As usual, J Bone is his honest self
As usual, J Bone is his honest self
On getting Phil Nicoletti back on the team for 2018…I feel like I owe Phil another shot. He didn’t really get his shot. I’m the kind of guy that I feel like I’m going to fight for him to get another shot. See what he’s got. Right now I feel like we would do the same thing, even though you probably don’t agree on the 250 thing. I think it’s still worth trying. He was showing progress when he got hurt.
We’ll have more time to prepare. He did a lot of work with testing, which is the other thing. He tested and helped improve the bike the whole time, and then he got hurt right when it got even better. Then we tested this whole time while he’s been hurt, so he’ll get the favor when it’s all better than when he rode it last time.
On Weston Peick coming back to the team in 2018… Yeah, we think. We haven’t done anything with riders. I haven’t done any contracts yet. That’s coming next.
On whether or not Justin Barcia comes back in 2018...We don’t know. Still in the air. For real, everything’s in the air. I’ve been waiting to get our bike deal figured out, which is what we’re still working on. So, when all that’s final, the next thing I move onto is riders. I’ll just start going down the list. I’m not really there yet.
On staying with Suzuki in the future… We like Suzuki. We like the relationship. They treat us good. It’s been a really good change for us. We’re really excited. When we did this change we didn’t do it just to do it for one year, even though that’s what the contract was. Our plan was long-term anyway. That’s why we went for it. That’s why we spent all the money and did it the way we did it. Coy’s good like that. He sees a vision. Really in the end I think we just wanted some respect and help and a plan. The cool part is that we can make each other better and that’s what’s cool and they see, where I didn’t always feel like that before. They were good to us, but I would say that these guys really put everything behind it to make sure that we’re better. They treat us as a partner, really. That’s what we wanted. We wanted a partner, not just a sponsorship.
On his talks with Chad Reed to ride there in 2018… (Chad being happy)That’s the key. That’s all these guys. I would say if Justin Barcia was happy and everything was perfect all the time, he could succeed more. Chad Reed could succeed more. All these guys, that definitely helps. The hard part is keeping them there. You can keep them there for a while, but it’s hard to keep it like that.
On whether or not they’ll be a second JGR semi for the 250 team… I cannot (confirm). We are working on things, but nothing’s final. There’s a lot of ideas thrown, there’s a lot of different things.
