Interview: Ricky Dietrich - Monster Energy/Kawasaki

By: TWicks

Posted: 02/20/09

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Just 4 short years ago Ricky Dietrich was a virtual unknown in the motorcycle world. He was a privateer chasing the WORCS Championship hoping to catch his break. That was until the November night in Las Vegas in 2005 when Dietrich went toe-to-toe with David Knight, Jown Dowd, Ryan Hughes and more of the best in the business to land on the podium at his first ever try at Endruocross. Although Ricky had been a consistent top 10 finisher in the WORCS series all of 2005 (not to mention a very successful amateur career in WORCS), that end of the year race in Las Vegas really let everyone know that he was a legitimage contender in the off-road world and here to stay.

The following year, 2006, Ricky would wrap up the WORCS Pro Championship as well as help the US Junior Trophy Team take home the 1st place trophy at the ISDE in New Zealand. That was enough to land his first full factory ride with Monster Energy/Kawasaki team for the 2007 season.

Fast forward to January 2009 and Dietrich is the defending Endurocross Champion, #2 plate holder in WORCS and he finished 2nd overall at last year's ISDE. When you toss in the fact that he just started off 2009 with a resounding win at the first round of WORCS, it is pretty easy to see that Ricky is at the top of his game right now. I caught up with Ricky recently to see how he felt about his start to the year.

Rick, you and Bondo (Bobby Bonds) swapped spots on the podium from the last round of 2008 to the first round of 2009, can you tell us how round 1 went?
Yeah, round 1 went perfect for me. I told a lot of people after last year that I thought I lost the championship by coming into round 1 unprepared and getting a poor finish. (Dietrich started off 2008 with a 10th at Round 1.) I wanted to make sure I didn't do the same thing this year so I've really been working my butt off in the off season with my trainer Ryan Hughes. I felt good coming into the race and I think it showed.

You definitely didn't have it easy, with Kyle Summers charging hard and leading from the first lap on!
Yeah, Kyle is riding really well right now, I wasn't surprised when I figured out he was leading. Kyle reminds me a lot of myself back in ‘06 when I was just really getting my career started. He was hit and miss last year but this year he is on that new Valli Team on Hondas so they are on good bikes. I expect him to be running up front all year. I just tried to ride my own race and do the best I could and I came out with the win so I'm feeling really good about that!

Photos: Jeff Kardas

Can you tell us a little bit about training with Ryan Hughes, how is that going?
Yeah, everything with Ryno is going really good. I was super happy with how things went last year. I mean he took me from basically fading and doing horribly at that first round to whipping me in to shape and it only took a couple races until I was winning. I think right now I'm probably in the best shape of my life and we are just going to keep building on that, just keep getting better and better.

So when your training with Ryan, you probably end up riding with a lot of guys who aren't necessarily "off road guys"?
Right now, most of his other guys are riding Supercross stuff and I don't have much time to ride that stuff right now, but I see Lawrence and the Star Racing guys in the gym and I'm sure I'll be doing more riding with them once they start moving to the outdoors. Also, before he got hurt I was riding with Broc Hepler some. He's a cool guy and he really seems to enjoy the off-road stuff. Whenever he goes home he always comes back and talks about trail riding with his buddies. I wouldn't be surprised to see him racing off road some day.

Nice, that would be pretty cool to see him out there banging bars with you guys! So what else do you have planned for the year? Will we see you at any outdoor Nationals?
Unfortunately, I won't be doing any Nationals this year. I'm contracted with Kawasaki to race WORCS and Endurocross and I'll probably do most of the West Coast National Hare Scrambles as well, so that takes up quite a bit of time. I also just found out that the Endurocross Series doesn't conflict with the ISDE so I'll be doing that again this year. I've ridden a 250F that last two times I've went, but this year I'm riding a 450 and I want to give it my best shot at being the first American to win that event.

You mentioned the ISDE, how high on the priority list is that event for you?
It's very important to me. I really like going over there and racing against the Europeans, getting second overall last year was definitely a landmark in my career.

In the past, America hasn't done so great but recently we have been doing pretty good. Last year we got third place as a team so that was great. I think the talent in the States right now, especially on the West Coast, is really strong. There is a big group of guys really pushing each other and the level of intensity and the speed at the races is at an all time peak right now, I don't see any reason why we don't have the fastest riders in the world so it would be cool to put together another strong team for this year and go over there and do the best we can.

Well Rick, you definitely can't get to the level where your at alone so is there anybody you'd like to thank?
Yeah, I've been fortunate to have a lot of support throughout my career. Right from the start my parents were very supportive of me and that has been very important. I also really have to thank Monster Energy/Kawasaki, Moose, Shoei, Scott, Dunlop and the rest of my sponsors for helping me out. I also want to thank all my fans, it seems like I've really grown a strong fan base throughout my career, especially in the North West, and I can't thank them enough for their support.

Thanks for your time.
Thanks.