When Eli Tomac signed with Red Bull KTM ahead of the 2026 season, everything changed. After back-to-back championships on a Yamaha, he was moving to a new manufacturer, a new team structure, a new bike platform — and a new mechanic. Jade Dungey was the man assigned to Tomac's KTM 450 SX-F, and the relationship that formed between them became one of the more compelling stories of the 2026 campaign.
Tomac himself noted in pre-season interviews that one of the unique aspects of his KTM package was a cable clutch system — something he specifically requested and the team engineered for him, because it matched his riding style in a way no hydraulic setup could. That kind of customization doesn't happen without trust between a rider and his mechanic. Dungey had to understand not just the standard KTM setup, but the specific way Tomac rides — how he hooks up in turns, how he handles whoops sections, how the bike needs to behave when he's at the limit.
A New Partnership Under Pressure
The 2026 season started with Tomac near the top of the championship standings, the KTM running well and the Dungey-Tomac partnership finding its footing quickly. Then Cleveland happened. Tomac went down hard in qualifying at Round 14, taking injuries that forced him out of the Cleveland main and — for the first time in years — out of the following round in Philadelphia as well.
For a mechanic, the weeks a rider sits out aren't downtime — they're maintenance time. Dungey was in the pits every day, keeping the bike in championship condition, making sure that when Tomac came back for Denver the KTM would be exactly where he left it. No rust. No readjustment period. Just the machine, ready to go.
When Tomac came back for Denver, he wasn't climbing onto a cold bike. Jade Dungey made sure of that.
The Red Bull KTM Program
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing runs one of the most comprehensive support structures in American supercross. The Austrian manufacturer's factory program brings factory engineers, data analysis, and deep technical resources to every round. Dungey sits at the center of that for Tomac's bike — translating the team's technical capabilities into the specific setup preferences of a two-time champion who knows exactly what he needs from a machine.
The partnership is still new by supercross standards — one season in, still building the shorthand that veteran mechanic-rider teams develop over years. But what Tomac and Dungey showed through the first fifteen rounds of 2026 is that the fundamentals are there: speed, consistency, and the ability to respond when the season gets complicated. Denver is where that gets tested in front of a home crowd.
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