Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey charged through the pack to take third place in Saturday night’s supercross in Salt Lake City.
Dungey is now 12 points behind series leader Ryan Villopoto and three behind second-placed Chad Reed with the final 17th round taking place at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas next weekend, May 7.
The conditions were tough in Salt Lake with snow flurries through the morning and cold temperatures throughout the day but Dungey and his RM-Z adapted well and were strong for the duration. After scoring the third fastest time in the shortened afternoon practice Dungey had a solid ride in his heat race, scoring a second place finish. In the Main, after a fifth-placed start, the Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider quickly moved to fourth and was able to pick up third on lap eight. Then the reigning champion and his RM-Z450 laid down a strong and consistent 12 more laps to claim a third-place podium finish.
“It was a pretty good weekend,” says Dungey. “We made a lot of changes to my RM-Z to adapt to the conditions here in Salt Lake. My Rockstar Makita Suzuki team did a good job finding areas we could improve. I had a pretty good heat race and got out to a pretty decent start in the Main and just started to put in laps. I felt good but I just wasn’t matching the lap times and was losing a lot of ground.
“Overall, we did the best we could and we just have to put this away and learn from it and look forward to Vegas next weekend and try to go for a win. I like Vegas. It’s a little more slippery and takes good throttle control – I’ve done pretty well there.”
Supercross results: 1 Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki), 2 Chad Reed (Honda), 3 Ryan Dungey (Rockstar Makita Suzuki), 4 Andrew Short (KTM), 5 Davi Millsaps (Yamaha), 6 Kevin Windham (Honda), 7 Jake Weimer (Kawasaki), 8 Thomas Hahn (Yamaha), 9 Justin Brayton (Yamaha), 10 James Stewart (Yamaha)
