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/510271
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE T he 2015 Monster Energy Supercross season was a very good year, especially if you happened to be part of the Red Bull KTM squad. Ryan Dungey's championship was historic in that it not only marked the first time KTM won the premier Supercross class championship, it was only the second time in series history one of the Japanese Big Four did not win the title. To find the last time that happened you have to go all the way back 40 years to 1975, when Jim Ellis won the title on a Can-Am. Marvin Musquin's 250 East Regional Supercross title was simply icing on the cake. The role of Roger DeCoster in making Red Bull KTM the premier team in the championship cannot be understated. "The Man" has helped develop winning teams at the places he managed before, both Honda (1980 to 1992) and Suzuki (1995 to 2010). He saw his move to KTM as both the most challenging and potentially most reward- ing. Not only did DeCoster and team develop a completely new bike for 2015, but the thing was stone reliable—something that can't always be said of newly developed race bikes. DeCoster also has a keen eye for talent. Remember, he brought over Musquin and Ken Roczen, both of whom have become elite Supercross riders. He always wanted to bring Dungey to KTM with him from Suzuki, at a time when many considered Dungey a reliably consistent racer, but not one who could necessarily be a multi-time champion. But when Ryan Villopoto left the series to pursue World Championship Motocross, it turned out Dungey was the "Who's Next" in the marketing parlance of Feld Motorsports. There were a number of interesting stats that emerged from the 2015 Supercross season. No one much noticed, but 2015 was the 30th anniver- sary of 250 East/West Region Supercross, which started as the 125 East/West, then for a time became Supercross Lites. There were six different winners in 250 East/West this season. Three of them—Jessy Nelson, Cooper Webb and Malcolm Stewart—were first-time class winners. There have now been 99 different riders who have won 250 East/West races in three decades of racing. Webb went on a tear in the West, winning six rounds. That single season of winning put Webb on par in all-time 250 Supercross wins with Damon Bradshaw, Jeff Emig and Chad Reed. Marvin Musquin was equally as dominant back East and with his Shootout victory he tallied a season-high seven wins. Those seven, combined with Musquin's previous four 250 Supercross victories pushed the Frenchman all the way up from 38th on the all-time 250SX wins list to a tie for 12th with Justin Barcia, Jeff Matiasevich, and Ryan Villopoto. That will probably be all she wrote for Musquin in the 250SX ranks since he's slated to move up to the 450 class next season. In the premier 450 class there were also six different winners. That's significant because it marks the first time there were that many differ- HISTORIC RECORDS OF SUPERCROSS P104 There were six different Supercross winners in 2015. That was the most winners in a single season since 1998.