Joey Savatgy not having a full time ride in America is one of the most puzzling situations given his speed and general consistency and that was in evidence again in AMA SX this season and once more at Villa Park on Saturday night.
Savatgy is all in with RWR for WSX 2023 and came away in second overall behind the rapid Ken Roczen, but Savatgy showed, even on a day that probably wasn’t his best, that he could well be the guy to challenge Roczen for the title, just like he did last season.
We caught up with the underrated Savtagy after his night at Villa Park.
Joey Savatgy, first round in the books, I would say you were consistent, maybe didn’t have the speed you had at the last WSX season so how do you sum it up?
It was good, we definitely weren’t the fastest by any means. We got off the gate okay, the last one was our best start which helped us, but I mean, the bike hasn’t changed at all since last year. Literally, there hasn’t been any clicker changes. I knew I was kind of up against the wall but, to get out of the first one healthy and on the box is a positive. We have five more to go and some downtime in between to hopefully get maybe some testing in and fine tuning so, all in all, a good place to start.
You got a good look at Ken Roczen in that last moto, he seemed to be carrying momentum everywhere, what can you learn that you can pick up on?
His bike is just… I have been struggling to get my bike turned, it’s something we need to try to work on and Ken’s good, regardless of what bike he is on, he is very, very talented on a motorcycle and I think he is the one that we are all chasing. On a track like tonight too, it’s really hard to get separation, not a lot of rhythm that anyone was doing that no-one else was so, it makes it tough, it’s a little tiring because you are trying to push so much through everything to make time. Where Kenny is good, and he is good at home, he is able to carry momentum so, like I said, I know what we need to work on, we need to try and get the motorcycle better.
Vince Friese said in the press conference he said he believed he can beat Ken and you smirked and Ken kind of smirked a little, from your point of view do you believe you can beat him (Ken)?
I’ll give my hat off to Vince, he doesn’t lack confidence. Today Vince was fast but again, on a track that there was not too much separation. it’s really about starts and Vince was able to put himself in the front the first two and even the third one. had he been behind us to start with, i am pretty confidence we wouldn’t have seen what we saw but at the end of the day, he was good. He got out of the gate good and he was fast. The smirk is just.. I don’t know…it is what it is. I give him all the credit in the world, he rode good today, the confidence for him is obviously at an all-time high, I don’t fault him for it.
Your AMA season, you did half rounds but your speed was really good, did you expect that?
Again, we are up against limited testing, so we are at a disadvantage but all I can do is show up on the weekend and do the best I can do and wherever that puts us it puts us. To be walking out of round one out of round one on the box was obviously the goal and the way the day was going, I had a hard time finding the flow on a track that I maybe didn’t feel the most comfortable on to pull out a rabbit and be on the box, we will take it.
Is supercross only your goal? A bit like Ken has done?
I don’t know. It’s a little hard to say at this point, my future is a little bit unknown all IU am focused on right now is getting undressed and going to have a shower and worrying about food! The future is unknown for a reason,. for me I know what I want to do and I want to race, I want to be competitive, so wherever that ends up being it ends up.
I always thought you would be good in GPs because you were a hard worker and fit and fast late in the US MX, was that ever goal of yours?
Honestly? No. (smiles) The GPs, I don’t have any interest right now, that can change, but for me right now it’s not in my future.
Interview: Jonathan McCready
Image: WSX
