Ken Roczen | In His Words 4

Half way through the SX season, Ken isn't in the race winning form he was at the beginning.

Vital MX: Winning A1, the first race of the series with possibly the most pressure, Ken Roczen has shown little of that speed and confidence at the following races. In the past, we've seen Ken hit a wall physically, and he's been open and forthcoming in the past when his body was not cooperating. But, this year, looking through all of his post race statements so far, he hasn't mentioned anything about his physical health. Most of what you can read for yourself is talking about bike struggles and feeling uncomfortable, which is very surprising for such a seasoned team and veteran racer. Unlike most OEM PR, the Honda race reports seem to be what he honestly said since it includes, "nightmare" and "disaster." 

All photos by Octopi.Media

Ken Roczen

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Anaheim 1

"My weekend and the team's weekend went great here at Anaheim 1. I didn't really know which way it was going to go. We had a little bit of a difficult December, but this couldn't have gone any better. Our practice was okay – nothing to really rave about, but we executed every single start tonight. We won the heat race, and then in the main event, I knew it was going to be a long battle. The track was really, really rough tonight, and it made for some crazy racing. There was a lot of carnage and crazy stuff going on behind me. I was actually really glad we had those good starts because it helped me stay away from that and really ride my own race. Chase, my teammate, was putting a lot of pressure on me, and we had a really good battle for the first half of the race. Luckily I came away with the win, and I couldn't ask for anything better. I'm just really happy with how the team and I excelled today."


Ken Roczen, Oakland.

Oakland

"Not really much to say about Oakland. I feel like the day already started off kind of weird and we weren't really feeling that great on the track, but we did the best we could. Chase [Sexton] and I went down pretty dang hard in the last qualifying practice. I got really lucky that nothing worse happened, as Chase kind of used my head as a whoop! It all happened so quickly and it was ultimately just me going down and falling into the wrong spot. The heat race was decent; I got second there. Going into the night show I put everything aside and tried to stay calm. We got off to a decent start, but I was probably around fourth or fifth and just struggled in the whoops; we’re just not good enough in them and we have to get better. That was a spot that bit me again, and after that there really wasn't that much I could do. I finished 13th, but I'm going to keep my head up and charge hard again next weekend."


Ken Roczen, San Diego.

San Diego

“My day was rough; the track was different. We've been on super-soft dirt, and then we come here and it's gravelly and hard-packed. I was kind of chasing my bike setting, so we tried a bunch of stuff that I had previously tried; every practice, I was riding something different. We made the right choice for the main event, and I felt good on the bike. I was able to charge forward and everything was running smoothly until [Jason] Anderson took me down. I had no idea he was even there, but that was probably my worst run through the whoops. I got sideways and went wide, and he just didn't turn and just took my front wheel. My grip was all peeled off. Afterwards I couldn't get that flow back anymore and kind of just hung around in seventh the whole time. It is what it is. Back in the day with those results, I would’ve been 30 points behind, but I'm seven points behind right now. It's crazy – exciting even for a racer; there's still a lot that could happen."


Ken Roczen, Anaheim 2

Anaheim 2

“Our weekend was a nightmare. I've been struggling lately with my bike setup, just not really getting comfortable. It was a tough one for us but we did decent; when nighttime comes, it seems like we always get our stuff together. I got second in the heat race, and we got the holeshot in the main event. Things were going pretty decent. I struggled with the whoops so that was definitely not my strong point; I almost went down there once, and the same lap I got taken down by [Jason] Anderson – unfortunately left the door open. Probably not the right turn for him to put on a pass, but obviously it got me and I crashed pretty hard right there. I had to make a stop after that to get all the sand out of my goggles, and our night was pretty much over after that; I could only salvage 13th place, but we never gave up. We’re quite a few points down. It’s a bummer, but I’m looking forward to next weekend to get some consistency in and do some training and riding; I couldn't really do that last week. Hopefully we’ll head to Phoenix with a bit more confidence and more riding time under my belt.”


Ken Roczen, Glendale

Glendale

“The Glendale Triple Crown was another rough one on my end. My starts were mediocre at best, and with those types of races, it's tough to make something happen. I feel like I wasn't riding like myself, and in general I wasn’t feeling comfortable out on the track. I'm still working to try and get everything together, but Glendale was definitely not it. I got fifth overall, so it was actually nice to make it through the mains without going down. We definitely need some work. I'm trying to get consistent during the week and gain some confidence, but we’re still figuring out the bike a little bit. We went back to my setup from last year; it's good in some areas but also creates problems in others, and my starts with it weren’t that great. I'm still working on myself and with the team to bring it on the weekend. We haven't really had the greatest test days during the week, so then going into the weekend and trying to be super-confident and trusting in my abilities is really tough to do. We simply have to be better, and we’re working on it. We're going to go into another week of training, figure some stuff out and head on to Anaheim.”


Ken Roczen, Anaheim 3

Anaheim 3

“Our weekend at Anaheim 3 was honestly a disaster. I was really uncomfortable all day. It doesn’t help that they’ve been building the track gnarlier than maybe even any other year, so It’s just a bunch of stuff collapsing and it’s just not good right now. Nonetheless, I'm going to continue working on myself and try to improve every weekend. We have to find a bike setup that works for me. It’s definitely not enough right now in order to compete with those guys out there. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we’re not giving up.”


Ken Roczen, Minneapolis

Minneapolis

“The first East Coast round was a tough night; the track was really difficult. The dirt was really tacky, especially in practice, where the track was super rutty and just really, really rough. I wouldn’t say I was the most comfortable, but this was the first time that I didn't make any changes to the bike; I just tried to get used to it. This was the best I've been in the whoops, so that was a big plus for us, too. I had a decent start in the main event but got passed by Marvin [Musquin] early on. I was behind him for quite some time, but we kept a fairly close distance to the leader. That was good until I tried to pass and jumped a little bit too far to the left after the triple. There was some loose dirt there, and as soon as I landed I washed the front end pretty bad and went down. My bars were tweaked quite a bit and we only had a few minutes to go, so there wasn’t much we could do from there. It might not be the result that we wanted but there are some positives to take away compared to the previous weekend, so we're going to build on that. It’s my first week back in Florida now, which I'm really excited for, and I think it will be a big help in the upcoming events.”


Ken Roczen, Arlington

Arlington

“The race here in Dallas was a better start to the day. I felt a lot better about myself and was able to put in some good qualifying laps. I haven't been that far up on the board in a long time, so overall this was probably the first race where I was actually having fun. Come the night show though, that all turned around because of how slick the track was – they watered pretty heavily. I was really struggling with the bike and with traction, resulting in a lot of crashes which is very unlike me. It was another very frustrating weekend. I'm looking forward to Daytona, as it usually changes things up and makes for a fun track.”

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