For the 2008 Nationals the Albertsons bought a CRF450 for Jimmy to privateer and Trey Canard lent them a good engine from his amateur 450 before injuries again intervened:

"Going into the season I was riding a lot with Trey and he was getting me invited to all the Honda test days before Glen Helen. I was riding really well and would be right there with the factory guys. (American Honda team manager) Eric Kehoe came up to me and told me that if anything ever happens, he would keep me in the back of his mind. Then I ended up getting hurt right before Glen Helen, breaking my collarbone, so I had to take off three weeks.

"I came back in Texas and I started getting top ten pretty much every race. With Townley hurt they were considering giving Jeff Alessi the ride, I remember even hearing them announce at Unadilla that he had a big surprise for everybody next week and that he'd probably be riding for factory Honda.

"But at the end of the day Eric came up to me and said, "Heah you've been riding really well, I want to ask if you would be interested in taking this opportunity. Of course I said I would love to. They wanted me to come out to ride the bike, see how I like it, so I showed up in southern California and they got two bikes set up, one for Jeff Alessi and one for me, it was like a try-out for the factory position, they had stopwatches out and they were there, "heah, do you want me to change these tyres" and I was like, "Oh my God"; it was really nerve-wracking. So we rode there, we were both riding good. As I left I asked Eric if I got the job, and he said, "I don't know, we'll wait until after this weekend at Washougal", so it was like whoever wins at Washougal gets the ride.

"The first moto Jeff was right in front of me off the start and I ended up getting around him real quick and we rode within three seconds of each other for about half the moto, and I'm thinking „He's still back there, if I got to beat anybody I got to beat Jeff to get the ride. I think we were 6th and 7th. But he ended up fading and I pulled a big gap. I beat him in the second too for 6th overall so the next weekend I got the ride ... but I hurt myself again before I even got to race !"

A dislocated shoulder kept Jimmy out of Millville and Southwick, but Honda kept faith and, though still on the mend, he finally got to race the factory Honda at Steel City, going 7-6 for 6th overall, and even making a podium visit to collect the holeshot award.

"To go to Steel City maybe 80% and getting 6th place was awesome; it was a great feeling."

But the race was also the end of his first factory ride.

"They had already everybody signed up for 2009. I'd known that from the beginning, but not only that. They had one spot open and Davy Millsaps was the other rider they hadn't signed yet. They would have been fools not to take Davy Millsaps. He had won a couple of SX in 2008, he'd podium'd a few outdoors, on paper of course they had to pick Davy Millsaps over Jimmy Albertson. For them to pick me would have been a really big risk, and I don't blame them at all, I was just happy to have the opportunity to ride the bike, even if it was only once."

Just how big a deal is a factory bike in the AMA series, despite the "production" rule.

"It's very tough as a privateer because motors are very important to having a strong bike in the AMA series. The tracks don't get as rough and they till them up really deep. As much as people say you don't need to do anything to a 450, they're really fast enough already, I'm telling you, you do !

"Just the whole set-up with the bike, the team, being on a factory team everyone is just a lot more professional. They're all there to win. It might be scary to some people, being expected to do good, to win, but that’s the pressure you need on yourself as a racer, to go out there and be the best. If you're just around a bunch of people who really don't care, that's kinda how you start to end up being. If top tens are good enough, then that's how good you're going to be."

So, no more factory, but those 08 results had made more people sit up and notice and Jimmy was signed up for the 09 SX by Troy Lee Designs.

"I had a really good shot last year with TLD going in, but I ended up finding out the Wednesday before Anaheim that my wrist was broken. It had been sore since the Nationals and I had already been to an orthopaedist, but it wasn't until I saw the second guy that they found out I had a broken navicular. He said he thought it had been that way for 4-6 months. I had to go for surgery and miss the first six rounds. The team was West Coast only so the East Coast wasn't an option and I only got to race two rounds. 6th at Seattle, 15th at Vegas."

TLD were not doing the Nationals either, but Yamaha offered Valli Motorsports assistance to run Jimmy and he was a salary for the first time. Jimmy's far too discreet to tell you himself, but the bike was nothing special, and the team never went testing for a single day all year. But the boy himself had two aims – top ten ... and stay healthy for the first time in his Pro career !

He managed both. Despite three DNFs when running top ten, Jimmy held down a 10th placed ranking going into the final moto at Steel City but Millsaps was just six points back, breathing down his neck.

The factory rider went down early to relieve some of the pressure, but, when it counted, Jimmy produced his best ride of the series to advance from 11th to 6th and clinch a medal in a stacked field.

Another indoor season with TLD was on the cards, if not yet confirmed, for 2010 when the call came from Martin Honda.

"I'd been talking with David Pingree, but everything was so late this year with budgets. He was just so stressed on getting riders and right before I left to come over here it was still "Let's talk on Monday, we'll get something done".

