Ryan Dungey is on the verge of history. He now has 25-straight podiums in Monster Energy Supercross, tying him with Chad Reed’s run of 25-straight podiums from 2003—2004, the all-time mark in SX podium streaks. If Dungey hits the box again this weekend, he has 26 straight, which will set a new record. Hey, can you imagine if Reed and Dungey get into a battle for third this week?
While discussing all this podium streakiness within the freshly watered and groomed Racer X bench racing circuit, we decided to dig a little deeper. What if we include Lucas Oil Pro Motocross events into the podium streak list? We did some digging to maybe see how much further The Dunge can go even beyond this weekend.
First, some notables. We looked at the riders we figured would have some impressive streaks, and found this:
Jeff Stanton’s longest streak was ten-straight, from the next-to-last SX race at San Jose, California in 1992 through the end of the season. He finished fifth at the 1993 SX opener in Orlando, Florida. Jeff Ward’s longest podium streak was also 10, in 1988, and it ended when he cased a jump and hurt his ankle at the New Jersey SX.
Jean-Michel Bayle had a pair of 11-podium streaks in 1991. He made 11-straight supercross podiums in between Anaheim and Dallas, then 11 again from the Los Angeles SX finale through the final round of the 500 Nationals at Unadilla. During that remarkable season, he became the only rider to ever win three AMA National Championships in one year (250SX, 250MX, 500MX).
Bob Hannah made 15-straight podiums between the 1978 Houston SX and the 1978 Superbowl on Motocross in Los Angeles. His streak ended the next weekend with an eighth at RedBud.
James Stewart also made 15-straight podiums, stretching from wins at the Atlanta Supercross and the Thunder Valley National in 2007. He also made 12-straight
Ryan Villopoto notched 19-straight podiums between wins at the Dallas Supercross and the Washougal National in 2013. The week before Dallas, he finished sixth in San Diego. The week after Washougal, he finished fifth at Millville.
Dungey had 21-straight podiums last year, starting at round two of supercross in Phoenix through the High Point National. He then finished fifth in the mud at Budds Creek, after a scary first-lap crash right off the start. He grabbed podiums at the final six Nationals last year, so his current streak (after Daytona) is 15.
You knew you would see podium master Chad Reed up here, right? He had 23-straight podiums indoors and out, making the box at every SX in 2004, and extending it through Washougal that year. It ended with a tenth at Millville.
Rick Johnson also had 23-straight, making the podium at every race in 1986, from the Anaheim SX to the Washougal National finale. That includes 250SX, 250MX and 500MX, and even more impressive, Johnson only finished third twice. He was first or second 21 times in 23 races that season! The streak ended when he was knocked out at the Anaheim opener in 1987. Check out more on RJ's career in The Vault.
Now, the big ones:
Jeremy McGrath: 34 Straight
Jeremy McGrath is known as the King of Supercross, but in his prime he became a dominant rider outdoors as well. He won the 1995 250 National MX Title and was crushing the field early in 1996 before trying to jump the un-jumpable at Millville, hurting his foot, and losing the points lead to Jeff Emig. Spanning both championships in 1995—1996, he notched 34-straight podiums. MC skipped the final round of the 1995 AMA Supercross Championship during a rider boycott when the stadium lights went out. The next weekend, his streak started with an overall win at the ‘95 Budds Creek National and stretched all the way to end of the season. It continued when he podiumed every supercross round in ’96 (winning 15 of 16 races) and then made the box at the first eight nationals in the summer of ’96. The streak ended in Millville, when he got hurt in practice. Total time? This streak ran from June 18, 1995 through August 4, 1996. McGrath also won 26 of the 34 races during that stretch. By the way, if you want to throw that Las Vegas 1995 boycott out of the data, MC gathered three additional podiums in a row before that event. Make it an amazing 37-straight if you’re a MC fan. But if you don’t want to count missed races as missed podiums, just check out some info below.
Ricky Carmichael: 46 Straight
On January 11, 2003, Team Honda’s Ricky Carmichael finished fourth on his CR250 at the Phoenix Supercross behind Kawasaki’s Ezra Lusk and Yamaha teammates Chad Reed and Tim Ferry… And then on February 18, 2006, Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael DNF’d the St. Louis SX when the shock linkage broke on his Suzuki RM-Z450 broke.
In between, there were seventy-one AMA Supercross and AMA Motocross races that Carmichael competed in. (He missed the entire 2004 AMA Supercross tour with a knee injury.) In all seventy-one races, Carmichael took home a trophy, finishing either first (50 times), second (16 times) or third (5 times) in those races.
SX wins: three (’06), seven (’05), seven (’03)
MX wins: twelve wins (’05), twelve (’04), nine (’03)
SX seconds: two (’06), six (’05), six (’03)
MX seconds: two (’03)
SX thirds: one (‘06), three (’05), one (’03)
MX thirds: He never finished lower than second during this span.
If you want to split Carmichael’s streak by that missed 2004 SX season, that’s fine because he still has the record. He recorded 25-straight podiums from Anaheim 2 in 2003 through the end of that season. He missed supercross in 2004, but returned with a 1-1 at Hangtown, then stretched that podium run all the way through St. Louis in 2006. That’s 46-straight podiums, a record we doubt will ever be broken. It also makes for one heck of a trophy case!
