Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1319485
2020 AMA HARE & HOUND CHAMPION DALTON SHIREY P104 Interview Shirey adds, "The funny story is I wasn't even Ty Davis's first pick." In fact, Shirey was the third choice, but when the first two declined, Shirey got the call and rode for Zip-Ty for four years, though recovering from the knee surgery kept him on the side- lines his last year. After getting his knee re- paired, he returned and began mixing it up with the leaders almost immediately, finishing the National Hare and Hound Series fourth overall in 2018 after skip- ping two rounds and winning the finale. That got him noticed and he got a Husqvarna support ride through the 3 Bros./SRT Husqvarna team in Costa Mesa, California. (The FX 450 Shirey races is a factory-prepped Rock- star Energy Husqvarna that he gets from Husqvarna's head- quarters in Murrieta, California.) It was much the same in 2019 when he earned fifth overall after skipping two rounds, finishing out of the points in two others and overalling one. That set him up nicely for the 2020 season and after a sub- par 11th at the opener, he went on a tear: 2-1-DNF-1-1-1. (The DNF was due to illness.) While tied in final points with privateer David Kamo at 155 apiece, the tiebreaker was number of wins, which clearly favored Shirey. "That was not the plan, to make it as hard as possible," Shirey says of the way the hare and hound series played out. "I didn't want it to go down that way where me and Dave tied for the points lead, but at the end of the day I got my championship." OTHER RACING INTERESTS In addition to desert racing, Shirey has also remained a presence in both the FMF AMA National Grand Prix Champion- ship (NGPC) Series (previously known as the AMA District 37 Big 6 GPs) and WORCS. As a racer, he likes to compete a lot to stay sharp, and while he has yet to overall any of them (which are closer to fast, long motocross races than anything), he dismisses being considered an underdog. "No," he answers emphatically when asked if he considers him- self an underdog in those track- based realms. "I feel like when I go to a GP, I should be on the podium at least. I should be on the podium and I've been lurking around in fourth place a lot. "[At round seven of the NG- PCs], I got sick and star ted dead last and caught all the way up to Cole Mar tinez and Austin Walton and those guys. They were just sitting right in front of me, but I had to come through the pack and burned up a lot of energy and got tired by the time I got there. So, I just sat there and fol- After his all-conquering year on his 125, Shirey moved up to the 250s. He leaped full-on into Pro 250 and won seven of the eight Nationals, plus finished second in the one race he didn't win.