Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin are streaking together! Actually, the Red Bull KTM teammates (and the fellow regulars of the Bakers Factory) have each won three consecutive supercross main events. Dungey has never done that before, not even in the 250SX Class, despite winning the 2009 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Musquin did win three in a row back in 2013 (Daytona, Indianapolis, and Toronto) but not the title. Now both are looking very much in charge of not only their concurrent streaks, but also their respective championship points. Dungey is 45 points ahead of Team Honda HRC’s Trey Canard with just six rounds left; Musquin is 16 points clear of GEICO Honda's Justin Bogle, the defending champ in the 250SX East Region, with three rounds to go.
With all that in mind, here's a list of some other past streaks of supercross success.
13
The biggest streaks of all are held by Jeremy McGrath (1996) and Ricky Carmichael (2001), each of whom obviously won the championships in those respective years. But here's the thing: Both riders would enjoy many streaks of wins along the way in their Hall of Fame careers, but in Carmichael's case, the thirteen straight wins he pulled together in 2001 marked the first and longest streak of his career—he had never won two premier-class SX races in a row until the fourth round of the series; then he never lost again that year!
0
And what's ironic about McGrath's dominance in 1996 is that he left Honda after that season, made the switch to Suzuki, and didn't really find his footing all season, but neither did any of the other contenders. As a result, not a single rider won back-to-back races in 1997, one year after Jeremy's streak of thirteen straight! The champion that year was the super-consistent Jeff Emig.
4
Another big number is four, as in four straight AMA Supercross Championships. Only two men possess this record—Jeremy McGrath (1993-'96) and Ryan Villopoto (2011-'14)—and no one else will have a chance to match this streak for at least four more years!
10
Consecutive years that James Stewart has managed to win an AMA Supercross main event in the premier class, beginning in 2005 and, unfortunately, soon to end—he's not racing in 2015, which means his streak will come to an end after covering 2005-2014.
4
Yamaha of Troy's Ernesto Fonseca had an amazing run in his rookie season of 1999, streaking to wins in each of the first four 125 Supercross races he ever entered—no one has ever come close to matching that debut streak. He ended up losing just once in the East Region, to Brock Sellards at the old Pontiac Silverdome.
6
Speaking of the Pontiac Silverdome (which we would be going to this weekend if the series still went there rather than downtown Detroit's Ford Field), it houses one of the longest winning streaks for one stadium in the history of supercross. Bob "Hurricane" Hannah swept the doubleheaders there in 1977, '78 and '79, all on Yamahas.
6
Let's forget about doubleheaders and go back to once-a-year races. To no surprise, it's Jeremy McGrath's dominance in one building that jumps out, though it's not at Anaheim, "the house that Jeremy built." Rather, it's the old Metrodome in Minneapolis where Jeremy won six straight years (1994-'99) and on three different brands (Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha). Wonder if anyone else has ever won three years in a row on three different brands at a single venue?
4
Bob Hannah also won at the Houston Astrodome four times in a row (doubleheaders in 1978 and '79), as did Mark "Bomber" Barnett (1981-'82). But Kawasaki's Jeff Ward won the Houston Astrodome four straight years (1985-'88), after they did away with doubleheaders. And Honda's Jeff Stanton won the Daytona SX four straight times (1989-'92).
9
From 1988 through 1996, Honda riders won the AMA Supercross Championship nine straight times. It started with Rick Johnson (1988), then Jeff Stanton (1989-'90), then Jean-Michel Bayle (1991), and then back to Stanton (1992), before Jeremy McGrath reeled off four straight titles (1993-'96) on Honda CR250 motorcycles.
2
Only two riders have managed to win consecutive SX titles on different brands of motorcycles. McGrath won four straight on Honda (1993-'96) and then three straight on Yamaha (1998-'00). His replacement as dominant champion, Ricky Carmichael, won two years on a Honda (2002-'03), then two years on a Suzuki (2005-'06). RC also won the 2001 title on a Kawasaki, which makes him the only man in history to have won AMA Supercross Championships on three different brands.
6
Bob Hannah's longest consecutive SX win streak came in 1978, when he swept Houston and Pontiac, then single races in Pittsburgh and New Orleans. That's also the most in a row ever won by Rick Johnson, who reeled off his streak of a half-dozen in 1988 with Seattle, Daytona, Houston (x2), Dallas, Tampa, and East Rutherford, NJ.
4
There were only four AMA Supercross races in 1975, one of which (the Superbowl of Motocross at the Los Angeles Coliseum) did not count in the point standings. All four were won by Can-Am's Jimmy Ellis, who also became the first American to win the AMA Supercross title.
7
Suzuki riders won the first seven rounds of the 1981 AMA Supercross Championship. The streakers included Kent Howerton (Anaheim), Darrell Shultz (Seattle x2), Mark Barnett (Atlanta), Shultz (Daytona), and then Barnett again (Houston x2).
5
Damon Bradshaw won five straight races in 1992—and nine all told—but he ended up losing the title to Jeff Stanton. That gave him the most wins for a non-champion in a single series in the history of the sport.
6
Chad Reed almost swept the entire 2002 East Region Championship on his Yamaha of Troy YZ250F, but he was foiled in his shot at the perfect season when Branden Jesseman beat him at the Pontiac Silvderome in the series finale.
6
One year later, Reed closed out the 2003 AMA Supercross Championship with six straight wins, but he still lost to the defending champ Carmichael. But that's not what makes the number six here so special. In one of the strangest streaks we can ever remember, the top three finishers at the last six rounds were the same three men, in order: Reed, Carmichael, and Ernesto Fonseca finished in that order at St. Louis, Houston, Pontiac, Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas.
7
Doug Henry won seven 125 East Region SX main events during his best streak of 1993. Henry won Atlanta, Daytona, Dallas, Charlotte, Pontiac (x2) and Indianapolis.
9
Ricky Carmichael does possess one 125 class record on his own: His nine wins in 1998 gave him a perfect season and also the most wins in one season for a rider in this class.
5
Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Ivan Tedesco started the 2004 West Region with five straight wins before losing to Nathan Ramsey. Then the East started up and James Stewart won five straight races before crashing in practice at Indianapolis and dropping out. That race was won by Josh Hansen. The season ended with Stewart winning two more races, Tedesco winning two more races, and Kawasaki sweeping the titles.
7
James Stewart won seven races in a row to end the 2007 AMA Supercross Championship, winning his first major SX title. He also won seven in a row in 2009, the second time he won the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. No wonder #7 is James' lucky number!
