Dietrich Does Double Duty

Shan Moore | June 15, 2009

Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Ricky Dietrich did double duty over the weekend, racing the High Point round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, where he finished sixth overall, and then grabbing a cross-country flight to Washington where he competed in Sunday’s WORCS off-road event, finishing a respectable seventh. Dietrich was sitting second before the weekend in the WORCS series standings, just one point out of the lead, and is coming off of a fifth-place overall finish last weekend at the Freestone round of the motocross series in Texas.

“Unfortunately, Kawasaki is really struggling with injuries under the factory tent and seeing that I am kind of the multi-use rider for Kawi these days, it was kind of a group decision between all of us – we had a really serious discussion about it and I’ve done races like this in the past. I kind of compare it to the Six Days, but this was only two days and at the Six Days we’ve got to go six days in a row. I got a top five last week in Texas and I only had two days on the bike, so coming into this race I had more time on the factory bike and I was hoping to get a top five again, and maybe even battle for the podium. Now that Alessi is out it seems like the podium is more open and I think it is a realistic opportunity for me.”

“I’m happy I did both races this weekend,” added Dietrich. “Opportunities like this don’t come along very often and I was able to get a top 10 in both races. It would be easy to blame the motocross race for my finish off the podium on Sunday, but it wasn’t a factor at all. I almost surprised myself with my fitness. I ran my strongest laps of the WORCS race at the end. I think if it would have been a little longer I could have gotten by a couple more guys. I have no regrets at all.”

Shan Moore | Contributing Editor

Moore covers all facets of off-road racing for Cycle News – from AMA Supercross and Motocross to GNCC and National Hare Scrambles events.