MXA Exclusive: Inside the Minnesota Meltdown – What’s Up With Ryan Dungey?

LOOKINGÿFOR ANSWERS…AND AÿTITLE
By; Zap

The news item of the week had to have been the press release from Team Suzuki announcing that their star west coast 250 class rider, Ryan Dungey, would be taking advantage of the new AMA rule that allowed west coast 250 riders to move up ride the east coast 450 class.ÿWow.

Dungey had already been the talk of the town in recent weeks following his implosion in the last few west coast Supercross rounds that saw his dominating style and early points lead evaporate in a series of crashes.ÿNo doubt adding fuel to the fire as been the simultaneous rise of Jason Lawrence. “J-Law”, who was once counted out of the championship chase due to his own on-track miscues, has turned the points battle on its head with a little trash talk and some very impressive and determined efforts.

To the outside eye, Ryan has done exactly what he vowed to not repeat doing from last year ? lose the title due to dumb mistakes. That the 18 year old Suzuki rider from Minnesota remains one of the most promising riders today ? both on & off the track ? doesn’t take away from the magnitude of his fall. Though painful to watch, Ryan’s troubles on the track are a cogent reminder to everyone of the human dimension involved in the pursuit of championship glory.

To try and find out what’s going on inside the Dungey camp, we decided to chase down his trainer and close confidant, Johnny O’Mara. A former national champion and factory star in his own right, we figured the “O’Show” would be able to give us some good insight into just what the heck is going on with Ryan Dungey.

First, here’s what the release from Suzuki said:

“Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing announced today that AMA Supercross Lites West Coast contender Ryan Dungey will make his Supercross-class debut on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, this Saturday, March 2, 2008.

The 2007 AMA Rookie of the Year for Supercross/Motocross, Dungey won the first two Anaheim Lites events and led the championship points chase for much of the season. After a few tough rounds, however, the 18-year-old rider is currently in second-place overall with just one round remaining in the West Coast Region Supercross Lites class. That final race is at Seattle’s QWest Field and isn’t scheduled until April 26, 2008.

“Since Ryan struggled in the last few West Coast Lites rounds, we felt it would be a good idea to keep him busy and riding over the break,” said Rockstar Makita Suzuki Team Manager Roger DeCoster. “Also, the team’s been down a couple riders in the Supercross class with injuries to both Mike Alessi and Michael Byrne, and we owe it to our sponsors, Rockstar Energy Drink and Makita Industrial Power Tools, to be well represented in the premier class. So we are giving Ryan a shot on the RM-Z450 and, so far, he seems to have adapted well to the bike. We’ll give it a try for a few rounds and see how it goes.”


Added Dungey, “I’m looking forward to racing in the premier class on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki RM-Z450. Two months is a long break from racing and this is a new challenge on a whole different level. I’ve been testing the RM-Z450 and I really like the bike ? the way it handles, the speed, it’s a great package overall. I think it’ll be a lot of fun and a great learning experience for me.”

MXA MINI-VIEW: Johhny O’Mara


MXA: Okay O’Show ? what the heck is going on with Ryan?
Johnny:
I wish I had all the answers. Obviously, Ryan is learning about winning a championship battle the hard way. I can tell you, it’s really frustrating for him right now ? it’s frustrating for me too.ÿ I have to remind myself that he’s still young and even beyond the Supercross series; he has a great future ahead of him. A rider has to take a lot of hard knocks to become a champion, but he’ll pull out of this. He has to because he is so talented.

MXA: All that aside, what do you think the problem is? He specifically stated at the outset of the season that he would not repeat the mistakes he made last year, but that’s exactly what’s happened.
Johnny:
Well I didn’t work with him last year so I can’t comment on what happened last year, but for sure he’s suffering from a loss of confidence now and it’s puzzling to a lot of people to see the mistakes that he’s making.ÿGood guys always bounce back and he’s definitely one of the good guys. Still, the poise and confidence he shows during the week seems to diminish on race day and he seems to get a little glazed. I mean at Houston everybody was like, “Holy moly ? what happened?!” Here he got the holeshot, crashed and still could’ve salvaged a top finish and then he crashes again. It just left a lot of us shaking our heads.

MXA: Obviously his speed is there which has led most of us to assume he’s losing the mental game.
Johnny:
We had a game plan for Houston ? be there at the end. Milk it if you have to, but get the points. Unfortunately, something went haywire. I think it’s safe to assume that he’s feeling a lot of pressure and is probably just overwhelmed. We all know that racing is a serious business and maybe he’s too serious. I remind him all the time to go out and have fun and that he’s getting paid to ride a motorcycle, I mean, how cool is that?! I also have tried to do fun things with him like going go-karting. We did a mountain bike race last week and since there weren’t any other 18 and under Expert class riders he got bumped to the Semi-Pro class ? he crushed them! It was amazing and it proves that he has the fitness.

MXA: What has Suzuki’s response to all this been?and what is up with him riding the 450?
Johnny:
They’ve definitely been frustrated too. I mean all of us are. Suzuki has been giving him the benefit of the doubt, but they came down on him a bit after Houston. Roger was fuming and I can understand that too. Beyond giving my opinion, I wasn’t involved in the 450 decision. Ryan is in a strange situation and I think they thought that the eight weeks away from racing would tear him up.

MXA: Has he ridden a 450? Knowing that he can get hurt on the big bike, it the decision a tacit acknowledgement that his chances for the west coast title are over?
Johnny:
They know that racing is unpredictable and he can suffer an injury at any time. With Alessi out Suzuki could for sure use another rider in the big bike class, but no, they have not conceded the west coast title by making this move. He has trained on the 450 a little bit and I have to say, he really rides it well. In fact, he’s been pretty spectacular on it. Overall, I’m comfortable with him doing it. I thought having him ride the 450 at Indy might’ve been a little early and that maybe he should’ve waited until Daytona. He most likely won’t ride the entire east coast series. Originally he was going to go back to Florida after Houston and hang out at Stewart’s house to train, but now that he’s riding the 450 he’ll probably stay on the west coast.

MXA: What are the expectations? I’m sure you remember when Ricky Carmichael first moved up and rode the 250 indoors ? he crashed his brains out!ÿ
Johnny:
Ryan has really good throttle control. RC on the other hand wasn’t really a throttle control guy! I toldÿRyan that I really didn’t have any real expectations as long as he rode safe and had fun. I also told him that he better not crash because that’s what everybody is going to expect so if he has to ride slow that’s what he should do. Ryan also has no expectations and hopefully he’ll stick with that mindset. He can easily pull off a 20 lapper, I’ve seen him do that already. I have to say, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he won, but it honestly doesn’t matter.

MXA: Okay, what about the “J-Law” effect?
Johnny:
I think the mental side of the game is the final hurdle for Ryan. He’s still a bit fragile in that department and although there are other issues playing a part here, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lawrence has gotten to him some. We know he’s playing mind games with Ryan and I’ve heard about him doing stuff down in the tunnel and on the track to screw with him. Hopefully all that’s going in one ear and out the other. Personally, I don’t like what’s going on with this stuff. I don’t think it’s good for the sport and even though everyone says Lawrence is a modern day Hannah, I don’t buy it. I raced against Hannah and he never pulled the stuff that Lawrence does. The bottom line for Ryan is that he has two choices, you either let it break you or you learn to grow from it and move forward. I’m confident that it will be the latter with Ryan.

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Once a champion always a champion – Johhny “O’Show” O’Mara back in the day.
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