Dungey takes KTM's second SX victory for the season

2012-02-26 08:40
Red Bull/KTM Factory rider Ryan Dungey secured his second win of the season at the eighth round of the AMA Supercross Series in front of the sold out crowd of 70,000 fans at the Georgia Dome. It was KTM’s second win in this highly competitive class.

Earlier Dungey’s SX Lites teammate Kenny Roczen made the best if the worst to charge from the back of the pack to finish sixth and secure more championship points in his second outing of the season after pre- West Coast Lites season injury.

Dungey now moves to second place in the points, 10 behind leader and rival Ryan Villopoto with the top three in the championship standings again taking control of the podium.

Dungey looked confident all day. He qualified third fastest in the afternoon practice and recovered well from a third lap incident in his heat to finish second. He again had a good start in the main event and was second at the first corner behind Cole Seely. He made his move in the eighth lap then when he hit the front settled down to ride a smooth race to work towards his second win. With two laps to go, Dungey did encounter traffic problems with a back marker and this set up a great two-way battle with rival Villopoto for the top podium spot. Then on the final lap Dungey proved he is definitely in the championship hunt when he put another half second on Villopoto took his second victory of the season.

Ryan Dungey: “This was such a great way to end the week. “After seven weeks I finally got to return to the east coast and train at home. I came into this race feeling confident and refreshed and it all paid off today. My team did an amazing job on my KTM and we had no issues today, just a really great race.”

Roczen recovers to finish sixth
The night out in Atlanta was less satisfying for Red Bull KTM’s young German rider Kenny Roczen. It was in the main event of the Lites where he would have the most work to do when he suffered a clutch problem after the gate was held for an extended period of time. This caused him to leap forward before the drop, locking his front tire underneath the gate. Once untangled, Roczen shot down the start straight to round the first corner in dead last. He then charged past half the field to be in tenth at the halfway mark and worked hard in the next four laps to pick of other riders. Roczen was unable to close the eight-second gap to the leading five but still finished in the points and is currently lying fourth in the standings.

Ken Roczen: “I am really upset that I got stuck in the gate. It was hard coming through the pack in the first few laps because a lot of the slower riders don’t jump all of the jumps and I had to work harder to get around them. I was able to come up to sixth and almost got into the top five. I was happy with my line choices and glad to finish safely. I am looking forward to St. Louis and hopefully getting my first win of the season there.”

Overall Results SX Round 8 Atlanta
1, Ryan Dungey – KTM
2, Ryan Villopoto
3, James Stewart
4, Davi Millsaps
5, Justin Brayton

Overall Point Standings
1, Ryan Villopoto – 180
2, Ryan Dungey, KTM – 170
3, James Stewart – 136
4, Chad Reed – 128
5, Jake Weimer – 106

Overall Results SX Lites East
1, Justin Barcia
2, Blake Bagget
3, Justin Bogle
4, Blake Wharton
5, Darryn Durham
6, Ken Roczen – KTM
Other KTMs
10, Shane Sewell – KTM
11, Lance Vincent – KTM
12, PJ Larsen – KTM
13, Matt Lemoine
14, Les Smith – KTM

Overall Point Standings
1, Justin Barcia – 50
2, Darryn Durham – 38
3, Blake Wharton – 36
4, Ken Roczen – 35
5, Blake Baggett – 28

Source: KTM

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