Ryan Dungey is one of the most popular American motorcycle racers who retired after 2017 season of Supercross at the age of 28, leaving his Red Bull KTM Team.
Early years
Ryan Dungey was born on December 4, 1989, to Troy and Michelle Dungey in Chaska, Minnesota. He had a peaceful childhood, mostly spent in playing with his two brothers Jade and Blake to whom he is very close with.
The whole family (both the father and his two brothers) was involved in amateur racing, so Ryan followed their footsteps and gained interest in racing. Their father Troy was the first to introduce them to dirt bike rides.
He was a student at “Guardian Angels Catholic School” in a town called Chaska, in the state of Minnesota. He was raised as a Catholic and today he openly expresses his religious beliefs.
He had to move away from Chaska to Belle Plaine when he was 14, so he left his high school in Chaska in the ninth grade and started homeschooling.
It was at the time when he had to start focusing on his career, so he had to choose between school and motorcycles.
He feels that his hard work and his faith are responsible for all the good things which happened to him and all the awards he received.
Career development
He was a very good amateur racer and was spotted by some scouts. He was only 16 when he auditioned for a professional contract and signed it afterward. It was a young age to become a pro in such a dangerous and difficult sport.
He has a great relationship with his dad who quit his job back in 2007, to join his son full time on the road.
His father Troy was then also working in the family business with his dad.
He became his son’s mechanic. His mother Michelle was in Minnesota raising other two sons, and she would come to races on weekends.
Aldon Baker who was his trainer and Red Bull KTM manager Roger DeCoster was amazed by his racing skills and invested time and money in Ryan. He was one of the rare professional racers who turned professional after going directly from amateur “B” class racing.
He won almost all important titles in Motorcross and Supercross Championships in the United States. He was the winner of the Motocross Des Nations, the largest annual team motocross in the world three times. This Championship is also called the “Olympics of Motocross,” and racers consider it as the highest award that they can achieve.
He won seven AMA Championships: four of them in supercross and three in motocross. In all-time race wins he holds a very high 6th place in Supercross races.
He is also on the 2nd place in all-time motocross winnings. Ryan holds 3rd place in combined motocross wins too.
Ryan was never good in mini classes, but as soon as he started racing on the full-size motorcycles, he began collecting points. He won Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Championship in 2005 which was a great success.
As a racer, he first became interesting to Roger DeCoster, a Suzuki, team manager. He finished his first race in amateur 250 cc race on 8th place.
2007 was his first professional year, and no one had any expectations from him. It was a great surprise for everyone after he finished the race in the 1st place.
Ryan came 5th in the Supercross East Championship and was named as the Rookie of the Year.
After his talent was recognized, everybody expected him to win the Supercross West title in 2008, after he started his professional season.
2009 was his final year in 250 cc class, and he dominated over all other racers. This class is focused on a little less powerful bikes, but Ryan wanted to drive a wilder machine.
He was nominated to be the US team captain in 2009 Motocross De Nations although he never raced a bike stronger than 250 ccs James Stewart and Ryan Villopoto, who were the best riders for the team, were injured, so he had to replace them. He made an astonishing victory and came 1st in that race.
Most of 2010 he has spent fighting against James Stewart, another great motorcycle racer. The two of them exchanged great victories one over each other all through the season. And when people started to think that one is ahead of the other, the other one would come back in the game and follow him.
Ryan was the first rookie to win this race after a long time. He won titles of Rookie of the Year both in Supercross and Motocross.
In 2011, his manager Roger De Coster left Suzuki, and this affected Ryan’s performance. It was a big change for Ryan because who got along very nicely with his manager Roger and he never really got used to that change.
He came out 3rd at the end of the Supercross season. After a while, he recovered and ended the season on the end. He was again the team captain for Motocross De Nations.
In 2012 he joined the KTM team where his ex-mentor De Coster transferred to earlier. He brought the first title for KTM in the US at that time. In 2013 he was 3rd in Supercross and 2014, he came 2nd.
In 2016 he had stellar results and had set a great record of 31 consecutive races on which he came to the podium. This is one of his greatest sports achievements.
Dungey won the championship, and the finale is considered to be one of the greatest races of all time.
After that, he announced retirement and decided to try out some new ventures.
Personal life
His older brother Jade is a mechanic for his KTM team.
His younger brother named Blake was also going to make a career in motorcycling, but he changed his mind and turned to his other love: design work. He became quite a tech guy, doing websites their design.
He is a member of the Livestrong Foundation which provides support to cancer patients and their families. He joined it after he lost his beloved grandmother Barbara in 2005.
He does great charity work with MN Major and LIVESTRONG. He has a big influence in raising funds for the Cancer Society.”
He is a big philanthropist. He worked with Target stores and attended a lot of benefit events. He was an organizer of River-to-River Ride to collect funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. This was in memory of his grandma Barbara who died of cancer.
The race took place on two different track fields: both along the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers. The major one is 62miles long and shorter is 25 miles back.
He met Lindsay Siegle in Minnesota in 2007, and after dating for a long period, he married her in 2014. She is working as a personal trainer.
They have a very stable marriage, and both of their social media accounts are filled with their common pictures. They recently relocated to their new home, where they are hoping to start a big family.
His pictures ended up on the “Wheaties” cereal box which is the first time that any motorcycle racer was on this box.
Many people don’t know that he is a little afraid of heights! It is interesting because his bike often goes way up in the air during racing.
He is a big fan of the Minnesota Vikings and even had a short youth football (1 year). He quit it after he got tired of battling on the field with other players.
He also loves snowmobiling and almost all winter sports, and of course: baseball, basketball, and football.
Quick summary
Full name: Ryan Dungey
Date of birth: December 4, 1989
Birthplace: Belle Plaine, Minnesota
Age: 29
Profession: former motorcycle racer
Height: 1, 78 m
Weight: 68 kgs
Net Worth: $8 million