"Of course when I came over here I ended up signing a letter of intent before I flew back. It was all done, but I'm just stoked for "Ping" and those guys over at Troy Lee what they achieved this year. They were so last minute and to go out and put two riders on the podium in one race is awesome. Wil Hahn's been just tearing it up this year. It just shows you that team's a great bunch of guys, they're awesome to take riders that maybe had a chance before, maybe not, and turn them into podium contenders. That's pretty special in my mind. Wil Hahn is a great SX rider but a lot of guys overlooked him just because he had a bad outdoor season, and Cole Seeley was not a household name.

"It would have been nice to work with them again, but I couldn't pass up the factory Honda opportunity and it's something that's going to stick with me for the rest of my life, the way of coming over here and living in Europe, seeing all these new places and meeting new people. It's just one of those things that I couldn't pass up.

"And it's cool because I figured by coming over here I'd get a lot of support from Americans because, other than Zach, there are no Americans racing over here. I'm glad to come over here to represent the United States because I know there's a lot of distance between the United States and Europe as far as motocross. You know, the "Ah yeah, us Americans, we're way better than you", and the Europeans are "No, no, your series is nothing". They conflict between each other, so it's cool to come over here and try to break boundaries.

"And the Martin team is great. So professional, yet so friendly. Europe is just different to the States, more laid back. They want to to win, but on the other hand I've got Paolo telling me that this year top tens are good, top fives are very good. Everybody in the team speaks English, (team owner) Paolo (Martin), (team manager) Lorenzo (Resta), my mechanic Marcus (from Brazil), Roger (Shenton, mechanic to MX2 rider Alex Battig). I want to achieve, and I think I can."

As he already showed in that one lap chase with the champion Cairoli at Mantova which saw them enter the final turn side-by-side:

"It was close. I came into that rhythm section with the lead and I landed a little crooked, and I'm like, I'd better play it safe and not double it. I didn't think he would double it behind me, but sure enough he did and I kinda knew right when he did because the crowd started going crazy, I heard his bike and I'm like "Oh man". He made it good through that rhythm section, so he got the drive on me and we came through that thing side by side but coming into the last corner he played it nice on me. He could have drove it in on me. We could have both crashed, but I didn’t give in either. If Toni Cairoli ever reads this, I just want to say "Thankyou" for not ploughing on into me because I know if that had been a GP we would have made contact and who knows what would have happened. He was definitely very nice in that final corner. From what I can see he's a very smart racer, very courteous on the track, he's not going to doing anything stupid to hurt anybody. Like it seems Desalle's kinda the bulldog. Cairoli's got a little bit of a head on him."

It is perhaps coincidence that both two-times world champions from the States have come from the central regions – the late Donny Schmit from Minnesota in the north, Chad Parker from Louisiana in the south. Significant that they settled best in Europe ?

"Growing up in the mid west just gives you a little more of a laid-back attitude, more of a go with the flow thing. The group of people I grew up around, my friends from where I'm from, are just a whole lot different from the people in the rest of the United States. I'm not saying eveybody else has an attitude, I know people from all over the United States, I have friends from everywhere, but it's just a different type of living, a little more laid-back. I have some close friends who just "good old boys from the mid-west". I think that kinda helps you because you can just be happy anywhere you are, just meeting new people. It's a little more friendly, everyone's got a lot more southern hospitality."

But the individual is equally important:

"Gregg ended up deciding Europe wasn't for him. It's tough for a lot of people. We had the same upbringing, just certain people can come over here and do and some can't. I'm not saying that Ryan Mills is a bad guy at all, but he probably couldn't deal with the change over here. Ryan Mills was fast, he was fast as an amateur, he was fast as a Pro, he won an outdoor National, but there's certain people who can come over here and do it, and there's certain people who can't and it doesn't make them a weak person. It's just not for certain people.

"It's a bummer for Gregg that he's not here anymore, but then again I'm glad that he's not here because I know that he was happier to go back home with everybody, with his friends, with mom and with dad."

Gregg's departure led to a slight change of plan.

"I've got my own place in Belgium, five kilometres from Honda Park, in the same complex that Josh Coppins and some other racers are living in, and the initial plan was for us to go there after Valence, but now they've changed the GP schedule I don't expect to go there until after the GP at Mantova. Roger (Shenton) will be moving in when the season starts up.

"We were going to do the motorhome thing, but with my brother not here , that leaves me with no driver so now I'll fly to the races, rental car and hotel. Europe's a change, but it's also like being in the States. I go riding every day, I train every day, I eat, I go to sleep, for me it's not any different than being in the US."

Only edged off the podium on the tie-break at the Castiglione del Lago round of the Italian series, a track with similar characteristics to the GP opener in Bulgaria, was a good confidence-booster for the sole US MX1 contender:

"If I can pick up a second and a half I'm in the lead against Philippaerts. I'm close !"