Cycle News

VOL. 54 ISSUE 20 MAY 23, 2017 P35 a total of three points and missing the main event in Daytona altogether. He then won two of his last three races that year, finishing fifth in the championship. In 2008, Dungey learned his biggest lesson while in the 250SX West, bat- tling for the title with Jason Lawrence. Lawrence played mind games with Dungey, and it worked, as Dungey lost that title by three points to Lawrence in the end. "That was quite the season," Dungey said. "I was young; I'm trying to learn all this stuff. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to win a race one year, and the next year how am I going to win the championship. So boom, boom, it just escalated from one to the other and here we are in the thick of it. There's an op- portunity. It's the first one, and you want to hang onto it. You did everything you can. I didn't handle it the right way, men- tally. But I will say that was one of the best years for me in my career. Although I crumpled under the pressure, I failed—I don't like to call it a failure—but [it was] a learning experience. That, for the rest of my career, mentally made me stronger. That was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It sucked at the moment, but hindsight is 20/20." In 2009, Dungey stepped up and won the 250SX West, narrowly beating out Jake Weimer for the title, and then he took down the outdoor champion- ship after a late-season surge to get past Christophe Pourcel. Then he was thrust into the thick of the 450cc class at the 2010 Motocross of Nations in Italy, where he was Team USA's MX1 racer. He won. He also won the 450SX and 450MX National titles in 2010, and then his mentor and team manager, Roger De- Coster, left for KTM. Dungey lost both of his title defenses to Ryan Villopoto the following year, then followed De- Coster to KTM at the end of 2011, which at the time was considered pretty risky. KTM had never won a 450SX race, much less a championship, and the same could be said for AMA National MX wins and titles. Dungey was undaunted. He won races for KTM right away, and gave KTM its first outdoor title that year in 2012. In 2015, Dungey gave KTM its first 450SX Championship, and he followed that with another outdoor title that year, and then two more Supercross championships in 2016 and 2017. Well before the end of this year's Supercross series, Dungey knew it was time to hang up his boots. He said it just took too much effort to motivate himself to go out and race. "I never had that in my career before, where I really had to work hard to moti- vate myself to go out and race," Dungey said. "That's how I knew. So I let the guys know. It's just time." Dungey ends his career with some pretty stout numbers: 4 AMA 450SX Championships 3 AMA 450MX Championships 1 AMA 250MX Championship 1 AMA 250SX Regional Championship 34 AMA 450SX victories 39 AMA 450MX National overall victories 7 AMA 250MX National overall victories 12 AMA 250SX Regional victories He's going to stay involved with Red Bull KTM in the future, although the na- ture of his role there is yet to be deter- mined. But you'll still see Ryan Dungey at the races in the future. Steve Cox PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE COX Eight-time AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross Champion Ryan Dungey held a special conference at Angel Stadium to announce his retirement from professional racing.

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