The Dirt Doc’s not a God-fearing man (although I’d like to think I’ve given the odd lady a religious experience or two) but I’m starting to wonder if there’s maybe something in it.
Cooper Webb thanked the “big man upstairs” when he sewed up the AMA 250SX West title in Houston on Saturday night and 20 laps later Ryan Dungey was at it as well after clinching the 450 championship. I’m not suggesting that the guys who don’t win are goat-slaughtering Satanists but having God in your corner seems to do the trick. Maybe he’s got some divine suspension settings or can work miracles with motors? What I do know is that a night on the holy wine with ‘Doc G’ (as Trey Canard once called him in a post-race interview) wouldn’t be a patch on a surgical spirit session with Doc D!
Dungey finished second in Texas behind Cole Seely which was plenty good enough to take the title with three rounds still to run. Even with James Stewart serving a ban and three-time champ Ryan ‘the Lion’ Villopoto racing in Europe instead of going for a fourth consecutive crown it’s an amazing performance. You can only beat the men lined up beside you and Dungey’s certainly done that this year.
It’s also a result that will have had the head honchos at KTM reaching for a chilled bottle of Gemischter Satz and breaking out the wiener schnitzel and who can blame them? The Austrian manufacturer has made no secret of its desire to land the biggest prize in global off-road racing and at only its fifth attempt it’s done just that. Take that Japan!
Ryan the Lion will be in GP action this weekend in Italy – Tony the Tiger’s home stomping ground – as the world championship finally lands in Europe but we’ll cover that later in the week. In the meantime let’s have a look back at last weekend’s two British bangers – nope, not Lucy Pinder, I’m talking about the second rounds of the Michelin MX Nationals at Foxhill and the Scott Amateur Nationals at Preston Docks.
The former GP track was dry, hardpack and WFO on Sunday and Kristian Whatley (Buildbase Honda) stormed to a pair of MX1 wins to extend his series lead while Frenchman Steve Lenoir (Dyer & Butler KTM) was les copy chat in MX2.
Up north the Docks track was wet, soft and, frankly, bloody horrible – by the time the last races got to the line the braking bumps were like the front end of a fabled Razzle stack. The best racing came in the Veteran class where former GP rider Brian Wheeler (GL12 Yamaha) continued to dominate on a super-tuned 250 two-smoker.
Among the casualties on the day was ladies class contender Nieve Holmes who, as you can see from the pic, took a big sand sample in her second race. She still got up and finished the moto though…
The Doc’s signing off now but I’ll be back later in the week with an insightful, in-depth and informed preview of the Italian GP. Yeah, right…
Words: TDD Images: Simon Cudby and Chris Hudson.