Ryan ready to rumble
By Sean Lawless on 16th Dec 16
After winning his third 450cc Monster Energy Supercross title, Ryan Dungey sustained a season-ending injury at the third round of the Lucas Oil outdoor series.
Aussie internet aces MXTV caught up with him at the Baker's Factory in Florida where he's preparing to come out fighting when the SX season kicks off at Anaheim on January 7.
Dungey's not the only rider on the books of super-trainer Aldon Baker but the Red Bull KTM rider sees the positives of training alongside his rivals.
"Every guy obviously is out for himself but as time's going on I realise how we can benefit from each other," he said.
"Being here at the Baker's Factory we have Marvin [Musquin], Jason [Anderson] so you get that race experience.
"A lot of people wonder how do we ride with somebody that you're going to race against but we have a lot of respect for each other.
"A lot of times we're always pushing each other so you're so focused on getting good laps and no mistakes.
"But there are days that we find we are by ourselves out there so those are days that I try to keep the speed but also focus on my technique more."
Dungey revealed how he found the motivation to come back after a serious injury - he cracked a vertebra at Thunder Valley - that put him out for the remainder of the year.
"It's tough. If I'm looking at the positives we got a supercross title this year, we had an overall win in the outdoor series. Now I'm building back up, kinda depositing those hours to get ready because it's all basically building up for ‘17 now."
As well as working on his physical conditioning he's also had to concentrate on bike set-up.
"These 450s, a lot of people think ‘more power, more power' whereas I'm like ‘I've got enough power, we just need to make it usable' and sometimes that's even dumbing it down a little bit and not as much power so every rider is tailoring a bike to fit their needs and it's never-ending."
Dungey moved to KTM at the start of the 2012 season and is planning on finishing his career with the Austrian manufacturer.
"I'll definitely end [my career] with KTM but I'm taking it one contract at a time. Obviously this season we had a little setback but it's happened before in my career and you bounce back and take the good and the bad. For me with racing as long as I can be at the top then I'll be here.
"We're all working towards one goal so it's good to have a good crew of people who listen - sometimes it ain't like that."
