yeah, and that’s what you can kind of think as well. If someone is three seconds off the pace, or let’s say 2.5 seconds off the pace, that’s usually the difference in a Supercross race. 2.5 seconds is usually the difference between the leader or the fastest lap time and probably about the 12th fastest lap time. 2.5 seconds for 20 laps, you know, that’s 50 seconds. That’s a lap time. You’re getting lapped if you’re 2.5 seconds slower for 20 laps. And that just shows you, in a main event, that if you’re a 12th place guy, you’re gonna get lapped. And the guy that pulls the holeshot could be one of the top five running guys that are running those fast lap times, and you’re buried back in 10th/12th place getting slammed around by a bunch of people. Shoot. Anybody outside of the top ten is going to be getting lapped at this point. It’s just kind of crazy to think that our sport’s like that now. If you do a full 20-lap main and you don’t get lapped, then hey, you’re a top ten guy! Congratulations! (Laughs)
Have you looked down the lineup for 2012? It’s incredible.
Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. Everybody kind of does that every year, thinking, “Oh man, this year it’s crazy stacked.” But it’s gonna be like that every single year. There’s gonna be new kids coming up, and it’s gonna be fast. You know, this year, it’s gonna be really stacked up, but at the end of the day, it’s whoever makes it to Anaheim 1 basically. By the time Anaheim 1 rolls around, you can usually cross five to ten people off that list. And then after the first five rounds of Supercross, you can usually cross about another five people off that list. Then it’s not looking so deep. Supercross is almost like survival mode. Only the best survive, I guess, because it seems like every year starts off stacked like that, and at the end of the year, people are like, “Oh, well, this guy’s missing, and this guy’s missing, so realistically that’s not a true top ten” or whatever. But hey, guess what, people are missing every single year. That’s not your fault that they’re hurt.
Yeah, like Chris Blose not really getting the credit due for his 4th in Vegas at the end of the year. If he got 4th in Anaheim 1, it would be a completely different story.
Yeah, at the end of the day, in my mind, a fourth’s a fourth. Chris Blose getting that fourth–yeah, maybe there were some people hurt, maybe some people crashed–but, hey, he went out there and got fourth place, and you can never take that away from the guy. There are going to be a thousand people out there saying, “Oh, if this guy would have done this, and if this guy…” but you know, that’s all ifs. Bottom line is on the sheet of paper, it says the guy got fourth place. The dude got fourth place.
Period. Injuries rack up, and it’s battle of the fittest. He made every main event in 2011, and he got fourth at the last one.
Yeah, and I don’t think people understand that there were probably only about four or five guys that made every main event in the whole Supercross championship. You know, Villopoto didn’t make a main. Trey Canard got hurt and didn’t make some of the rounds. It’s a pretty big deal to make all the main events. I know he didn’t finish crazy good in a lot of the races, but like you said, he made every one. And, bottom line, that’s what a lot of sponsors are looking for out there–a guy that can show up and make every single main event. That’s a good sheet in itself, and I don’t think people understand that, as well as how well it pays to make every single main event from the AMA. You go out there and you make every single main event in a seventeen round series, you’re looking at just from the AMA probably like a $40 K paycheck.
Definitely. As far as the Monster Cup, how did you feel your 11-10-8 score for 8th overall was?
It as good! You know, I just showed up at Monster Cup. I actually drove from Oklahoma ’cause I had just done a Pro Challenge race in Texas and made some good money down there. I showed up to Monster Cup, and I still hadn’t ridden any Supercross or anything like that. I hadn’t ever ridden with the Supercross suspension that Valli does, so I was kind of thinking, “Alright, they said it’s gonna be a hybrid so I’m probably just going to run motocross suspension.” I showed up, and everything was so steep–the big jumps and stuff–and I was like, “man, I just gotta run Supercross suspension.” So I threw the Supercross stuff on my bike, for the first time riding it outside of practice. And you know, it took me quite a while to get used to it, but by the end of the night, I felt really comfortable on it. I’m glad I ended up going with it and running it, but you know, I kind of wish I had just had a little more time to prepare for it and everything. But at the end of the day, 8th place overall–that was great. That was good. It paid really good money, as well. I was definitely glad to get out of there healthy and with a good paycheck.
The track was sketchy. How did that roost feel?
