Ryan Dungey Interview

We talk to Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey about his first race on board his new, orange machine.

By: Steve Cox | Thursday, October 20, 2011

Ryan Dungey was second in his Red Bull KTM debut. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

In his Red Bull KTM debut, only a couple weeks after he officially started testing the KTM 450 SX/F, Ryan Dungey showed up at the Monster Energy Cup to do battle. His entry was last-minute and it came down to a vote between Ryan Dungey, Roger Decoster and Ian Harrison, in which Decoster was outvoted 2-1. No one was on his rival Ryan Villopoto’s level that night, but Dungey was better than everyone else, finishing second overall, in an impressive debut. KTM has never had a podium in the top class in an AMA Supercross event – and technically still doesn’t – but this looks promising for 2012, to say the least.

Motocross.com: I heard you guys held a vote about this race and Roger Decoster lost…
Ryan Dungey: It was definitely two-to-one coming here. I don’t think Roger was too up for it; new bike and all… Myself, I wasn’t so sure either. We all sat down and had a talk and the closer the race got, as we were moving forward and testing, and the two weeks were going by, we were really making good progress, I felt. And everybody felt the same way. I think we all thought it would be a great idea to come here and put the bike to the test and see what we’ve got. I definitely came here to win, for sure. Nothing less, ever. I never enter a race if I don’t think I can win. It was just good to feel the bike under race conditions and putting a load on it when you don’t normally get that pressure or urgency at a test track in practice. So, I had that pressure and the urgency and having to be on time and making everything click. It’s definitely a challenge on any bike, but it was good to see the bike was really holding up good.

Ryan Dungey prior to his debut event. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Well, I know your starts weren’t quite there yet, but it’s got to feel kind of good to have that short of a time on a bike and still be that close, right?
Absolutely. I think it’s important that we just keep getting time, comfort, feeling, testing… We have everything to look forward to. We’ve got a lot of time yet to the season so we can do a lot of testing, which I’m excited about. I don’t think we’re far off at all. I think we’ve got a great setup. I think it’s just minor stuff we can fix here and there. At this level of the game, it’s just being consistent and being ready.

When you guys were considering racing this event, did it play into your decision that this track was expected to be dry and slick just like the test tracks in California tend to be?
It did, absolutely. And that’s the thing; you set your bike up for one track and you get to another one and it could feel the total opposite. So, I was really happy to see things were consistent at least with this track. Rob – RG3, our suspension guy – and Roger, Ian, and just the whole Red Bull KTM team did a great job. It’s really fun. I’ve been really having a blast. I want to carry that over into the season and see what we can do and come out swinging.

Ryan Dungey should be a contender if things continue to improve in 2012. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

Add a Comment

By submitting a comment you grant Motocross.com a perpetual license to reproduce your words, name and web site in attribution.
Comments may be removed at an administrators discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only and will never be shared.