Roger De Coster on Dungey coming out of retirement and the chances of Herlings racing the AMA Nationals
Speaking to Supercrosslive.tv, Roger De Coster from KTM offered an update on the team’s plans for the AMA Nationals which get underway later this month.
There’s been a lot going on with the announcement of Ryan Dungey coming out of retirement, Antonio Cairoli racing the first two rounds and the possibility of Jeffrey Herlings racing as well…
On Dungey coming out of retirement…
It was not my idea, it was his idea. There’s been a few times that he talked about it actually since he stopped. It was just talk but when he came this time, I thought more about it and told him: “Hey, if you are really serious about this you need to go and talk to the boss, to Pit (Beirer)” . He went over there to talk to Pit and Pit said, “sure, let’s try it”. We’ll give it a couple of races and then we’ll see then, you know?
On who his team mates might be for the outdoor season…
Just Aaron (Plessinger) and for the first two races we have Cairoli coming also.
On Herlings coming over to contest the series…
No, I don’t think that is going to happen because Jeffrey still has some issues with his heel. The surgery didn’t come out as good as it was supposed to. It sounds like he is going to have to do another surgery but we will know probably on Tuesday because he is seeing another specialist then. He is going to try and ride a motorcycle on Monday (today) and see how it feels on the bike but I don’t think it is going to happen. Our boss I think is going to tell him to rest up 100% before you start riding again. They’re worried about messing up the following season – the 2023 MXGP season. They want him to be healed up 100% before he races again.
Expectations on Dungey and Cairoli for the first two rounds…
I sure hope that they both do good. It is cool to see Ryan back and the reaction we are getting is really awesome. But it is five years since he raced and nobody has ever done anything like it and succeeded but Ryan is Ryan and he is really healthy. He never ended up being unfit, he needs to find the race fitness back but he has always kept in good shape so from that side his physical condition is really good. It is interesting and we are going to be busy.
Pic: KTM Images
