The “old” guys on orange bikes, Antonio Cairoli, 36, and Ryan Dungey, 32, have been a major talking point of the series since they both decided to come out of retirement just before the start of the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. While both riders admitted this summer was about checking off items on their bucket lists and having fun, it was obvious from the first gate drop that they both meant business. How can it not be? They've only known racing at the highest level.
Ryan Dungey impressed everyone at round one with his 5-5 moto scores, proving he had not lost much in his time off. However, Dungey wants more and has been working hard since the opener to land on the podium. While Hangtown and Thunder Valley weren't quite as impressive as round one (Hangtown is usually not Dungey's best track and he was sick for the Colorado race) he was back toward the front for round four. He was only corners away from landing on the podium the second moto at High Point, before Ken Roczen passed him.
“I was really happy with the day, for sure,” said Dungey of his performance at High Point. “Starting off in practice, we were a little bit closer in times to the front guys which is encouraging. First moto I got a terrible start but the cool thing I was able to work my way through the pack. Times looked good and my speed was good so if I could clean up my start for the second moto, which I was able to, I got the holeshot, and just run some clean laps. Started off a little flat, those guys have got some intensity, between Kenny [Roczen] Chase [Sexton] Eli [Tomac] and Jason [Anderson] they came around me in a hurry, so I was like, “I’ve got to pick up the pace.” I settled into a good groove, I hung right there with them, for sure Eli broke away a little bit. But then got passed by Kenny on the last lap too with a few corners to go. But overall, really positive. The one thing is we made progress with the bike this week which is really nice, and it translated to the race weekend. So, we got a weekend off and then get ready for RedBud.”
If Ryan Dungey ended his day on a high note, Antonio Cairoli ended his four race American tour (or will he be back for more?) on a low one. After pulling three straight holeshots in the last three motos leading up to High Point Cairoli got a “bad” start the first moto. It wasn’t actually that bad in the grand scheme of things, but it was bad in the sense that his track position forced a mistake that ended his day early. Luckily for us the friendly Italian stuck around until after the motos to tell us about his day.
“Yeah, I mean I was enjoying a lot, the track this morning,” said Cairoli. “I had a good pace on the lap times which I was working already for a week because I was struggling a lot with fast laps lately and yeah, we had a good time. Not so far from the guys in front, like fourth place so I was very happy with the speed. And then the first moto I didn’t get a great jump but then I was probably, in the first few corners I was good I was like five, but then I dropped to six, seven and I was like, “Okay, I need to be a little bit more quick this time on the first laps because the race before I always lost the places on the first laps. But then I was trying to get around [Christian] Craig, I missed the ski jump out of the pit lane area and I arrived to the corner too fast and I was like, “Oooh, this is too fast.” So, I was trying to get on the brakes a lot, and of course he kept his line and I bumped into him, and I put down the knee so hard that I felt this is not going to be good because my knee is already a little bit, from a few years, not doing well. So, I was riding in like 8th, 9th place, and I started feeling that the knee starts to get a little bit swollen and swollen with fluid. So, I figure I had better just try to ride it out and get some ice and get ready for the second moto. But then since I was out, I was like “Oh no this is not like GP’s [where gate pick for both motos is decided in qualifying] your gate pick is now going to be the last one. So that was my mistake. So, then I went to the last moto, the last the gate, also with the knee is this condition. I try to get a good start but the first corner I get pushed out, like out of 20th place, and with the knee in this condition and with the track so rough I said “Ok, this is not the day we expect, and let’s move on. It was nice, this experience but it is time to move on.”
It was an honor to have Cairoli over here to race in front of his American fans, and we secretly hope this is not the last we see of him. Also, you know the fans are looking forward to seeing Dungey land on the podium soon. Either way it’s been fun to watch these “old” guys on orange bikes this summer.
