There’s nothing better than watching one of the best-ever at the top of their game. Photo by: Hoppenworld
Heading into the 2016 Glendale Supercross, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey was on only the second three-race main event win streak of his career. Unfortunately, the #1 was not able to secure his fourth-straight main event win for the first time in his career at round five of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, but he was able to continue one of the most incredible streaks in history: twenty-one straight podiums.
The all-time leading podium streaks throughout the history of Supercross belong to Monster Energy/Yamaha’s Chad Reed (25 in a row) and the retired GOAT, Ricky Carmichael (22 in a row); the defending 2015 450SX is hot on their heels with 21. At this point, Dungey says that he doesn’t even think about it, saying, “The past is the past,” but it’s beginning to look like Ryan Dungey will most likely have his name engraved in the record books with the most ever podiums in a row (26) by the time the series leaves Toronto. The #1 is making a fourth place finish seem very unlikely.
If ever there was a night a podium looked possibly out of reach, it was last Saturday night in Glendale. Ryan rounded turn one in about twelfth, finished lap one in eighth, and after picking off one rider per lap for the next five laps, he was in third by lap six. The unforgiving charge to the front was a perfect display of Ryan’s newfound tenacity, and by the end of twenty laps, he crossed the finish line equaling his worst finish of 2016: a second place. If starting twelfth wasn’t enough to keep him off the box, we’re not sure anything will.
After Ryan’s twenty-first straight podium, we caught up with him down at the podium to ask him about his finish, his newfound aggression and, of course, the streak.
Ryan, you got a bad start tonight, but were still able to fight through the pack for a second place finish at the inaugural Glendale SX. Can you talk about your night?
It was good tonight. My start was just a little bit off. We didn’t get off to a bad start, but I just got edged out a little bit. But hey, racing is racing, and next week we really need to try to get out front off the start and just give myself a chance to battle for the win. Otherwise, everything else was good. We were able to make the passes happen, make them happen clean and make them stick. I just tried to work my way to the front. By the time I got into third, I saw Eli [Tomac] and was able to get Eli, but after we got Eli, Ken just had a little bit too much of a gap on me.
Tonight was the first time all year that you found yourself buried in the pack to start the race. How was that for you and was it just like, “Well, here we are. We’re 10th; time to get to work”?
Well, you really have to watch your surroundings, which isn’t the best, but, hey, it is what it is. That’s why it’s so important to get out front. It’s an open track, open laps and you just do your thing. It’s better out front.
Talk about the track tonight. In the first practice you were over a full second faster than everyone. That’s not like you to go out and set the fastest lap right away, so were you just really feeling this place tonight?
I’ve always liked this place. Phoenix always has good dirt—well, not good dirt necessarily, but we always spend a lot of time testing on these slippery hard pack tracks. I felt like it suited us a little, but we made some bike changes—little minor adjustments—that helped us today. I felt it on the track today and tried to put that into practice, qualifying and the racing today. I just tried to make good laps with good times.
There’s one big part of your race craft that’s changed for the better over the last two seasons: aggression. When you got a bad start tonight, I actually tweeted that your new nickname should be the Honey Badger. (laughs) You have this aggression lately where you don’t care who’s in front of you, you’re getting to the front. Is that something in your program you’ve focused on as of late, because, man, it’s fun to watch.
Well, absolutely, if you can’t make those passes happen, the leaders are getting away. You have to make those passes happen—make them stick—and get into a good position. Just keep moving forward because if a guy’s in front of you and he’s going slower, you’re losing a lot of valuable time. You got to be smart, and it’s not that I don’t care, because you have to be really focused on the riders and what the other rider’s going to do in a situation like that. Overall, though, it was a good night.
That early race aggression is something you’ve really worked on then?
Yes, we have, for sure—just that sprint explosive speed.
What are you at now, twenty podiums in a row?
I don’t even know. (laughs)
Is that something you even think about, or is that just for us media guys? (laughs)
No, the past is the past. Those are cool stats, you know, but there’s a lot more ahead of us that we want to do. Those are just numbers. It’s great, and that’s what we want—consistency, good results—but it doesn’t do us any good thinking about the last however many podiums in a row we got when tonight’s a whole new race. It’s behind you, and we’re moving forward trying to approach each night the same.
Whether you’re thinking about it now or not, it’s only been done two other times in the history of the sport because it’s incredible. Congrats Ryan!
Thank you.
