Catching Up With…Ricky Dietrich

bayodome

• June 18 2009
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In recent years, several riders from the off-road racing world have made some appearances in the outdoor Nationals.  Racers such as Bobby Garrison and Kyle Summers have had some respectable finishes competing against the best motocross racers in the world. Recently, another cross-over rider jumped over from WORCS racing to take his shot at motocross and had more than a few factory riders looking at the back of his jersey.  Team Green off-road rider, Ricky Dietrich, has yet to finish outside of the top 10 in the three Nationals he has competed in so far this year, with his best finish being a fifth overall at Freestone. His good results have now earned him a place under the Monster Kawasaki awning, but Ricky still has his off-road commitments as well. This weekend he did double duty, competing in two races, in two different disciplines, in two days, on two different coasts.

So how did your busy weekend go for you?

I thought the weekend, as a whole, was a success; I thought it went pretty well. I got a sixth overall at the Mt. Morris National; a top 10 which is right where I wanted to be.  Then I made all of my plane flights and connections on time. The WORCS race was okay on Sunday, although I actually crashed and gave myself a minor concussion about halfway through the race. When I got up, I kept riding and just soldiered through it, but that was kind of a bummer. If I’m not on the podium at the WORCS races it definitely feels like a loss to me and I am a bit bummed about it. All in all though, I felt really good. I wasn’t tired from the day before, or anything like that, and I put in a hard charge at the end of the race on Sunday to get back into the top 10. So, my conditioning felt really good to do both races.

You still felt that you were able to ride 100 percent for both races? You didn’t have to back it down at all in order to last through the weekend.

Yeah, there seem to be a lot of people questioning whether it was a good idea to do both races because it was just a lot of racing in one weekend. That, plus the travel on top of it makes it a lot of hard work, but I think I was prepared for it. I even surprised myself a little bit with how well I felt during the WORCS race. I knew I could do well, but coming into the race I was thinking, “Man, Sunday is going to be tough, and I know I’m going to be struggling a little bit at the end.” But that wasn’t the case at all. I made a hard charge at the end and felt really good. I just don’t want people to think that I finished poorly in the WORCS race because I competed in both races, it was actually because I had that crash. The crash that I had definitely sucks, because it makes it look bad for me; people think I was tired from racing Mt. Morris, but that really had nothing to do with it.  Everyone crashes every once in a while, and that is actually the first time I even had a crash this year out of all five WORCS races we have done this year.

Well, as the saying goes, “It’s not a matter of IF you are going to crash, it’s a matter of WHEN…” So, how did all of the logistics work out for you this weekend in terms of travel? As soon as your motos were done in Pennsylvania, were you on your way to the airport?

It was a tight schedule and especially at the end of the day on Saturday. Since we were on live TV, they held our moto back 10 minutes, so by the end of that moto we were running a little behind schedule. So after the race was over, I came in, and I think I may have talked with the team for about 30 seconds. I took a quick shower and gathered my things. Big B, the truck driver, made me some food and sent me on my way. We made it to the airport on time, took a little shuttle plane over to Chicago, but then my connecting flight to Portland was delayed about an hour and a half so we didn’t leave until about 10:30 at night. So we didn’t get into Portland until a little after midnight and I didn’t get to my hotel near the track, Riverdale, in Washington until about two in the morning. The WORCS races don’t start until noon, and I wanted to sleep in until nine o’clock, but I think I was adjusted to East Coast time so I woke up at seven o’clock wired and ready to go. I didn’t feel tired at all.

Last year during the Nationals, a few WORCS racers jumped into the fray, like Bobby Garrison, Kyle Summers, and Bobby Bonds.  They all had decent finishes at some point, so coming into Glen Helen this year, a lot of people expected you to do well, but many were probably surprised to see you finish as well as you did.

I knew I would be coming in under the radar. Back in 2006, I raced a few Nationals and I was just barely cracking into the top 20, just barely getting points at every race. But since then I have upped my speed quite a bit also my training, working with Ryan Hughes. I knew where my speed was coming in, and I felt confident that I would be in the top 10.  Training with Hughes, I was riding with guys like Broc Hepler, PJ Larsen, and Jake Moss during the week so I knew where I stood. As long as I got a decent start and everything went well, I knew that I could finish inside the top 10. It was just a relief at Glen Helen to run up as high as seventh because I knew I could do it and it felt good. You can talk all you want, and keep up with those guys in practice, but to actually be able to see your efforts on paper gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

After Glen Helen, especially with your good results, many expected you to show up to Hangtown, but you were not there. Why did you not race?

Well, Team Green told me not to race Glen Helen in the first place, but I showed up anyways. That following Monday I had to have a meeting with my boss and I got a little bit of a slap on the wrist. I didn’t get in trouble or anything, but they want me to focus on winning WORCS and the Endurocross championship, so I had to sit out for Hangtown. But then I got the call right after Hangtown to come back so I think it was a good thing for me to go break the rules at Glen Helen (laughs).

That’s when you got your first shot on the Monster Kawasaki factory bike at Freestone in Texas.

Yeah I was pumped with how Texas went. I only had two days on the bike the week before, so I was coming in a little cold and rode a track that I had never raced on before, so all things considered, I thought it went extremely well; better than I had expected. I felt comfortable with my finish at Glen Helen, so the next step was to try to get a top five and I had a couple of consistent motos, so it ended up working out for me to get fifth. I was super happy with how it went and it seemed like everyone else on the team was happy too. I don’t think they expected an off-road kid to do as well as I did, so it was cool.

So will you continue racing the Nationals this year?

Yeah, for the mean time I think it will just be me under the Monster Kawasaki tent until Timmy Ferry comes back. Originally Branden Jesseman was going to have the full ride for the rest of the season and I was just supposed to be a weekend deal at Texas, but then Jesseman ended up getting hurt. I guess he messed up his thumb pretty bad, so I think he is hurt or a little while. In  the meantime, I know I am in for sure for the next couple of rounds.  I have raced both Colorado and Red Bud before so it will be nice to race on some tracks that I am familiar with.