Ken Roczen’s performance at High Point was jaw dropping and underlined just why this guy is a generational talent and winning GPs from he was 15!
Roczen is now a supercross only rider with his AMA supercross and World supercross deal but Ken still wants to do some motocross, and, added to that, it was an ideal racing prep for the first round of WSX on the 1st of July in GB.
So, Roczen had two days of testing and simply showed up to race on a bike that hasn’t changed since 2018 added to that Roczen hasn’t raced a Suzuki outdoors since 2016, then proceeded to run with Jett Lawrence and challenge for the win both motos right to the final couple of laps. Proving once again how important the rider is in this sport, underlining why it is the best motorsport in the world.
In the second moto, Jett caught him having much better lines, Roczen then showed his intelligence by following Jett’s lines, adapting and then running Jett’s pace to the end of the moto, keeping the pressure on – and probably saving second place with a charging Ferrandis on his tail! A big positive here too was that Roczen’s health and fitness seems much better, last year at the end of the second motos Roczen struggled to maintain the pace, now in his first race with no practice Roczen was plotting how to stay with Jett and try and win the race at the end of the moto.
It wasn’t an easy track either with so many ruts but Roczen’s natural feel, smooth style, combined with great balance and that roll speed through the turns that stemmed from his GP days, all played in his favour, Roczen blitzed through the other factory riders in race one in a lap and left them in his wake, bar his good friend Adam Cianciarulo, and when you see how far back the KTM’s Plessinger and Webb were it shows just how tough the track was, but Roczen was able to instantly adapt despite riding supercross all year, that’s talent.
Roczen said of his day: “The track was a brutal one to come back too, I came here to give the fans what they wanted to see, I’m happy that I did that, Jett’s been on one and he got the job done again today but at least I was able to lead some laps. The track was something else, I only had two days of motocross this week, I did motos on Monday and tested for half a day on Wednesday and off we went. It was an awesome day, especially ripping the hoelshot in the second moto, I felt like I was ripping in the beginning, I had some shitty lines, once Jett passed me I copied his lines and that helped me out a bit for sure.”
Now Roczen gets ready to travel to the UK for round one of the WSX as defending champ and switch back into supercross mode – and his performance at High Point will only add to the British fans excitement to see him in action!
Learn about his bike set-up here: