Ken Roczen took his first win of the season and admitted that mentally, he is in a much better spot than he was ten years ago to deal with the first turn crashes this season that hindered his true potential this season – but the speed has always been there.
“We have been riding real good, just not having the best luck getting around the first turn and that’s kind of been my achilles heel,” said Ken in the press conference.
“It is a bit frustrating. Some things are a little bit, I mean, you kind of make your own luck, you know what I mean? But some things are just a little bit out of control.”
“I’ve left way more frustrated before where I felt like crap,” said Ken, who is now 15 points back of points leader Jett in the title chase. “I was riding like crap and it just sucks ending on a bad note on a race night. Nonetheless, whether I go down on the first turn or not, I’ve just always left it out there and, charged how long I could. When you feel strong, too, and you do everything in your power to make the best of the situation, then that angriness or frustration just leaves me a lot sooner”.
“I just chalk it up to, it is what it is and we try again next weekend. So, I think I’ve just also gotten better at putting that aside. Yeah, (this year) some of the results were just not that great, but I felt like I was riding really well and that’s in the end what I mainly focus on.”
“The mindset and the comfort for me personally is way different than 10 years ago, that’s for sure,” he says. “And even, just even from a few years ago, I honestly feel like I’m now more ready than ever to battle for a championship than I’ve ever felt in the past. And that’s a nice feeling to have. So I just value a lot of things that I used to stress about. Like practice. Every weekend is a bit different, and sometimes you need to force yourself to kind of like, quit being the way you are right now and just focus on the night show. So, it just really depends. Sometimes I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and then it just makes things a lot harder. I feel like today was honestly one of those days a little bit. I think I just know how to deal better with it honestly. It’s just, an experience thing, I think. I wish I would have that mentality a lot sooner than now, but I’m almost 30!”
There is no doubt Ken Roczen has always had more than enough talent to win a supercross title and if he can get around the first turn and lap with no issues, then maybe at nearly 30, this could finally be Ken Roczen’s year – what a story it would be!
Image: Roczen IG
