Rockstar/Makita Suzuki's Ryan Dungey is the whipping boy of the 2011 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Championship. It seems that some fans were so convinced that his 2010 rookie-season championship was a fluke that there was no way he could pull it off in 2011.

And these detractors had all of the ammunition they wanted early in the championship as Dungey couldn't seem to lock down a single win, while privateer Chad Reed won San Diego, and rookie Trey Canard won two races.

But what really happened in Toronto is that those detractors just got quieted.

And it's not just that Dungey won the main event in Toronto. The detractors will still sit around and talk about how he only won because Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart crashed, or whatever. They got quieted - or at least should've - because if you look at the points standings, Ryan Dungey now sits eight points out of the series lead with only five rounds left to run, and he just won this race at the best possible time to make a run at a title.

And yes, it's true that Stewart and Villopoto have had a lot go wrong in order to put Dungey in this position, but what about what Dungey has been through?
Voila! Just like that, Ryan Dungey is in the title chase. (Photo: CoxMX.com)

We had the chain derailment early in the season, for example, and just a fifth-place finish in that race would put him out front by seven points right now. And the truth is that he probably would've been on the podium, which would put him 12 points out front right now. Why do I say he probably would've been on the podium? Because of the 12 races run so far, he's been on the podium nine times. The three he missed? Phoenix, where he finished fifth citing some early-season setup issues; Anaheim 2, where his chain came off; and Indianapolis, where he finished fourth behind Villopoto, Stewart and Reed.

And it's his tenacity that has landed him in this position to be a contender at this point. He has done what he could to prevent bad races or just bad things from effecting the next race. He has taken it one race at a time. And it's his plan to do that until the checkered flies in Las Vegas.

No matter what happens, though, sitting eight points out of the championship lead in a championship like this, this late in the season, says something, and it's not what his detractors would like for it to say.
The Rockstar/Makita Suzuki team and Ryan Dungey have gone through a whole lot since he won the team two titles in 2010, but through it all, they managed to get right back into the thick of the fight. (Photo: CoxMX.com)