Four. Three. Two…. Two… One. Those of course are the numbers for Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey in a solid January of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship. The former champion went from the outer edge of the title conversation to the man with the red plate with a methodical approach. He reached the end of January 2015 in a slightly different place than he started it, because back on January 3 he seemed to be on the outside of the title conversation, but on January 31 he was standing tall in a conversation that now focused more and more on him.
What Dungey did is what he always does: He just rode forward with efficiency and patience, constantly calculating his risk/reward moments, with a lean to the side of caution. It’s not as spectacular or entertaining as younger contenders like Ken Roczen or Eli Tomac or Trey Canard, but it works for Dungey, and his career standards for finishing races are Carmichael-esque in sheer results, though not wins. Ryan’s just always there, taking his chances when they aren’t the kind of chances that end badly, like throwing an in-route slant into traffic on the one-yard line with the Super Bowl on the line… (Sorry to throw that in there, had to write off the dinner tab for Sunday night.)
There’s still a lot of racing to do, and a lot of things can and will happen to all of these guys. But in the absence of his longtime rival Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart, Dungey has taken advantage of the openings created and is picking up steam, much like he did in 2010. The idea that he could very well end up winning this title five years after last winning it is unprecedented in AMA Supercross history, but then again, so is the fact that he had the red plate before he even won his first race of the championship.
All of that makes this week’s turning race at San Diego so important in the long run. Getting out of the “California season” with your body and title hopes stronger than they were when you got here is key, as Ricky Carmichael, a guy who never won the opener in any of his five SX championship runs, will probably remind him of when they show up to ride next Monday at The Farm, where there are no shortcuts. Dungey won’t be practicing in-route blitzes through the middle of the whoops; rather, he will just keep working on his own version of Beast Mode.