Yeah, it was sketchy. The roost hurt super bad. It’s funny. The first lap in the first main event, I actually got a really good start–I think I was like in 6th place–and I frame cased that big 90 footer in the middle and just came out of the corner, and I spun coming out of it ’cause I had just wadded it and just frame cased it, and I was sure that I had broken my ankle. I kind of rolled around for a couple of laps wondering in my head like, “Oh man, is this thing gonna hold?” It ended up getting better and better as the race went on, so I just kind of rolled up to 11th. It was kind of a bummer to me. I think that first one should have been at least an 8th for me if I hadn’t been such a pussy I guess and not thought about my ankle so much. But yeah, I kind of dropped it there. The track was a little bit different. Like you said, the roost was really bad and the jumps were kind of a little bit weird and it was pretty one-lined, but at the end of the day, they don’t build those tracks for us. (Laughs) They build them for the spectators and the fans to watch, so that’s how it is. Go out there and race it. You know, I still had a blast. I thought the track was fun.
It looked fun. I can’t believe what Supermini riders are doing now, like that big 90 footer on the outside section. I mean, the whole field was doing it. It wasn’t like just Adam Cianciarulo and Cooper Webb were just doing it. It’s just amazing to me what those 80’s are jumping now.
Yeah, those kids are fast. I mean, we didn’t get to watch much of the 80 cc racing, but I can just remember sitting on the line and watching them all go over the finish line, and the top three kids kind of whipped it out and did like one-footed whips and stuff. I was like, “Man, these kids, they’ve got so much style, and obviously, they can just run around a Supercross track on an 80.” It was pretty amazing to me to see how comfortable they were just going out and jumping all those big jumps and everything. It was definitely really cool having those amateur races in Supercross. I mean, it would kind of be neat to see that at Supercross races all year. Instead of doing like a Freestyle show, do an 80 cc race or an amateur 250F race. That would be a pretty cool deal.
Yeah, I think so, too–kind of like what the 125 class used to be. Bring in a support class and just do little regions.
Yeah, no doubt. But it’s a pretty long series and it’s pretty extensive to go to all those things, so that’s kind of getting to the place where you couldn’t really do that, but it was still fun to watch at Monster Cup. I guess that’s what makes that event kind of unique.
Yeah, and then you’ve got Cianciarulo signed to a five-year deal with Mitch Payton and probably making more money than the guy getting like 6th place in the 450 class at this point in his career. (laughs) It’s kind of insane.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, everyone’s looking for the next Carmichael, you know? If you’re gonna pick out anybody, then it’s them. It’s smart by Mitch. You never know what can happen. The kid could get swept out by other teams in a heartbeat, so sign him up! He’s definitely a great talent. There are a lot of other kids out there that are really good riders too. And you’re seeing more of these teams start to farm kids after we had the GEICO program that did the farming. They’ve been doing that for a little while now, and they brought up guys like Canard and Barcia and Wharton, Bogle, Tomac. And now, I think teams are starting to realize that that’s really the way to do it, is to bring these kids out of amateurs. You know, sign them for a couple of years in amateurs and just bring them straight up into the rig. I totally agree with it. If I was a team manager, I’d be signing kids right off of 80s and the big bike amateur stuff. It’s definitely the way to go. You can kind of bring them into that team environment, bring them into testing and all that stuff. You know, I totally agree with it.
Nice. So anymore off-season stuff for you? Maybe Geneva? Any of that stuff going on?
Not really. I want to do Geneva. I don’t have 100% confirmation on it, but we talked about it a little bit. I definitely put my name in. So if it comes up, then I’m gonna do that, but other than that, really nothing. I’m gonna do this little local race in Puerto Rico this weekend. That will be fun. Me and Zach Osborne are going to do it. And then when I get back home to the States, I’m kind of gonna figure out what my plans are next year, what team we’re gonna go with and what bike I’m gonna be riding. Probably going to the Day in the Dirt event that TLD puts on every year, and then probably next time I race will be Anaheim.
Nice. What bike are you riding in Puerto Rico? Is it just some shop hooking it up?
Yeah, I just got a brand new Yamaha 450 that I’m gonna be riding down here, and Zach’s gonna be riding a 125 2-stroke down here, so I imagine we’ll kind of maybe switch off back and forth. I might ride his bike a little bit, and he might ride my bike a little bit, so it should be fun.
That’s awesome. Life is good.
Yeah, life is really good! You know, I can’t complain about anything.
Alright, well, thanks for doing this, Jimmy. I appreciate it, man.
Yeah, no problem. No problem at all. Anytime, Dan.
