Ryan Dungey -- The Diesel
Ryan Dungey is destined to be in the AMA Hall of Fame no doubt. He is a four-time supercross and three-time motocross champion. Bummer for us fans he retired after winning the 2017 Supercross title.
Dungey won every major title in American Motocross and Supercross. He won the world's largest international motocross race, the Motocross des Nations three times. I was lucky to see him do that in Colorado.
My MX of Nations thread from 2011
Dungey won seven major AMA championships and was the first motorcycle racer to be pictured on the Wheaties cereal box . Dungey is tied for 6th place in all-time 450 Supercross race wins (33) and 6th place in all-time Supercross combined wins (44). He holds the record for consecutive podium finishes in Supercross at 31. In all-time 450 motocross overall wins, Dungey is 2nd with 39 to
Ricky Carmichael and ahead of
Bob Hannah. He is 3rd place in all-time combined (250/450) motocross overall wins (46) and is in 4th place in all-time combined Supercross and Motocross wins with 80 total race wins.
He was a Loretta Lynn winner in ’05 and in '07 he started his full time pro career by winning his first race, the opener of the East SX series on a Suzuki. He followed that up with a win at Round 5 finishing the season ranked fifth, but another win at the East-West Shootout in Las Vegas help him to the 2007 Supercross rookie of the year. In AMA Motocross, Dungey would end up on the podium a total of 4 times and finished 5th for the season even though he missed the last races due to injury. ’08 Dungey took him to the SX West series, but ended up second with a two-point deficit.
2009 took him to the 250 West Supercross title and he filled in on the MX of Nations team because both
James Stewart and
Ryan Villopoto were out with injuries. Even though Dungey had never raced a 450cc bike he entered the premier MX1 (450) class as the USA’s Team captain. In a fierce battle with the French and host Italian teams, Dungey won the final moto and secured the USA’s 20th MXoN victory
Ryan Dungey rookie season in 450 Supercross in 2010 with James Stewart as the heavy favorite. Dungey won six races that season and become the first rider since
Jeremy McGrath to win the Supercross Championship as a rookie. After a tough ride as Hangtown he bounced back and win both motos in R2 and went on to win 10 out of the final 11 rounds capturing his first AMA Motocross 450 Championship. In 29 rounds of his first year on the 450 he won more than half of the races and became the only rider to capture both the SX and MX titles in his rookie year. To cap the year of in style Dungey led the US team to its 21st victory in the MXoN. What a year! :thumbup
Roger De Coster left team Suzuki in 2011 and Dungey could not repeat as champ finishing 3rd in the Supercross season behind Ryan Villopoto and Chad Reed. With the #1 plate on his bike he entered the MX series hoping to repeat. He finished the season behind Villopoto and for the third time in a row led US team to victory in the MXoN. That was an awesome weekend even though I could not get anyone to go with me. The national pride of the countries really made it fun to attend. I met people from all around the world and look forward to attending the event again.
2012 brought Dungey back to his mentor De Coster, now at KTM for the AMA Supercross series. Dungey took four wins but misses the last 5 rounds after having surgery on his collarbone, but will finished third in points. Dungey bounced back in the outdoor MX series with wins in 19 of the final 20 motos and 10 overall wins. He took the Championship and brought KTM is first #1 plate. Dungey would podium in 23 of the seasons 29 in ’13 races, but finished the season 3rd behind Villopoto and Davi Millsaps in SXand 2nd behind Villopoto in outdoors. His consistency was becoming well known and somebody gave him the nickname the Diesel.
In ’14 the Diesel wound up on the podium 21 out of 29 times and in round 16 it would be the last time Dungey would finish outside the top 5 for the rest of his career. He finished 2nd to Ryan Villopoto once again in SX and 2nd in the outdoor after battling with World Champ Ken Roczen.
Dungey owned 2015 adding increased speed to his consistency. 15 wins and 21 straight podiums in both the SX and MX put the No. 1 back on his KTM. His domination continued in the 2016 Supercross series that gave him 31 consecutive podium finishes over the combined 2015-2016 seasons. In the ’17 SX series Eli Tomac came into his own in 2017 taking 9 wins. Ryan only had two wins, but his consistency took him to the title. The two time ESPY Male Action Athlete of the year announced his retirement shortly after and would leave the sport as both a record holder and hit body intact at the top of his game.
He showed up at last nights SX opener and spent a little time in the booth. I don’t think we are done seeing him being involve in the sport.
I predict he will become the Red Bull KTM team manager after
Roger DeCoster retires.
Dungey's records are pretty impressive… in fact bad ass!
Championships
• 2009 AMA West Coast SX Lites Champion
• 2009 AMA 250 Motocross Champion
• 2009 Motocross des Nations Champion
• 2010 AMA Supercross 450 Champion (Rookie Season)
• 2010 AMA 450 Motocross Champion (Rookie Season)
• 2010 Motocross des Nations Champion (Team USA)
• 2011 Motocross des Nations Champion (Team USA)
• 2012 AMA 450 Motocross Champion
• 2015 AMA Supercross 450 Champion
• 2015 AMA 450 Motocross Champion
• 2016 AMA Supercross 450 Champion
• 2017 AMA Supercross 450 Champion
Total career AMA wins
• 12 in SX Lites Supercross Class
• 7 in 250 Motocross
• 34 in 450 Supercross
• 39 in 450 Motocross Class
• 80 AMA total wins