Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey has won a lot of races—he’s now third all-time in combined National Motocross overall wins. He won another at the FMF Glen Helen National over the weekend, but this one was different. Ken Roczen had him beat in the first moto until his front forks broke, and Dungey inherited the moto win. A second in moto two behind Roczen gave him the overall with 1-2 scores.
Roczen had the edge on speed at the moment and still holds a two-point lead in the standings. But Dungey was still holding the big trophy when the day was done. He talked about it in the post-race press conference.
Racer X: Congratulations on a very successful day for you. Go ahead and give us the picture.
Ryan Dungey: The day was overall pretty good. I think it’s always positive in the big scheme of things—in the points chase that we gained ground, and getting an overall. That’s also a step in the right direction. Obviously Ken [Roczen] had some bike issues, which is a little bit gifted but hey, we’ll take it and we’ll keep building on it. It goes without saying Ken’s riding really good right now. He’s obviously comfortable and confident in his bike and everything like that. He’s riding really well, but as am I. I feel like my riding is really good, our set up is right there. I feel like if anything there’s a lot of positives to take and we’ll keep building. I’ve been in this position in the past before, just kind of… I wouldn’t say behind the ball but more just need to make some improvements, myself, the bike and the team. But it’s in a good way. It causes all of us to go back to work and try to fine tune, make a little progress, get a little bit better. I definitely feel like myself, physically, I can improve in areas and be better on the track. It’s just little bits each lap, and I think in the end just try to get to that point and surpass where he’s at. That’s the goal, to be able to get the holeshot and go and lead it and be done and settle in. So overall it was a good day. Just got to fine tune a few areas and keep moving forward.
The rhythm section before you get back out to the start straight, what was that like?
It was pretty challenging just for the fact some of it was blind. Some of it was trying to go from a low over a high one, but if you went too far you cased it and then you messed up the whole rhythm. So you could make a lot of time but you could also really lose a lot of time. As Ken said, one lap he goofed it up. Definitely a challenging track. Kind of some goofy sections. Definitely different. The thing about here at Glen Helen is the dirt—the ground gets so hard. So if you over jump something you put front end into the face or your rear, it sucks the whole suspension travel of your bike. So it can be a pretty hard hit. I found that out in practice this morning. But we all had to deal with it. You’ve got to approach it with a good attitude. We’re all out there in the same position; have to go through the same sections. So we can either complain about it or you can make the most of it and go through it the best.
The part right before the uphill triple, is that maybe the fastest section you have on a national track?
One of them, for sure. When you come down that hill you’ve already got speed but you’re gaining more momentum as you kind of go to the bottom shifting gears. I think on the LitPro it said we were doing 70 [MPH] up the face. When you’re hitting a jump at 70 MPH and you’re going pretty good, even though it is uphill. But I think we can chill out on the jumps a little bit. They’re a little bit big. I mean no disrespect. I’m really glad I did press day because it took me the first 20 minute practice to really figure out how hard to hit these jumps. Poor guy, one of the kids over jumped it up there and stuck his wheel. It was nasty looking. But you’ve got to be smart. It was good, though. Once you got it down and hit your marks, it was good.
Also late, how tough does it get with the sun and the shadows and all that? And the ruts are obviously at their worst. How tough is that in the second moto?
Yeah, they were nasty. Definitely coming down the hills you had the shadows. Last year at this time it would have been more of a harder situation. We had cloud cover last year so it wasn’t too bad here, but now with Oakley we’ve got that new Prism lens so it’s really helpful for us and our eyesight. When it’s sunny it actually relaxes our eyes a little bit and you don’t have to focus so hard. But it shows the holes and contrast changes and the depths so you can really focus on the track even more. It’s unbelievable. So that really helped us out today.
Did you say you were headed back to Florida? How long have you been out here and how big a change is that to go back there? Are you going there this week?
Yeah, I’m going to Florida tomorrow. We head back. Get on the plane. We got here on Wednesday before Las Vegas and we’ve been here ever since. That’s the normal protocol—test and fine tune out here. But I feel like we’ve got a good setup. We’re going to keep improving. But it’s nice to get back to Florida. I feel like I’ve put on thousands of miles the last three weeks. It’s crazy, just driving so much to go to these tracks. But it’s nice. Everything’s closer and it’s hotter, which also physically really tests you. It’s just good to be in those conditions because humidity skyrockets down there. And then you come here and it makes a hot day feel kind of not so hot. And then you get more consistency with the tracks as well, so that’s good. At the Baker’s factory, myself, Marvin [Musquin], and Jason [Anderson], we push each other. The track’s really dialed in for us to push to that maximum level and get the most out of our training, which in return bringing that to the race is good. So I’m excited to get back.
Colorado next weekend. How do you feel about that place? How do you feel going into Lakewood?
I like it. I definitely have had some good success with Colorado over the years in the 450 class and Des Nations and all that stuff, so it was good. With where we are at with the setup versus last year I like that, so that’s good. But it’s usually tough. It gets really rutted. They till it deep and water it so there’s a lot of ruts and you lose a lot of power being at altitude as well so that’s a little bit of a challenge, just getting the power out of the bikes. But nothing the boys can’t handle. So I’m excited for it, actually. I’m looking forward to that race.
Has the altitude ever bothered you physically?
Earlier in my career when I was young the altitude, it would skyrocket my heart rate. It felt like I was suffering the whole moto. But as the years have gone it’s gotten better. That’s the other thing too; training in the high humidity, if you were to switch it to altitude it’s kind of better to go from that humid to that high altitude. It’s similar training, just less air.
