INTERVIEW
2016 SUPERCROSS CHAMPION RYAN DUNGEY: PART 1
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self out to be. After all, Roczen
was making beating Dungey
look pretty easy. It didn't seem
to matter where Roczen and
Dungey started, Roczen was
still winning everything. The only
time Dungey beat him in the six
motos they raced against each
other was the first moto at Glen
Helen, when Roczen's forks
sprung a leak while he was lead-
ing—by a lot—and he was forced
to ride "parade-lap" speed for
the final few circuits. Dungey lost
every other moto, and usually
wasn't all that close to Roczen.
And the truth is, Roczen started
beating Dungey during the last
few rounds of the Supercross
championship, weeks before
motocross got going.
But the mark of a champion
is confidence. It's belief. It's not
being defeated, even when you
are. Dungey is one of maybe two
racers who, during the years of
Ryan Villopoto dominating, never
rolled over for RV. He was never
satisfied with second. And he
still isn't.
"Without a doubt, Ken was
going good, but if you look at ev-
erything, like how long I've raced
for...I've luckily been injury-free
most of my career, and if you
back up to Anaheim 1 in 2015, all
the way through 2015 and 2016
supercross, I was on the podium
every weekend, whereas Ken
spent a lot of the supercross
season with things just being
sort of 'off' for him," Dungey
Still, how cool was this?
"BUT I DID BELIEVE WE COULD BEAT KEN,
EVEN WITH HOW WELL THINGS WERE
GOING AT THE TIME FOR HIM."
