Image: Octopi Media.

Reigning 250SX East champion Chase Sexton says he’s thankful for the brief opportunity to work with multi-time champion Ryan Dungey, who bought into Geico Honda ahead of the 2020 season before withdrawing from the partnership last week.

Dungey made the announcement of his departure from the squad as a co-owner in the lead up to Atlanta’s ninth round, where Sexton claimed victory to take sole possession of the points lead.

The Illinois native, who works with Dungey’s brother Jade, indicated he extracted the most out of the partnership in the short period of time, and is adamant they’ll continue to speak through the connection of his mechanic.

“It was pretty short-lived, so we didn’t really grow that great of a relationship,” Sexton explained. “Obviously Jade [Dungey] is my mechanic, so I’ve had a little relationship with him and we were just starting to really grow.

“It’s a bummer he’s gone, but he’s got a family to take care of – he didn’t really expect how much of a commitment it was going to be to own our team – there are a lot of guys – we have seven riders, so it’s a handful. I think him being home with his family is the better thing for him right now, but we were thankful to have had him for the short time.

“He came to Tampa – that’s the only race he’s been to, and he helped a lot with line selection and figuring out different race lines. He’s raced a lot of races and won a lot of races, so it was nice to have had him and lean off him. I’m looking forward to growing our relationship, Jade is my mechanic, so I’m still going to be able to talk to him.”

Monster Energy Supercross heads to Daytona International Speedway this weekend.