Although Ryan Dungey has a forty-five point lead in 450SX standings, it doesn’t seem to matter to he or Ken Roczen. One week after a twenty lap duel in Santa Clara, the two were back at it again in Indianapolis on Saturday, pushing the limits on what was arguably the roughest track this year. In maybe their greatest fight ever, Dungey came out on top once again for his seventh win of the season and twenty-ninth straight podium. After the race, we caught up with him on the podium.
Racer X: How as the track?
Ryan Dungey: It’s a challenging track, not to mention the obstacles were definitely tough but as well as the ruts. They just develop and the whole track starts to deteriorate. With the power of a 450 they just get deep, deep ruts. As the race was going on we had to change our lines up, switch a few things. And a track like this isn’t going to be mistake free. I had my fair share of mistakes but I tried to minimize the damage. Obviously with the pressure of Kenny [Roczen] trying to make the pass happen we were trying to protect our insides [lines] and stuff, but overall a win tonight was very special and rewarding. The track was very challenging. But the setup was good. The boys did a good job.
Most intense battle between you and Ken?
I would have to say yeah, just even last weekend and this weekend there’s really no room to breathe. You really have to be on it. There’s no room for a mistake. I made a mistake and he got by, and fortunately we got him back with the mistake he made. So that worked out good. And from there it was about three laps to go and I just tried to put a hard charge on. For sure, I think myself and Kenny, this is probably one of our top battles that we really went after it. That’s what it’s about though. It gives the fans a good show and at the end of the day that’s what you want, too. So I think it was really a step up.
A few mistakes from both of you guys. Was that all-out speed?
That’s the thing about this track too, and in practice you could see everybody making mistakes. You had that limit and you can push it to that point and if you try to go above that for very long it’s like the track would reach out and grab you and it’d bite you. There was that fine line and I didn’t want to force it, but I didn’t want to go easy either. Obviously he was right on my tail. It’s such a track that you just had to really finesse it and know where to push and know where not to push either.
I talked to Kenny earlier and he said on a one to ten scale this was about a ten and a half.
If you did a track walk right now you’d probably be blown away with how deep the ruts are. You get on the 250s and the track’s done, chewed up. They worked it for us, but a 450, it seems like they just dig a hole even twice as deep, as well they should. But we’re getting so much traction and so much power the ruts and the track’s so soft too, so as the laps kept going it kept getting worse and deeper. You had to switch your line up, and even those lines weren’t shallow. So like I was telling him, it was such a fine line. You couldn’t over-ride the track.
Did mistakes decide this once?
I guess you could say [that]. We were both pushing it. I made a mistake and then he passed me, and then he made a mistake and I got him back. If it weren’t for his mistake then it might have been hard to say if we would have got the pass back. But I’m glad we did. I felt like we deserved it and earned it tonight.
We put in a lot of effort to go out there and settle for third. I don’t want to leave anything on the track.
It looked like that rhythm on the far side a couple laps you were kind of uncomfortable with.
Go walk it. That’s the tough thing, when you triple onto the table you got soft ruts. Not only is it ruts and deep but they pull you left and right, so you get pulled and then you got land onto a table-top which isn’t hard, it’s soft. So when your bike lands it sucks up all your travel, and the only thing it wants to do is go left or right. Well, that’s your job to muscle that bike and squeeze it tight and keep it in line. But also bike setup is important too. A track like this really shows a bike setup and all the hard work the whole team’s put in. Suspension, engine, chassis—everybody. It’s important.
You were in the same situation last week. Did it help carrying over to this week—having Roczen right behind you for 20 laps?
Definitely. It’s been 40 laps of just no breathing room. At the end of the day I got to do the best that I can do and I’m going to give it my all. I don’t want to get beat, but I’m not going to do anything crazily stupid. I’m going to hold my pace, focus on myself and you’ve got to trust that that’s enough. And some days you’re not going to go as fast as everybody. But I think the overall goal is to be consistent on a broad series.
A lot of people would say, “He has a 40 point lead, why is he trying to go all out and keep Roczen behind him?” Is it just a confidence thing? You don’t want to let him get any confidence?
We put in a lot of effort to go out there and settle for third. I don’t want to leave anything on the track. I want to make sure when I’m done racing, as far as every night, I gave it my best. And if that’s a win, that’s awesome. But that’s the tough part, too. You don’t want to ride like that either because the second you start holding back and protecting yourself and you start to worry about everybody else, that’s when you’re more prone to make a mistake. And you’re in the back of the pack with other riders, I think we’d all agree the safest spot on the track is at the front. And we don’t practice 80 percent either. So the bike ain’t going to work as good at 80 percent.
Twenty-three seconds on third: did you guys have anything else out there?
We were trying. I don’t think either of us were leaving anything on the table, obviously. I already said, you couldn’t over-ride it. I think we had more attack in us to push harder and get into things harder, but that doesn’t help you at this track.
Twenty-nine straight podiums. Do you think about that at all?
It’s cool. I really am more just focused on giving it my best each and every day and every race preparing. I hope to look back… I dreamed of being in this position as a kid and having records like that, I guess you could say. But there’s a heck of a lot more work to be done. It’s fun, definitely, to take it in and enjoy that and realize what we’ve done, but unselfishly and not greedily we want to keep pushing. I feel like our better days are still ahead of us.
I think in previous seasons we’d see you kind of ease up a little bit here. With a big points lead, a track that’s a little more treacherous. Is it a different attitude for you?
No, just as we came in and approached it each and every race we do the same now, regardless. It ain’t going to do us any good to be thinking about that stuff. I think knowing it, and obviously be smart, don’t do anything stupid, but at the same time go out there and race to win. I think the whole team and myself, we go out there to get the job done and to win and nothing less. Anything other than focusing on the here and now, it just takes away from our performance.