Had Ryan Dungey played baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the hackneyed phrase “nice guys finish last,” first uttered by team manager Leo Durocher in 1939, might not be a cliché. Instead, had the baseball great been talking about Dungey—the kid from Minnesota who last year became the first rider in history to win both the AMA Supercross and Motocross titles in his maiden 450cc premier-class season—the cliché might today be “nice guys finish first.”
If having the most successful rookie outdoor national season ever wasn’t impressive enough, Dungey capped off the year by leading Team USA to its sixth-straight Motocross of Nations win to complete what was, for all intents and purposes, a perfect season for the 20-year-old.
If you’ve met Ryan Dungey, you know that he is one of the most pleasant personalities in the paddock. Five-time 500cc World Motocross Champion Roger DeCoster noticed Dungey’s friendly disposition, as well.
“I first met Ryan at Millville [Minnesota] in 2005 at the Spring Creek National,” says DeCoster, longtime manager of the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team. “He and his dad, Troy, walked up to me at the race and asked for advice about his bike, maintenance and training. Ryan was polite, showed appreciation and was eager to learn. I had a good feeling about both of them.”
A star is born: Ryan Dungey celebrates his 2009 AMA Supercross Lites West championship at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Minnesota native won four of the nine rounds and never finished outside of the top four.
Dungey’s chance meeting with DeCoster at Millville led to an audition on a factory RM-Z250 at the Suzuki test track in Corona, California. “I asked [Roger] for a tryout,” recalls Dungey. “I wanted to ride the best equipment that I could to prove myself. It was probably the most nervous and best day of my life.”
“He looked good, and I was impressed,” DeCoster says. “Anybody can ride fast for a couple of laps, but they come back in [to the pits] all tired. But Ryan just rode, rode and rode and came in hardly breathing. What impressed me most was his corner speed.”
Dungey also made an impression on 15-time AMA champ Ricky Carmichael. “I was first impressed by his persona and the way he carried himself,” says Carmichael. “He was a clean-cut kid who was up for learning. He wasn’t a punk. I liked his attitude.”
What about Dungey’s riding ability? “At first, he wasn’t lightning fast,” says Carmichael, “but I could tell the potential was there—a diamond in the rough.”
DeCoster offered Dungey a “race-by-race” contract that ultimately led to a full factory deal in 2007. Under the tutelage of DeCoster and Carmichael, Dungey blossomed from an unheard-of amateur into a formidable professional. He won the opening round of the AMA East Coast Supercross Lites Series in Atlanta (and three more races) and was named AMA Rookie of the Year. He finished fifth overall outdoors in the Lites class.
Dungey would have won his first Supercross championship in 2008 had he not withered under the pressures of leading the points chase and the head games levied upon him by eventual title-winner Jason Lawrence.
“He knows he didn’t handle the Lawrence thing well,” says DeCoster. “But maybe it was good he didn’t win that first year. It might’ve made him stronger.”
“I was still new to the scene and it was a new situation for me,” admits Dungey. “I learned the hard way. It was one of those experiences I had to go through.”
In 2009, still riding Suzuki’s 250cc four-stroke, Dungey once again had to deal with Lawrence and the pressures of leading championships. But this time, he held on to win both the AMA Supercross Lites West and 250cc Motocross Championships. At the end of the year, Dungey was asked to ride an RM-Z450 for Team USA at the Motocross of Nations in Italy. The 19-year-old came home with an overall MX-1 victory.
“After the ‘Nations,’ Roger told me that I’d become a man,” says Dungey, “that I’d shown people what I was all about.”
Racers are fond of saying that you can’t win a championship at the first race of the season, but you can certainly lose it. This past year, the opposite was true for Dungey. The Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider led 17 laps of the premier-class 450cc AMA Supercross season-opener in Anaheim, California, finally giving way in the closing laps to defending series champ James Stewart. For Dungey, second place was just as good as a win. He now believed that he belonged among the sport’s elite, and he proved it by winning six races and the title. Jeremy McGrath is the only other rider to win the SX title in his rookie year. Dungey also broke Carmichael’s record for most SX wins as a rookie.
“Anaheim was a big step up for me,” says Dungey. “I was a little unsure lining up with those guys. I just knew that I wanted to be a front-runner, not in the back of the pack.”
“That race set the tone for the rest of the year,” adds DeCoster. “[Ryan] showed that he had the speed right from the beginning, and that gave him confidence.”
Dungey kept the train rolling through to the first outdoor motocross national at Hangtown Raceway in Sacramento, California, where he uncharacteristically struggled to 10th- and 6th-place finishes in the two-moto format for eighth overall.
“Supercross is mentally hard,” he says. “I had a lot on my mind and felt a little tired. We had only two weeks to prepare for the outdoors and were still working on bike setup.
“[At Hangtown] I struggled all day, and I didn’t know how to handle it. We all have bad days, and that was a bad day for me. Luckily, we had a two-week break after that and were able to prepare a little better. The next race was Texas, and I didn’t really know what to expect. I just knew I had to keep pushing.”
Dungey shows off his AMA 450cc outdoor motocross title number-one plate at Pala Raceway in Pala, California. Dungey’s squeaky-clean image has impressed corporate sponsors Nike and Target.
Dungey rode well enough to win both motos in the Texas heat and never looked back from there. He dominated the rest of the series, scoring 19 moto wins and 10 overall victories out of a possible 12 en route to his first 450cc-class MX title.
How would Dungey have fared if so many of his rivals—James Stewart, Chad Reed and Ryan Villopoto, to name three—hadn’t fallen by the wayside?
“All I know is that you’ve got to be there at the end,” he replies. “That’s a big part of winning any championship. This is a tough sport, and you have to stay healthy. This year, we’ll all be there on the starting line. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be ready, for sure.”
The 2011 season will be Dungey’s first without DeCoster by his side. When his contract with Suzuki was up at the end of the 2010 season, DeCoster asked for a three-year extension. Suzuki countered with a one-year offer. When the two parties were unable to reach an agreement, KTM snatched up DeCoster.
“Roger and I had a really special connection, something that I will definitely miss,” says Dungey. “He signed me when I turned pro, and that is something I’ll never forget. He’s a good man with a very strong commitment to winning. I’m definitely bummed, but I respect his decision.
“Moving on is a big part of this business. Suzuki has built a very successful program, and it is still home for me. The bike is good, the technology is there. I’m very comfortable with the bike, the team and the personnel around me. It’s not like everything is ruined.”
Could Dungey follow DeCoster to KTM when his contract expires at the end of this year? “It could happen,” DeCoster says coyly. In the meantime, Dungey still has Carmichael, who he considers one of his best friends.
“Roger is a great manager,” says Carmichael, “but there are other great guys out there, too. I don’t mean that as any disrespect to Roger. He is great. But he is just one guy, and it’s a team effort. I’ve worked with a lot of great managers, and they all got to the bottom line but in different ways. [Ryan] will be fine without Roger.”
Carmichael is also confident that Dungey will continue to succeed. “The sky is the limit for Ryan,” he says. “He will only get better. He has all of the ingredients and is incredibly gifted. His future is bright.”
Dungey’s motivation is strong. “I never really expected to accomplish so much this soon,” he says. “Repeating is a lot harder than winning your first championship, and that’s what drives me.
“I want to give it my all and never, ever, settle.”
Kit Palmer worked at Cycle News as Off-Road Editor for 27 years. This is his first contribution for Cycle World.
