Passes and changes on the race track are easy to follow. Moves from off the track are so complicated that they require a road map, an interactive graphic, and probably a GPS. It did this week for Ryan Dungey, who packed up his house near Tallahassee, Florida, up in the panhandle near the Georgia line, and headed four hours south to central Florida, where he would join Aldon Baker’s “Baker’s Factory” full time.
Dungey only got the chance because Ken Roczen has decided to part ways with Baker. Roczen had replaced Ryan Villopoto as the alpha male in Baker’s program, but now Kenny’s decided to go out on his own. Villopoto, meanwhile, headed to Europe and even sold off his Florida property. The facility was actually created by Grant Langston, and now Villopoto has sold it to Mike Grondahl, who is the founder of Planet Fitness gyms. He’s a huge fan of the sport. Tim Ferry is now using the place to train riders like RJ Hampshire, Grondhal’s son, Eric, and others. Trey Canard, who works with Ferry, stops by from time to time as well (which means, at the right time, the top three riders in Monster Energy Supercross are only a few miles away from each other).
With RV’s place changing hands, Baker needed a new place to work, so he started building his own facility last summer. It’s not easy to work through Florida’s environmental and commercial codes, and Baker says he’s spent the last few months as a trainer by day and contractor by night. But don’t worry—when it’s time to get down to the grind, he’s still there for his riders, 100 percent.
That rider roster has changed. Roczen inherited Villopoto’s spot as the lead man, and Adam Cianciarulo is still there, too. But KTM helped pay part of Baker’s fee to get Ryan Dungey, Marvin Musquin, and Jason Anderson (of Husqvarna) in there as well. Musquin and Anderson grabbed rental homes and put some roots down in Florida, ready to ride every day. But Dungey had an issue—he was already invested in Tallahassee, at Ricky Carmichael’s place.
Dungey had been renting RC’s Farm for the last five years, and owns a house close by. The original plan was for Dungey to only visit Baker’s Factory every few weeks, at specific times. Once Dungey visited down south, though, he expressed a desire to go there more often—the facility is shaping up nicely, it’s good to work side-by-side with Baker, and having fast riders to log motos with is great, too.
So Dungey wanted to do more, but as long as Roczen was under contract to use the place full-time, that wasn’t going to work. Villopoto and Roczen meshed well together last year, but Roczen was a rookie and Villopoto the veteran—and we know now that RV didn’t have long-term plans to continue racing anyway. Dungey still feels his best years are yet to come, and Roczen’s just getting started. These two just couldn’t ride and train together every day. Plus, Roczen’s now on Carmichael’s own team with RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki. It’s a little strange for Dungey to be using RC’s property to train to beat RC’s rider.
“I could figure something was going to happen once we hired Ken. I could see him [Dungey] probably not stomaching that very well,” said Carmichael on the DMXS Radio show last week. “It’s business, and like I told him before the season started, I said ‘Hey, just so you know, what goes on here, I don’t air any dirty laundry, I wouldn’t do it to you and I wouldn’t do it to Ken. You can take it with a grain of salt.’ Ryan’s a great competitor, things change, and times move on. He had to make a business decision and so did I.”
Before any of this could really come to a head, though, Roczen decided he wanted out of the Baker’s Factory. Roczen went through the full pre-season bootcamp with Baker without a problem, but since he’s been back on the West Coast for the races, he’s started working with his father again, who served as his trainer before Baker. Kenny felt he would be better served to not ride on Mondays anymore, but that doesn’t fit Baker’s program. They decided to part ways, but remain friends. More on that in a moment.
“First off, I would never want to get between someone and their dad, and that was never my intention—even last year,” says Baker. “I understand my program is not for everyone. Kenny wanted to do something different. He said he was feeling good doing what he was doing, so we moved on. If someone is not believing in the program I’m not going to force them to do it.”
Dungey had said if anything changes he’d like to take the offer of a full-time spot, so once Roczen left, that opportunity was there.
“We’ve only been together for a short time, but I realized how important it was to be working with him side by side every day,” says Dungey.
So Dungey got a new house nearby just this week, and will ride and train alongside Musquin and Anderson (and Cianciarulo, who is back to training but not quite back on the motorcycle yet). But there’s one strange part—Roczen’s still there!
Yes, while it seems inevitable that Roczen will move up to RC’s place at some point, he likes the area, so he’s asked Baker if he can continue riding at his track for now. Baker said yes, so on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Roczen rides with the rest of the crew.
“I think we’ve all discussed it enough and we know this is the way it’s going to be,” says Baker. “These guys are mature enough to handle it. I don’t want any issues or any hard feelings.”
Dungey and Roczen have been through this before. As teammates just last year they attended many a test session together.
“When I was around it was never really a problem,” says Roger DeCoster. “I think both Kenny and Ryan have respect for each other.”
We’ll see if the respect continues if they remain locked in a championship fight. For now, those who know Dungey think he’s more relaxed and calm than ever, thanks to Baker’s guidance.
“There’s definitely a fine line, especially in race season with everything that wears on a rider,” says Dungey. “With Aldon I trust him and I believe in his program. Before it was me, ‘What do I Monday? What do I do Tuesday? How do I go about this week?’ where if you look at his program, Aldon has built this program. He’s got the whole year laid out. I just don’t have that expertise to know what to do. So I give it to him and I trust him.”
“Once I’ve got to know Dunge a lot more, and tweak some areas, I see the way he approaches and analyzes things,” says Baker. “He thinks a lot and analyzes a lot, and that’s good. But if you overthink stuff, it can be to your detriment. I think one of the biggest things is he trusts in what I do, and it alleviates a lot of baggage. Before he was always swaying and wondering if he was doing enough; now he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. He seems to trust in the areas I think he needs to work better on, and everything is good.”
