Ken Roczen: The points are slipping away a little bit
Despite losing the race to Cooper Webb on Saturday night, a still positive Ken Roczen spoke to the media on Monday about his race in Arlington, his attitude coming into the last five rounds, bike settings and if motocross suits him more than supercross.
Looking for the edge
Cooper has been on it. it’s difficult to make up points when he is always second or first. Arlington was a bit of a rough one for us especially to start off but I guess the good think I can hold onto is by Arlington 3 I was a lot more like myself again and at least battling up front. It was good to lead some laps and get some good starts again. You see the first bit of the season and I think things were really going my way and then it can go the other way real quick.
The good thing is there are still five rounds left to go and I’m holding onto that I left Arlington feeling a lot better than in the first round. And going back to some base settings that I’ve had on my bike at the beginning of the year. That’s how you try, you find something you want to work on, you go into an off-weekend and try to improve and sometimes it doesn’t go the right way. So I had to fall back into my base settings and I was riding a lot better again. All in all, nothing we haven’t talked about yet, obviously the points are slipping away a little bit and that’s what I’m holding onto.
We haven’t ever really had two weekends off in a supercross season so it will be kind if nice to get a little bit of a reset and enjoy a little bit but I am keeping my head high and being in good spirits.
The race and the sand
Just because you get the holeshot you cannot think, ‘ oh I got this!’ 20 plus one is a long main event and I know they were some good guys behind me for sure, so I knew it was going to be a battle.
My problem in the sand section was in the heat race it worked out really well. I kind of finished the turn there and I was on the very inside for the upcoming turn before the finish line and honestly I was just too narrow minded there and stuck to it, instead of just cutting down where the main line was and you could kind of hop over that kicker that was there. It was a lot easier that way. When I finished the turn the sand (doing his line) was a lot deeper and it seemed like it always pushed up there and I was kind of pushing the front a little bit and I actually made a couple of mistakes there where I pretty much singled all the way through the sand. I should have just caught on to that a lot sooner, in a section like that it’s easier opening up the angle of the turn, you can just carry so much momentum and I just lost so much time there.
The same with the whoops, I should have gone to the middle line where it was kind of like a rut, and there were some that were really low and you could just kind bounce through there whereas I just stuck to the left side where they were a lot bigger. It worked out okay but I just felt in the middle you could just carry a little bit more momentum then open up the angle coming back across the start straight. Sometimes you can catch onto it but when you are leading, sometimes you can try some different things and it actually bites you just because the other guys they can study you up front and pick their battles but up front you just have to go off instinct, right? So that’s where I have to learn, and simply didn’t catch on that line quick enough and that’s where I lost too much.
Keeping the negative thoughts away
Just because it’s racing, you just never know (what can happen). It doesn’t matter whether it’s fans or media people or whatever. I can win in the beginning of the season and go three in a row and everybody is on my side and as soon as something switches and Cooper wins, everyone goes on that side and then Eli can win a couple and all of a sudden it’s all about Eli.
I just feel it changes so much that in the end, it’s racing. There is 17 races and it can go good for some people at the beginning and not at the end, good in the middle. Things can just change, those three races are done, yes I am behind but there is nothing I can change about it now so there is no need to pound my head into the ground and think about what I could’ve and should’ve done different. You don’t always have to try to re-invent the wheel just because you don’t win, that’s what I’m holding on to. There’s five races to go and we will just see.
The importance of the first Atlanta
It’s five rounds so every race is important, especially when you are in a points deficit. Every time I finish behind Cooper he creeps away and there is less and less time to make that time up. We are going to come Atlanta one and try and put myself in good position, I feel like as a whole my starts have been really good, so as long as I continue working on that.
At Orlando, I picked the wrong rut, it had a huge bump in it and I didn’t see it because of the tuff blocks from the mechanics area and at Daytona I got shuffled back but my start was good. 95% of the time my starts where good and I think that’s a very, very important thing for these upcoming rounds so that’s what I need to do, just put myself in good positions.
On motocross suiting him more than supercross
I have just done it for long, not in last few years I guess, if you look at it that way. But in Europe you grow up with motocross and our tracks are a lot more natural terrain. When I came over to the US for the first time they were all more man-made, triples/doubles, a little more supercross in style. The first time I had some supercross experience was when I went to the Mini-Os in 05 or something like that. Then on 250s I rode the Dortmund supercross once or twice but I pretty much came here with zero supercross experience and I just feel like motocross, because of that, kind of comes a little bit more natural for me.
Images: Feld Entertainment Inc/ Honda
