Ken Roczen celebrates his big win with a little whip for the crowd. Photo by: Hoppenworld
Since migrating to America from his home in Germany and the job security of being the MX2 World Champion to contest AMA Motocross and Supercross full time in 2012, RCH/Soaring Eagle/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen has had an up and down career that’s netted him a Regional 250SX Championship, a National AMA 450MX Championship and numerous wins in the 450SX Class of Monster Energy Supercross. The ultimate dream for the former child prodigy has still yet to be realized though: calling himself the 450SX Monster Energy Supercross Champion.
In his rookie 450SX campaign, the then KTM rider won two main events, scored eight podiums and took home the 2014 Rookie of the Year honors. For his sophomore season in ’15, the #94 took a huge chance leaving Red Bull/KTM and his trainer Aldon Baker, switching to the factory-backed, unproven RCH/Soaring Eagle/Suzuki privately-owned team.
Kenny quickly silenced the doubters by winning two of the first three main events on his new Suzuki—finishing 2nd in the other main event—,but at round four, that all came crashing down when he shorted a triple and injured himself. After his mishap at round four and another huge crash later in the season, Ken pulled out of the season early after only two more podiums and no more wins.
With that and with 2016 being the final year of his contract with RCH, this year became a big one for Kenny and the team. Over the first two rounds, starts had become the #94’s Achilles heel, and he started the year with a fifth at A1 and a 6th at San Diego 1. Over the last three rounds, though, his starts improved and his results improved to a third at A2, a second in Oakland and he finally started in front of Dungey in Glendale and scored his first win of ’16.
With that win last weekend, Kenny leapfrogged from fourth to second in the 450SX Championship, but he still has a twenty-three point deficit to overcome. As we have been shown numerous times before, though, a little confidence can erase a big points lead in a hurry. After his big win in Arizona, we talked to Kenny during his podium celebration on Saturday night.
Ken, you just collected your trophy and you are the inaugural winner of the first-ever Glendale SX—we’re told it’s no longer the Phoenix SX. How are you feeling?
It feels awesome! I actually said this morning, “It’s a new stadium, and I’m going to win,” and that’s actually what we did. The stadium is absolutely fantastic. It’s super big, it’s super nice, it’s a cool area, and the track was really different, super high speed.
How did you like the dirt tonight? We’re told it was the same dirt they had inside Chase Field in previous years.
Yeah, it’s the typical Phoenix dirt. The dirt got really hard here towards the end and it got chewed up, but man, we got it done. We have everyone in the house from the team here tonight, from Carey Hart, to Alecia [Moore] (also known as singer Pink) and the whole team. It was absolutely amazing, and my trainer was here too. We’re going to enjoy the night, and then we’ll get back to work on Monday, bottom line.
I noticed about midway through the main event—maybe right when Ryan Dungey passed Eli Tomac—that you took a good hard look at those guys to gauge where they were. Was that the first time you really assessed the situation, or did you know where Ryan was from the beginning?
I didn’t know what was going on earlier in the race at all. I didn’t know where he started. Obviously he was going good, but that just shows what a good start compared to a worse start can do.
How important was this win tonight for your personal confidence, especially since you had not gotten one yet this year and you really need some momentum to begin to close that gap on Dungey?
Important, especially since we have been struggling for quite a while now. It’s important that we never stopped believing and came out on top. It’s a big confidence booster and it was just super important. It feels great, and it was a long time coming. The last win was at Anaheim 2, and we finally made it happen.
Alright, I’ll let you get back to celebrating. Congratulations.
Cool, thank you very much.
