Mud in Your Eye

Roger DeCoster is pretty satisfied with the way his Rockstar Makita Suzuki squad is performing in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Ryan Dungey retook sole possession of the 450 class championship and Austin Stroupe almost won the 250 class at Atlanta. Roger D always looks at the big picture and notes hard work by his technicians and also the importance of the mental game. Here’s his latest blog from Suzuki. (Try reading it with his Belgian accent – it’s much better that way.)

The team had a great weekend at the Atlanta Supercross race. Not only did Ryan Dungey ride excellently and win, but we also got the points lead.

Although we are leading now, we can’t get conservative; we need to keep going for more wins. Also, it was nice that the guys in the shop were able to make progress with the bike settings this week. Ryan rode great, and that’s going to help his confidence in the coming races; Ryan was back to riding the way he started the season, and that should help him in the next race in Daytona Beach, Florida. I’m happy with the way Ryan’s maturing this year for his first 450 season.

In the 250 class, Austin Stroupe could’ve won the race in Atlanta. He just needs to get that first win behind him and to get the confidence that he can do it instead of worrying too much about who’s behind him. He was riding better in second place than when he got into the lead, and thinking too much behind himself when he got up front. We’ve been testing with him this week and hopefully we’ll get that first win soon. We have to take this momentum into Daytona. Lap time wise, there was not a big gap between Pourcel and Stroupe and Barcia.

So far, the season has been a good one for the team. We have young racers who are well prepared for winning, and the whole team is working well together. I think if we can keep the riders’ minds focused on the big picture, we’ll be in good position at the end of the season. Daytona will be halfway for the SX season already, but still a lot can go wrong in the second half. We have the momentum, yet we need to keep the focus and keep pushing for more wins.