We caught up with Ken Roczen after his British GP victory and he revealed he was struggling with jet lag – even though he looked superb all day and speed wise!
Ken was in a class of his own all day and silky smooth but bad starts made the racing exciting. Ken talks us through his win here:
Overcoming bad starts to win and thoughts on the day
“It was difficult. It was really hard pack, the start straight was really short. I have been riding some motocross and I rode one day of supercross and kind of neglected it a little bit (starts). Just felt like a fish out of water when it came to that so that won’t happen for the next round. We have a long time right now, I just got to get those dialed in a little bit and have a great crew behind me, we have some ideas to improve it.
“But overall? I struggled here really badly with jetlag the last three days, today was probably the worst day out of all of them. I was extremely tired, nonetheless when it comes race time you want to put down your focus so I was ready to race no matter what but it was tough. I tried to get in a little nap. I’m glad this race is over, I’m healthy and we got the W on top of that.
This was a tough one for me. I don’t remember struggling this badly last year but I was also here for like 10 days and went to London and had some time to adjust and got some proper sleep, I didn’t really get that here, so that was a tough one for sure.”
Only one doing the triple out of the corner
“Yeah, I don’t know, I had berm to rely on a little bit. It got really marbley, we had a lot of different types of dirt today, it started off really tacky, it got super dry and marbley, it was rocky out there and as it kind of got darker, the moisture came back out so it was a super funky track, a lot of rocks. You had to be really timid to go to the inside and sweep it around but I try and be creative and see what’s the fastest way and try to adjust.”
Speed and decision making on the first laps
“I have done a lot of work and when I am comfortable on the bike that’s just something that, when you ride against stiff competition, it’s what you have to do. But it comes a bit natural to me, especially in motocross, as soon as the gate drops and you are back, you don’t have much time and you have got to lay it down but it’s track dependent too, right? Everybody can get a little sketchy and you just have to be smart.”
See his first lap blitz in action:
Ken’s dad helping him then Jett and now they are battling!
“I have to say a big time thanks to my dad, he took them under his wing and showed them the ropes and how he did it back in the day and they took that over to the US as well, just a lot of guidance and that’s where it started. Then they were able to go off and do their own thing.
“He (Jett) has crazy good skills. He is fit, he’s strong and he’s young – and really hungry. But I try to work for myself because eventually I’m going to have to beat him (laughs). Obviously the new up and coming thing, he’s a tough one to beat.”