A few weeks ago a fan hit me up on Twitter after watching an episode of Monster Energy Supercross Chasing the Dream. He felt the RCH team was possibly being too nice to Ken Roczen after he had a bad night, as it almost looked like they were “okay” with not winning.
This encompasses much more than the RCH team. It’s sport-wide phenomenon. Teams basically don’t yell at their riders. Putting extra pressure on a dirt bike racer usually doesn’t make things better, because being relaxed usually results in better riding than getting fired up. Plus, the moment a rider feels like a team gets negative on him, the structure starts to fail. This isn’t unique to Ken or his team, it’s just the way the whole industry does it, sans Mitch Payton back in the day, and even he appears to have cooled off in that respect.
The last two races, Kenny has ridden exceptionally well, but has also come up short of the victory. Ryan Dungey fended off his every move, save one in Indy, when Roczen finally took the lead, but then handed it back with a mistake of his own. The final tally? Dungey has led 39 of the last 40 laps; Roczen has led one.
Ken has not expressed frustration, however. He’s in the fight, and that’s what matters. “It was fun,” he said in a team press release. “It was an amazing ride the whole way. I’m pretty bummed I messed up on that dragon’s back but we’ve been riding really good and strong and that’s what counts.”
Ken is right about riding well. We already know what kind of damage Dungey is doing this season. Besides a dud in Detroit, Roczen has been on it, too, with a convincing win in Toronto and two battles in Santa Clara and Indy. In Santa Clara, they topped third-place by 15 seconds, in Indy they did it by a whopping 29—and that third place rider at both events was the no-slouch Jason Anderson. For Roczen and his team, they’re finding positives in the progress, instead of negatives in the results.
Dungey has been the class of the field this season, but the question of who is next best has varied week to week. Roczen and Anderson have held that spot, as has Marvin Musquin, Chad Reed, Eli Tomac, Cole Seely and others. It appears now that Roczen has his act dialed in—as long as he can start decently, which could set us up for a few more great supercross battles, and perhaps a clash of the titans in Lucas Oil Pro Motocross next month. Dungey’s orange KTM has become the dangling carrot, and Roczen’s chase has made the last two races fun to watch.
And isn’t the one-on-one battle the one we enjoy the most? Despite the annual Anaheim 1 send ups with dreams of ten riders that can win races, the most historic fights usually come down to two. Whether it’s Bob Hannah trying to topple Roger DeCoster in some Trans-AMAs, or Hannah/Howerton, Johnson/Bailey, Johnson/Ward, Stanton/Bayle, Stanton/Bradshaw, Emig/McGrath, MC/RC, RC/CR, Ricky versus Bubba or the ultimate, Stewart/Reed, the plot thickens when one alpha dog tries to protect his turf from another hungry animal.
These clashes don’t come often, but when they do, they’re spectacular.
I mistakenly believed the stage was set for #KenEli a little over a year ago, until Dungey had his renaissance. Now Dungey is number one in more ways than just the digit on his bike, and since he hands over nothing via mistakes and injuries, it will take good old-fashioned hero work for someone to rip the crown from him. That or he retires like that Villopoto guy. But since Dungey seems to enjoy his role more with each passing week, unlike RV in the latter years, relinquishing the crown doesn’t seem likely. So if Roczen or someone wants it, they’re going to have to take it from him.
Roczen’s push to do so has drawn them away from the field for the last two weeks. Reminds me of the summer of 2003, when Carmichael was sitting on an infinity-long overall win streak in the Nationals, and Kevin Windham returned to action on a CRF450 looking to do some thumping. Kevin was ripping, exploiting a bike that was finally coming into its own, and a fresh lease on racing that had finally released the mental demons that had slowed him before. K-Dub was hauling ass every week on that bike, but Carmichael wouldn’t give anything to him!
It all came to a head one weekend at Unadilla, a track that favored Windham’s style and that four-stroke, and he pushed Carmichael to the brink. Carmichael pushed back. With each lap they upped the pace further and further, until Tim Ferry, solid as usual, was relegated to a very distant third, a full MINUTE behind them. And he was riding well!
How well?
He had riders like Chad Reed, David Vuillemin and Mike LaRocco behind him. Yet Ferry was a minute behind the K-Dub/RC duel at the front. K-Dub won it to finally end Carmichael’s overall win streak. But they had pushed each other to new limits to get there.
Earlier that year, Chad Reed was trying to turn the tables on Carmichael in supercross. That battle came to a head in Dallas, where they finally started together and squared off mano e mano for twenty laps. Back and forth they went before Reed came out on top. Third place? Ernesto Fonseca, a whopping 34 seconds behind.
Two years later Carmichael was back and better on his Suzuki, building an early win streak and points lead. Reed had yet to find another gear. They rode like mad men in San Diego, and on the last lap Reed not only passed Carmichael for the lead, but he also lapped the fourth-place rider (Vuillemin) while doing it. LaRocco was third and just a few bike lengths ahead as the checkers came out, some 55 seconds off of the lead. They nearly lapped third on a dry track!
These clashes don’t come often, but when they do, they’re spectacular. As Roczen keeps upping the ante, and Dungey shows no signs of releasing the vice grips, there might not be much more to do than sit back, relax and enjoy. This is going to be fun to watch, isn’t it?
