Battling for Their First Supercross Win: Townley & Lange



Teammates? Sure. But Ben Townley (out front) and Darcy Lange raced each other hard, but clean on Saturday night in St. Louis.


With a keen eye for talent, as well as some killer equipment, the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki crew has tallied an enviable 20 titles since '91, and it'd be pretty easy to argue that Mitch, Bones, and the rest of the Pro Circuit crew have built a dynasty at motocross and Supercross tracks across the country, plus the work that they do in their headquarters in Corona, CA.

Saturday night in St. Louis their two East riders were duking it out throughout the main event, as both were fighting for their first Supercross win. A couple weeks prior to the race, Mitch Payton had laid out the groundwork for the night, saying, "I think going into the East Coast, Townley looks awesome, and Metcalfe's going to be about four weeks out still, so we hired Darcy Lange to fill in. Darcy's ripe with speed." He also noted, " Our goal is always just get on the box."

Ultimately, the two traded the lead back and forth on the final lap, before Lange crashed rather spectacularly, and Townley went on to grab his first win. After his crash, Lange remounted and finished in sixth spot.

It's interesting to note that both of these guys have championship credentials, but in different venues (Lange as an Arenacross Champion, and Townley as an MX2 World Champ), they're both still getting dialed in on the Supercross scene. A week ago, Townley had suffered a DNF in Atlanta, but afterward, the team was actually pleased to see that he was pretty upbeat. He explained it by saying, "It was definitely hard to swallow when I was riding as good as I was, but it was a huge sort of relief that I got up there and was running up front. So just to go out of that race the way I did was a big relief for me. I wasn't looking for any sort of redemption or anything this week, I just wanted to try and do the same thing that I was last week."



Ben Townley and Darcy Lange

Through part of the main, Ryan Dungey (out of sight behind the lead duo) looked like the guy to beat. Dungey and Townley had ridden together during some pre-season testing, and after the race Ben said, "Actually, he gave me a pretty good schooling when we rode the first time, so it game me a bit of a wake-up call on a few things I needed to work on, and it's the same from today as well. Like I said, I wasn't the fastest out there, I think I've got a few things to work on this week, so we'll go back home and work on those things."


For his part, Lange was also upbeat about where he stood compared to previous tries on the Supercross scene, and when asked about how he was riding now, he was quick to reply. "Oh, ten times better. It's a big confidence boost being on this team. The bikes are the best bikes out there, and the team's behind you 100 percent. It's just awesome to be on this team."

Following the main event, we walked up as Mitch was finishing his post-race debriefing with his two riders, and asked them how the night went from each of their perspectives. Ben was very happy to point out, "I got the holeshot and was surprised about that to start with. Then I just tried to ride my own race. I wanted to put some time on the field the first couple laps, but it didn't work out, so I just tried to focus on riding consistent as best I could. It went down to the wire with Darcy. It was a close race."

Darcy's start didn't go as well, but with some smart moves, he quickly made up for it. "Coming into the first turn, I was probably about 18th, but everyone pushed wide and I just tucked up the inside. I think by the end of the first lap I was fourth."

The interesting part from Townley was that he downplayed his win a bit. "I felt like it was good racing. I know I wasn't the fastest out there tonight. Ryan and Darcy were probably a little faster, and it was hard for them to make the move, but I felt like Darcy raced me good. He obviously tagged that jump one lap and came in on the inside of me, and there's nothing he could do about that. That's just racing."



Ben Townley

Ben is pleased that he's picked up his speed indoors. What can we expect this summer once we hit the Nationals?


About his crash, Darcy explained, "I was just a little trigger-happy. You know, we were both running for our first win. It was good clean racing. I'm just glad I'm healthy still. About three-quarters of the way through the whoops…I was just going for it. I should have backed off and didn't, and kind of hit the jump a little too hard. I think my frame kind of drug, and I went over the bars."

"It was fun being up there. Three weeks ago I wasn't even going to be doing Supercross, so I'm definitely happy to be up there. Hopefully we can come back next weekend and hopefully get on the box again."

Both guys are still making improvements to their programs. Townley noted,  "I'm still improving all the time. There's areas where I'm always improving. Just picking up little things, even from practice 'til the race, and heat race to the main, just different stuff."

When prodded about where he could pick up some additional improvement, Ben added, "That's hard to say. I guess my corner speed, sometimes the whoops. The obstacle tonight, the whoops into that triple was really tough for me. I was losing time to these guys there. I don't know. Just getting out front, that was a new thing for me to be leading the race from the very first lap. So I was trying really hard to concentrate on myself, and breathe, and just focus on racing forward. Things like that. There are new things coming up all the time for me."



Darcy Lange

Darcy Lange spent the last couple months of '06 and early part of '07 wrapping up the BooKoo Arenacross Championship for Team Babbitt's Kawasaki, but stepped in to fill up the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki squad while Brett Metcalfe finishes healing from shoulder surgery.


One of the coolest things about Ben's win was how much emotion he showed after crossing the finish line, "It's just been a huge dream of mine to race over here for a long time. My whole family committed to that a long time ago. My mom, she was meant to come to see this race and my sister got real ill on Monday, and she had to go to the hospital, so my mum didn't make it, and my whole family has been behind me the whole time, so to have my dad here when I was…," he said, his voice trailing away.

Continuing, he added, "When I went over the finish line I must have looked like an idiot, you know? I just couldn't believe it. That was really cool…and a few corners back, I was in second. So the last lap was a really sort of emotional lap. Like Darcy said, I tried to race clean and that, but we're racing as well. And he said three weeks ago he wasn't going to be  racing Supecross, and I know tonight he's bummed. He's a racer. We were out there trying to do what we do…win races. I hope that the fans enjoyed it."

Jumping back to our prior conversation with Mitch Payton, one of the things that he'd pointed out was, "It's really fun to see a guy win his first race, and it's really fun to see a guy win his first championship. After they do that they're kind of on a roll and you just want 'em to keep rolling."



Darcy Lange and Ben Townley

On the white flag lap, Lange had control, but a huge endo over a triple awaited.


"I think it makes it easier for our group, and our team to work hard, and I think it makes it easier for everyone to do the right thing. I think we try to hire guys who have heart. I think it's proven all the way through what we've done, that it's always the guys that work hard, that train hard during the week, it helps them out. Then we have a system or formula we stick to and we've never broken it, and we're not going to change it."

"I think hopefully when kids come here, they come here for that reason. Like a lot of the times, we don't always pay the most money. There are always other teams that outbid us for riders, and sometimes when it comes down to it, a rider will go to another team for more money. I feel good that at the end of the year, most of the time that's a bad mistake.

"We don't always get some of the kids that we've wanted, but the kids that we get, I think historically, they do the best on our team that they do in their career. It just seems that if they leave this team it seems that they don't do as well, and I think they're spoiled because we have a great program and I think we try to put really, really good bikes under them, and we try to instill the traits that I've seen work from like McGrath, Carmichael, and all the way along, the guys that are good, I see work really hard at it. That's the only thing we can sort of give them is tell them the history of what's worked."



Ben Townley and Craig Behl

Ben and his mechanic, Ben Townley and Craig Behl, celebrate after the race.

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