Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 25, 2015 P49 Briefly... and Aldon (Baker, his trainer) was like, 'Dude, you've got to do motos on something.' And so I was like 'Fine.' I did a day and I did two motos on just a bone stock new 450 and I really wish I wouldn't have. It's a good bike and I'm really looking for- ward to it." With only two points separating Jeremy Martin and Marvin Mus- quin going into the final round, we asked Red Bull KTM boss Roger DeCoster if there was any talk of bringing down some 450 riders to try to help Musquin win the cham- pionship. DeCoster admitted there were discussions, but in the end he decided against it. "I'm not a big fan of those things," he said. "There was talk of bringing everybody (all of the KTM 450 riders) down to the [250 MX] class. Yamaha had some clear team tactics before, but you've just got to take care of what you can. To say that teammates are going to help…it and help and it can hurt you also. Marvin had a teammate in Ken Roczen a couple of years ago and it did not help him to win, Ken won. He just needs to ride to his full ability and not worry about the things he cannot control." Marvin Musquin was very sports- manlike and gracious after losing any real shot at the title with a ma- chine failure in the first moto. "It was a great year. The best year of my ca- reer [in the U.S.] so I feel like I can't really complain," said Musquin. "My team was fantastic all season. We came into the first moto [today] really strong and I was ready to battle. Un- fortunately my bike had a problem. It was the only time I had an issue all all victory of the season. That's especially impressive consider- ing no one else in the series had more than two overalls. "It was a solid season for sure," said Dungey, now a three- time AMA Pro 450 Motocross Champion. "To be able to end it with a win feels good. You know, 1-2, I made a little mistake there, but overall I was happy with the day and the way we rode. It's been an exciting year. The team's done an amazing job and my whole team behind me deserves a lot of credit. To be ond margin of victory over Savatgy on the Monster Energy/ Pro Circuit Kawasaki. He also became the third Star Racing Yamaha rider to stand atop the podium this summer. Savatgy recorded a runner-up finish (5-2), while Nelson round- ed out the overall podium in third (3-6). Martin's 4-9 effort landed him sixth overall, with Musquin bringing home a 10th-place fin- ish (40-3). Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dung- ey's win in the season finale in Indiana marked his seventh over- ously he's been here years before and I think we've got a great group of people. We've got some great support from Suzuki and we work hard to give our riders 100 percent. We do the best we can with the equipment we've got and I believe we've got some good equipment…factory equipment. I do know that obviously things can't always be perfect, although we want them to be. We're still going to try our hardest. "I think everyone in this group should be walking tall. I think every- one has done a great job. When you look inside the paddock, I think tomor- row we have a really good shot to be second and fifth in the champion- ship. So as far as the team goes and from an owner's perspective to earn more points than anyone else has in this paddock, with KTM, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda…I think that speaks volumes for our team and I'm very proud of the guys behind the scenes. "I know this much—I want to win just as bad as the next guy and I feel that we're going to continue to give Ken and Broc 110 percent and do ev- erything we can, as we always have, to fulfill those needs and to make them happy." Carmichael went on to say he felt confident the team was making prog- ress in recent weeks, with Roczen especially. He said he could also relate to what Roczen might be going through, admitting that throughout his Hall of Fame career he was generally never fully satisfied with the perfor- mance of his various factory bikes. "It's a motorcycle. It's never going to work perfect," he said. In answering some criticism that Carmichael was an absent team owner, he said he talks to someone on the team "every single day" when he wasn't able to be there. Carmi- chael said he also believes that at times a subtle language barrier might come into play, even though Roczen speaks nearly perfect English. "With the language it's more about how it comes off," he explained. "I might say one thing and that person takes it another way. That's just how it is." And then there is the observa- tion that some pundits point out that Roczen is coming from a KTM team managed by perhaps the all-time best team manager in Roger DeCoster, to a new team that is still relatively young and finding its legs. Larry Lawrence continued on page 53

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