Interview by: Chase Yocom – Words by: Dan Lamb – Photos by: Hoppenworld
With the four-time defending 450SX Supercross Champion, Ryan Villopoto, heading to contest the MXGP series and the two-time 450SX Champ James Stewart suspended, the logical choices as Villopoto’s possible heir apparent looked to be the 2010 450SX Champion Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey or RCH/Soaring Eagle/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen. One might put the two-time former 450SX Champion Discount Tire Racing/Kawasaki’s Chad Reed, GEICO/Honda’s Eli Tomac or Honda’s Trey Canard up there with Dungey and Roczen, but with big question marks by their names, it was hard to know where they were at. As the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship got underway, it was Roczen jumping out of the gate by winning two of the first three main events and stamping his name as the Championship favorite. The #94 looked bulletproof starting the season with a 1-2-1 score, but the #5 was right there and steadily improving with a 4-3-2 score over the first three rounds. Then came round four in Oakland.
In Oakland, Dungey was not able to grab his first win of the year—he finished second to Canard—but a major mistake by Roczen that lead to a 16th place finish from the German was all it took to give Dungey the red plate and, with that, all the momentum. It was the next race in Anaheim where Dungey would score his first race win of the 2015 season, and since that crash by Roczen in Oakland, Dungey has outscored the former MX2 World Champion 139 to 84, now leading him by a massive 43 points. With Roczen’s downward spiral over the last six races, he has fallen back to third behind Canard, and given a recent injury to his foot, it’s hard to tell when the bleeding might stop.
For Dungey, it’s been an incredible turnaround that could possibly be due to hiring the man that trained Kenny to the 450MX Championship in 2014 and trained Villopoto to the last four-straight 450SX Championships: Aldon Baker. You can say what you want about trainers being given too much credit for a rider’s success, but Aldon’s track record is well documented and there’s nobody that will disagree that Dungey looks like a different animal in ’15. The #5 has long been tagged with the label of being too nice, not being able to pass or just lacking aggression all the way around. Well, that is not “The Diesel” we’ve seen of late. He has been doing what it takes to make the passes stick on the way to the front, and because of that, he has three wins and a semi-comfy 30-point lead in the Championship. There are some where 30 points at the halfway mark would mean less, but for a podium machine like Dungey, 30 points may be a Mount Everest for the competition.
After the race, MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom caught up with Dungey to talk about his night at the Atlanta 2 Supercross. You can read what he had to say in the interview below.
Ryan, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. How cool is it to have that kind of fan base right now? We just waited about fifteen minutes while you signed more autographs.
Yeah, I feel like I definitely have some of the best fans, and some of the people that are able to get into the pits after the race, hang around and maybe want some merchandise and stuff. (laughs) [The mechanics] are tearing apart the bike, so it’s cool. It’s definitely what makes the sport, and it’s cool that people want to see you.
Can you take us through your day? It was pretty much perfect—first in qualifying, first in your heat and first in the main.
It was. It was a good day. In the first practice, we got the fastest qualifying time and were second in the second practice—Eli [Tomac] was first—but we still had the time advantage over him going into the heat. We had the fastest heat, and I got the heat race win which was awesome. I got the first gate pick going into the main. I came out about third in the main, and I was able to follow Chad [Reed]—he had another good start. From there, those guys were bumping and Chad ended up making a mistake and [Weston] Peick led for a few laps. He made a mistake and I was able to get by him over the triple by staying a little bit lower than him and had the advantage going into the next turn. From there, I was able to lead from that point on and was able to open a little bit of a gap. It was nice and comfortable, and I was able to run it in for the win in the end.
I’ve been hearing from other riders that the track was pretty tight tonight. I know it took you a few laps to get around Reed and Peick to get into the lead, but how important was the good start tonight.
Yeah, the start was key. Gosh, if you were fifth, some of those parts were so one-lined that if someone was going slower in front of you, you would lose a lot of time on the leaders. I was glad the position I was in and the start we got was good. Yeah, the track was tighter; it was longer than last weekend, but tight and real slow, and the long lap times. The speeds weren’t nearly as fast as last weekend by any means, kind of a different setup. We had to make a couple clicker changes but nothing drastic.
They definitely threw some big whoops at you guys this weekend. (laughs)
Yeah, they did. The first couple of practices they were mean, but they kind of mellowed out in the night show. But they still were cupped out and edged.
Dirt wise, was the dirt from last weekend to this weekend any different?
There was actually a little bit more traction in a few spots, but the base was still really hard. All the flat areas were rock hard. It was kind of crazy. Even underneath all the sand sections it was really slippery. All you were banking on was the sand or else you were just spinning on the bottom. Dirt Wurx did an awesome job with the tracks for what the dirt was, and it was great for racing.
Where was the heel-clicker tonight with the win? (laughs)
Ah, this jump wasn’t big enough for me to do the heel-clicker on that one. (laughs) Marvin [Musquin] showed me up. I need to learn more. (laughs)
We have the Daytona Supercross coming up next weekend, a little more outdoor style of SX. Are you looking forward to Daytona?
Yeah, with Daytona coming up, we’ll definitely have to do a little bit of testing, but nothing too much. You definitely don’t want to go too soft with all the dark spots; you want some good hold up. I think the boys have some good stuff to try this weekend so I’m excited. I can’t wait to get down there. Tomorrow we’ll relax, have an easy day and get her started back up on Monday.
Again, thanks for your time, and congrats on the win.
Thanks, Chase. I appreciate it, my man.
