Courtesy of RacerX

May 8, 2017 4:00pm

by Jason Weigandt

This third Monster Energy Supercross Championship didn’t come as easy to Red Bull KTM as the last two, with Ryan Dungey back on his heels for much of the season against Monster Energy Kawasaki Eli Tomac’s advances. Dungey held on to deliver the title under pressure in Las Vegas, even after Tomac tried to slow him down and hit him in hopes of shoving riders between them and stealing points.

Roger DeCoster, team manager for Red Bull KTM, has seen it all in this sport. We asked him about the night and the season after the race.

Racer X: Did you know what Eli was trying to do? Did you recognize that? It seemed pretty obvious.
Roger DeCoster: Yeah, it was pretty obvious.

What was running through your mind when you realized he was not just going to pull away?
Don’t take the bait. That’s what I was thinking. It was difficult because things worked exactly the way Eli wanted it to happen. The guys behind were catching them. Eli was pretty aggressive also when Ryan was in front. I think if Ryan went in front again, which happened at the end, he was going to do something. Ryan is not a guy that likes to make contact. If that had been somebody else, he could have given it back with interest.

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RacerX 2017 Las Vegas Supercross Open Mic