Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey has closed the lead on the AMA/FIM Supercross Championship after racing to third place in Saturday night’s Jacksonville 11th round in Florida.
The defending Champion is now third overall on his RM-Z450, 18 points behind series leader Ryan Villopoto (Kawasaki) with six rounds still to run.
Dungey rode determined in practice, grabbing the second fastest time in timed qualifying. After a good start in his heat race, his RM-Z powered him to the front for a convincing win. After a decent start in the Main, Dungey was able to work his way up to third position by the end of the first lap. He rode tenaciously but couldn’t quite catch the leaders and crossed the line, claiming a podium finish.
“All in all, today was a good day,” said Dungey. “My Rockstar Makita Suzuki felt great, practice was good, and the bike settled in really well too. Going into the night race, I got a good start in my heat race and got the heat win. In the Main, I got caught up in the pack a little bit but was able to work up to third. I was trying to gain on the leaders, but I just couldn’t make up enough time and then made a pretty big mistake on my part. Overall, I think it was a great night and big step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to the next round in Canada. It’s a big stadium and the track layout is pretty amazing there. It will be good to go to another country as well. Hopefully we can get good starts and put ourselves in a good position there.”
Team mate Brett Metcalfe sat out the race to continue his recovery from recent crashes in Atlanta and Daytona. Metcalfe is hopeful to return to action at next week’s event in Toronto.
Supercross results: 1 Trey Canard (Honda), 2 Chad Reed (Honda), 3 Ryan Dungey (Rockstar Makita Suzuki), 4 Kevin Windham (Honda), 5 Andrew Short (KTM), 6 Ivan Tedesco (Kawasaki), 7 Mike Alessi (KTM), 8 Austin Stroupe (Yamaha), 9 Nick Wey (Yamaha), 10 Chris Blose (Kawasaki).
