The 2012 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship is going very well for the Red Bull KTM squad. Ryan Dungey has delivered the team’s first premier class victories, and barring injury, is poised to take the brand’s very first 450 National Championship. In the 250 ranks both Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen continue to earn a healthy amount of points on any given weekend. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. In fact, despite winning their first National in the form of a 125 Class overall with Kelly Smith at High Point in 2000, KTM wasn’t able to finish a year with riders in the top ten in both classes until 2001. Here’s a look at the stats from the highest finishing, top-ten KTM-mounted riders since 2001.
| 125/Lites/250F Class | 250/450 Class | |||||
| Rider | Points | Final Pts. | Rider | Points | Final Pts. | |
| 2012 (Through Rd 8) Ken Roczen |
305 | TBD | Ryan Dungey | 383 | TBD | |
| 2011 | Mike Alessi | 304 | 5th | |||
| 2010 | Mike Alessi | 314 | 5th | |||
| 2009 | Tommy Searle | 332 | 6th | Justin Brayton | 249 | 7th |
| 2008 | Ryan Sipes | 228 | 6th | Nick Wey | 264 | 6th |
| 2007 | Martin Davalos | 203 | 9th | Mike Alessi | 423 | 2nd |
| 2006 | Mike Alessi | 448 | 2nd | |||
| 2005 | Mike Alessi | 367 | 3rd | |||
| 2004 | ||||||
| 2003 | Grant Langston | 380 | 1st | John Dowd | 190 | 10th |
| 2002 | Brock Sellards | 216 | 8th | John Dowd | 288 | 7th |
| 2001 | Grant Langston | 444 | 2nd | John Dowd | 326 | 7th |
KTM may not have been able to put riders in the top ten in both classes until 2001, but what a year that turned out to be. The championship came down to the final moto, and as the race entered its final stages, Grant Langston was looking good for the championship. Then with two laps to go, his rear wheel collapsed, and with it, KTM’s shot at getting their first National championship. In 2003, Langston came back and won the title. Interestingly enough, KTM followed their success up the following year by failing to put a single rider in the top ten in either class.
Mike Alessi may have never won a championship for KTM, but he did win several races and finished inside the top-ten five times for them. In fact, of the 4976 points listed above, Alessi is responsible for 1856 of them. That’s 37.3 percent! In addition to earning a large chunk of points for the orange folks, Alessi also bears the honor of most points earned in a single season for KTM, in both classes no less! Of course, with eight motos remaining and Ryan Dungey averaging 23.9375 points per moto and Ken Roczen averaging 19.0625 points per moto, it seems likely that 2012 is the final year that Alessi will hold those records.
After looking at the stats above, be sure to share any interesting trends you’ve spotted in the comments section.
