It was almost a Cinderella story last week when, in Ryan Dungey’s return foray into Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, he passed none other than Eli Tomac to take over third place in the first moto. Third! Passing Tomac! For that brief moment it looked like Dungey was officially riding a time machine, and right back to his old podium ways. It didn’t last because Christian Craig and Jason Anderson rolled by, but Dungey took fifth. This was still an impressive result, even amazing or astonishing depending on how you look at it. Fifth is fine. Fifth is great.
But. The immediate thought was that Dungey would quickly improve. If he was this good in one race, what about the next? Well, these things don’t happen that quickly. At round two at Hangtown, his result was actually worse, with a 6-7 after a 5-5 at Fox Raceway.
An easier way to look at it is the deficit from Dungey to the moto winner. Here’s the score from the first four motos this year:
44 seconds back
55 seconds back
50 seconds back
48 seconds back
So, right around the same distance. Don’t feel bad for Dunge, though, because he himself wasn’t expecting a dramatic turn in just seven days. He was pretty happy with his Hangtown result. By the way, Dungey has never won at Hangtown before, so it’s not his best track, for what it’s worth.
Aaron Hansel talked to him after Hangtown for a progress report.
Racer X: How was it?
Ryan Dungey: The day was good. The track was pretty challenging this week I’d say. They brought in a lot of dirt, which softened it up, which was good. The track, how it developed, was actually pretty cool, there were a lot of lines. For myself, we’re in a good spot. I feel like we’re making improvements and headed in the right direction. We tried a few things in the motos, in the second one as far as the setup that didn’t go as well, but we live and we learn and we have a general direction we know we need to go in with the bike. I’m really encouraged by that. Just going to be a steady process of getting better. I have to be patient too, with myself and with this process. I just have to keep building the intensity and improving in all areas. It’s just going to take time.
Speaking of intensity, you’ve been here before, you knew it was going to be intense, but have you been surprised at the current level of intensity?
Yes and no. I knew six years away, if I had a whole year to prepare maybe, but I knew the speed and intensity were going to be the biggest factors. For me, that’s going to take time. It’s going to come. I just need to keep steadily applying myself and closing the gap, and for me that’s the challenge, to keep improving. I do believe with where I was kind of gauging, especially in the first moto, where Eli and Christian, and Kenny, I do think we’re making progress. It’s baby steps, but where we were at last weekend to this weekend, it’s encouraging. For me the intensity and speed from a guy like Eli is unbelievable, and from a guy like Chase, he’s just got this raw speed, and he’s smooth. I always knew watching him come up he was going to be really good, so racing with him firsthand, you knew it was going to be tough.
Coming back, are you finding things that you didn’t necessarily think about, but find all kinds of things on race day just coming back to you? Like after qualifying I saw you looked like you were on a mission, you looked intense, and it was straight back to the pits and were immediately talking to Carlos [Rivera] right away. Do you just fall right back into it?
Yeah, it’s kind of the challenge of the whole sport. Yeah, you work physically, and you have to work on the bike, and do all the testing you want, but the race is the true test. So you always want to talk things through to make small steps and changes. We’re trying to get better; we’re driven to get better. Even if we won this weekend, back in the past we’d still be asking how we could get better. It’s inevitable and we’re always evolving because even if you’re winning the competition will catch up. Everything keeps evolving. I think we just have to be proactive, and that’s what you’re seeing.
This question may not apply because it’s not like you haven’t been riding in the last six years, but are you surprised at the difference of the factory equipment now versus when you were racing before?
In ’18 there was a new model, and they raced that one all the way up to the new model they just came out with. This bike, the feel and comfort are for sure better. That was one of the draws to racing again. It was like, ‘Man, I want to race this bike.’ The overall bike has gotten better, and so has all the equipment. Everything has evolved.
