DUNGEY TAKES VICTORY AFTER CRASH AT ST LOUIS SUPERCROSS
Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey raced back to the top of the victory podium at Saturday night's St Louis Supercross and increased his lead in the AMA/ FIM World Supercross series.
Dungey was involved in a tangle with Ryan Villopoto on the lap nine of the 20-lap Main Event and both riders went momentarily, but the RM-Z450 rider retained his lead and took the flag as Villopoto crashed heavily in the second half.
He started the evening well, notching the second-fastest time in practice on the technical track and also grabbing the second spot in his heat race. In the Main Event, Dungey was determined to get a good jump out of the gate: He came out of the first turn in third, but in lap two Dungey passed the first- and second-placed riders and started burning a pace into the soft St. Louis dirt, dropping almost two seconds off of his heat-race pace.
Midway through, Dungey was challenged for the lead. He said "I knew at that point it would become a fitness issue, and I felt I had an advantage. After we fell, when I got my bike back up, it was like I had just done an interval. I knew I had to get busy and keep pushing. The track was really technical and rough and we were running like 50.3s; it was intense. But once we both got going I could see it affecting how he was riding, running a little ragged, and I started closing pretty quickly."
Sure enough, Dungey's RM-Z450 was hooking up and getting huge drives coming off the corners, which allowed him to take and keep the lead and he spent the next several laps building up a gap over the rest of the pack and cruised home with a huge win. The points gap, which was down to 12 points at the start of the race in St. Louis, has now ballooned to 36 with only three rounds left in the series. Suzuki is also in first place in the Manufacturer Standings with 324 points over second place's 308.
Team Manager Roger DeCoster was justifiably proud of Dungey after the race. "I told Ryan that tonight was a big race for him and that he needed not to hold anything back. He rode very hard and up to his true potential. He was very fast and very aggressive and the results followed. It was a good night for Ryan and the team," added DeCoster.
SUPERCROSS RESULTS:
1 Ryan Dungey (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) 2 Kevin Windham (Honda) 3 Andrew Short (Honda) 4 Nick Wey (Kawasaki) 5 Chad Reed (Kawasaki) 6 Justin Brayton (Yamaha) 7 Michael Byrne (Yamaha) 8 Kyle Chisholm (Yamaha) 9 Davi Millsaps (Honda) Tommy Hahn (Suzuki)
Championship Points (after 14 rounds): CLICK HERE
