Ryan Dungey looked like a machine en route to back-to-back Monster Energy Supercross Championships, but after taking another number-one plate on Saturday night, he finally admitted he was a bit human. The pressure and work behind being the number-one rider in the sport for nearly two years can indeed take a toll even on Dungey, but he’s strong enough mentally to prevent that from impacting his results. After all the team photos were taken on the podium, we grabbed Ryan and his Red Bull KTM team manager Roger DeCoster to talk about this latest title.
Racer X: The end of this race, it was weird, at the moment where your podium streak ends, we see you fist pumping. I know there was a bigger picture. Talk about the championship and what the year was like.
Ryan Dungey: The goal from the very beginning coming into this year was obviously to defend the title. I wanted to repeat it and back it up and do it again. It was going to be a challenge, but I hadn’t done that before. I hadn’t consistently won. As the season started Anaheim 1 was a little rough but right away we were able to start gathering some wins consistently and get on the podium and everything like that, which was good. Obviously fourth place tonight… the goal was the championship but the podium streak, I was definitely going after Cole Seely just to try to get on the podium. But a lot of people have got to remember that it’s been a fight. Just mentally battling week in and week out, a lot of riders have been challenging us, different riders across the whole season. Other riders, the pressure’s kind of off and they can go out and ride the way they want to. Not that the pressure’s building up for us tonight and that’s why we got fourth, because I definitely gave it my best and did what I could but I wasn’t going to do anything stupid either. I was going to race hard and get to the front as best as I could. Like I said, the goal was to get the championship. It’s nice to be able to have a little cushion to wrap it up one round early. Fourth place, if that’s our worst finish up until round 16 I don’t think that’s that bad. But at the same time, the accomplishment of getting the championship being done is nice, it’s good to have that done. Now we can go to Vegas and move into outdoors and really focus on what lies ahead too.
It’s really about keeping the focus on the practice during the week, on myself at the races and trying to execute the plan of attack that we have. But a championship weighs on you. You want to win and you want to wrap it up but I knew I had to focus on right here, right now, ever week. It’s good to be able to have it wrapped up.
This is your third. I know you hear this question a lot but how does this rank with the others?
I would say the sweetest was ’15 and ’16. Last year getting the first supercross championship with KTM was big, but this one even has its own good points. I feel like we were stronger this year and we were able to win more races consistently. We were battling for a winning position every single race right from the beginning, so that was encouraging. Every championship is sweet in itself. The first one was awesome because it was my first one. It was my rookie year. The second one, with KTM, it took some years to get it but we got her last year. And then to be able to defend it…each one has their own exciting points and meaning.
You have one more milestone now, you have eight wins. Ninth win would be a career high for you. How important is that maybe going into Vegas? Something
to think about?
For sure. It’d definitely be nice to cap the season off with a win. We’re going to do our best to do that. But it’s also encouraging to know that we have won nine already, we just got docked that one race which brings it to eight but in the records books speaking-wise it’d be nice to get nine.
Roger, compare 2015 Ryan Dungey to 2016 Ryan Dungey.
Roger DeCoster: He definitely made a lot of big steps, I feel. He has gotten better every year. At the beginning of the year it’s always really tough because everybody, their hopes are at 100 percent. Ryan was strong from the very beginning and carried it all the way through. To be consistent the way he has been, that takes a lot of preparation and dedication and staying focused through time. It’s easier when you can relax a little bit in the middle of the season and then come back, but he has been there every race. Maybe the last few weeks, the battle he had with Kenny [Roczen] when he could have taken a second and still be fine in the championship, but he did not do that. I feel that this is the best Ryan Dungey we have had.
Roger, you’ve won this title a lot with various teams that you’ve worked for, and you’ve worked with many of the best ever. How is this guy compared to some of the others as far as how hard he works and how he sweats every single detail?
Decoster: I think I have to rank him number one as far as the dedication day in and day out. [Jeremy] McGrath was awesome. Ricky [Carmichael] was awesome. A lot of them were awesome. But his dedication that he has at every race, every day of the week, is really exceptional.
You mentioned coming out strong earlier in the year. How hard is that? That stuff is happening October, November, December. How hard is it to do that stuff and get that stuff right at that time of year?
Dungey: I think like Roger said, last year we kind of started behind a little bit and it was by round five we got the points lead. This year right away at round two we were in the points lead. That was the deal. We wanted to build on that throughout the whole season—it was tough. It’s not like we could relax. Yes, we could relax tonight and just roll around and get 14th but I didn’t want to do that. Like Roger said, it’s one thing when you’re not in the points. You can kind of take a step back and regroup then come back and make a full swing. But for me it was like week in and week out, you had to keep going. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And having Aldon [Baker] for the training side, I didn’t have to worry about any of that stuff. So the work was being put in, but at the practice tracks, there’s still pressure, just without the stress of the race stress. We get the pressure from Marvin [Musquin] and Jason [Anderson], so it’s a battle at the practice track, but then you come to the race and it’s a battle as well. So I feel like this season I was able to kind of find out more about myself, too. Times where I felt challenged, times where I felt tired and I was trying to find that motivation. I had to really dig deep. I just found myself in situations where I had to find that deep desire within me to go out and keep doing it. In the end you prove a lot to yourself.
Decoster: It’s a lot work, a lot of discipline, for five or six months, day in and day out. I know how much this guy likes to eat. We go to dinner together. Aldon has him on this program, he can only eat so much, and he’s always hungry. So you have to protect the plate a little bit or he’s going to come grab something off of yours! [Laughs] It’s amazing the discipline this guy has.
I think people forget. We see you on weekends doing well but when you’re the guy everyone’s targeting every hour of every day, every week. You can’t have a bad day even on Tuesday.
Dungey: Right, and that’s the thing. There’s so much riding during the week, the preparation, it has to be there, you can’t afford to be tired. We all find ourselves tired from the training and stuff but you can’t afford to lose your focus a little bit because it will bite you out there on the track. It’s discipline. October, November, December, I’ve got to thank Jason and Marvin because they come down to test and there was times when one of them was faster, or I was faster, but it was a battle every single time we got out on the track. But it was fun. When we got to the race we had already experienced that pressure from chasing and from somebody pushing. So it’s a lot of maintenance, a lot of riding, but the biggest thing is keeping the perspective, the enjoyment. That’s the one thing Roger’s been really good with helping me. He tells me I don’t have to do this; I get to do this. And we get paid to do what we love, both of us. Not that it’s about the money, I’ve never done it for the money. It’s more about the passion and the enjoyment and keeping the love of the sport, and not being afraid to fail. There are a lot of points in my career that I was struggling. I do believe there are still a lot more better days ahead of us, better years too. We’ll keep trying to build.
Well then, how many years do you want to do this?
Dungey: Right now just one contract at a time. But as long as I’m in 100 percent and I can race and battle at the top then I’ll be here.
How about you, Roger? How many years?
Decoster: At least as long as this guy rides!
Is there going to be a celebratory meal? Can you go nuts one time?
Dungey: Oh, yeah. Got to let loose a little bit.
Decoster: He gets a couple Oreos today. [Laughs]
Dungey: They’ve got something planned for us tonight. We’ll have some fun with the team.