Ken Roczen had a rollercoaster of a main event in Nashville. A bad start and then an incredible first few turns saw Roczen put himself back into contention and the German got himself into the lead and, for a lap, it looked like he was in his way to three wins in a row!
But Hunter Lawrence found a better pace as Roczen looked less comfortable than that previous two weekends as Lawrence took the lead. Still, Ken looked set for second until he went down and dropped to fourth – bur luckily the bike kicked into life quickly!
Roczen gathered himself back together and got himself back to third to stay on the podium, losing five points to Hunter putting him ten behind, but moving himself up to second n the championship. While it could have been better, it could have been a lot worse and Roczen is looking at the positives.
Roczen said: “The track was just like Cooper said it. They’re just so drastically different than the weekend before, so it was tricky all day. I do think that there wasn’t really a whole lot that was separating us. Like the times were really close and we’re all doing the same rhythms and having set that coming race time, it was actually quite a bit different than it even was during practice”.
“So after we got going there, I was pretty comfortable where I was at, but Hunter was riding really well and after he got by me, I was totally fine settling for second. I just wasn’t wasn’t feeling quite like how I have been the last like three races on the track and everything. So I was doing the best that I could and stay with him and just see where he’s going and then if the opportunity rises towards the later stages, you know, I’ll go for it. But I was fine where I was at and then sure enough, a lap later, I just tossed it over and I got lucky. I pulled in the clutch and kicked it a couple of times and got it going right away again.
“But obviously, I lost two positions and then from there on, I was just really focused on at least getting on the podium, just minimizing the points gap. Obviously, I would have loved to get Cooper, but there just wasn’t enough for me to go forward. I was like, okay, let’s settle down, bring this in on the podium“.
On his bad start and impressive first lap Roczen commented: “I don’t know. Just not, it wasn’t my best. I got lucky. I mean, I got eighth gate pig and then I went on the outside of Coop and the rut wasn’t the greatest, but I felt like position wise, even if I didn’t get the jump, was probably the best to get around the turn. And I made it work too. Like, after the first turn, I came out really solid and, you know, those are the kind of times where you have to execute and that’s what we did. So this week, I didn’t ride any Supercross at all this week. So I didn’t do any starts or anything”.
“We just have had a lot of rain in Florida. So I’m hoping to just ride a little bit more this coming week. And to be honest, after everything that happened, I’m really not mad about where I ended up. You know, everything’s still good.”
