Photos and Interview by: Chase Yocom – Words written by: Dan Lamb

After the 2016 Southwick National and Monster Energy / Kawasaki Eli Tomac’s dominant 1-1 performance, a lot of people may have thought, in the back of their minds, that it was a one-off performance in the sand, but we all hoped it meant Eli had closed the gap on RCH / Soaring Eagle / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen. Before Kenny’s loss to Eli at round seven, the #94 had won eleven of the first twelve motos, and talk of him running the table the rest of the way was getting louder. Even if you had no horse in this race, it reignited the series seeing somebody finally shut down the red plate holder straight up in 2016. One week later, though, and Kenny was back to handling Tomac and the rest of the 450MX class.

At the 2016 Spring Creek National, Kenny was not only back to the top of the podium, he did it with his first trifecta—fastest qualifier and 1-1 in the moto—of the year. The #94 was the #1 qualifier—by nearly 2 full seconds—and he absolutely worked the field in both motos for his sixth 1-1 performance of the 2016 Championship. With the win, the German-born former National and World Champion is fifty-five points clear of Tomac with just eight motos left on the calendar. If your Kenny’s interior decorator, it might be time to start deciding where the 2016 Championship trophy will display.

The face of a man that just went through a war and won.
The face of a man that just went through a war and won.

After the podium celebration was over, Kenny headed to the press tent to answer some of our questions. MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom was there to ask a few of the former and future Champ.

Ken, congratulations on your day. Why don’t you just give us the brief version of how it went for you? It looked like, starting off in qualifying, that it was all yours, but your starts were not holeshots necessarily.

Well, only my second one; my first one was pretty good. I went second or third into the turn, and Eli [Tomac] was right there, too. First off, I hadn’t had pole [fastest qualifying time] in probably three years, so that kind of felt good. The first moto was good. I got a little bit unlucky, I think, with the red cross flags back there. I had to roll everything, and they came quite a bit closer, but I was able to pull it off. In the second one [moto], I came off crooked a little bit, pulled to the right and almost went down on the start straight. I came together with Trey [Canard]. From then on, I was really far back. And then on that little double right down there, I think I dabbed my foot in the ground and bent my shifter back. From then on, it was a bit of a struggle because my shifter was really close to the foot peg. It was never really jumping, but landing, I would—because it was up and bent towards my foot peg—I would always hit neutral and misshift a lot. I would try to just stay in third gear sometimes, but it was too low of an RPM and I had to stay in second [gear]. It was a bit of a struggle there, but I had to be really careful not to hit neutral when I jumped. We came up to the front, put a gap between us and just rode a smart race. I had to be really careful. I didn’t want the bike to blow up either.

 

Did you realize that your fastest lap in moto one was actually quicker than your qualifying time?

No, I didn’t even look at any of the results. I just raced. (laughs)

 

I was just wondering if you were really feeling it in moto one because the lap time you did was a couple hundredths of a second quicker than your qualifying times.

No, I felt better in the second moto. We did some adjustments to the bike and I thought it was better, so I felt better in the second moto.

Every once in a while, the #94 likes showing off his factory drain plug.
Every once in a while, the #94 likes showing off his factory drain plug.

So you weren’t feeling good in the first lap of the moto where your shifter was bent, but you passed like nine guys, so you couldn’t have been struggling that much. That was unreal.

I’m a racer, so my mind is just getting to the front. At first, I didn’t know what was going on. I misshifted, I almost went over the bars twice and I’m like, “What the hell?” Then I looked down, and the thing didn’t look right. So from then on, I put my ass back, kept it in third and went wherever the other guys didn’t go to try and make passes.

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Click to take advantage of the great deals at Ride365

Were you in third for most of the race or could you shift a little bit here and there?

I was shifting, but very… throttle back and then I had to like click it in and go again. I couldn’t just… like especially coming out of the turns in-between the rollers—like the roller section’s going one way—I sometimes couldn’t shift. It would cost me so much time ’cause I’d be in second gear the whole way. It was tough. I had to adjust to it, because I didn’t want to hit neutral in the air. It was moreso when I jumped and you kind of move your feet a little bit and then you land; the shifter was bent so far back that I didn’t have a gap in-between my toes and the shifter. And it was bent up. Every time I would land, I would hit it. Sometimes it didn’t make too many good noises—I was a little freaked out. Luckily it lasted. That was pretty much the reason why I tried to shift clean too. I didn’t want the bike to blow up. I hit neutral a few times, and it didn’t sound very good. I finally just played it safe.

 

Watching that second moto, how sketchy was that [collision with Canard]? Were you close to going down or not? It looked like a lot of contact.

Oscar [mechanic, Wirdeman] said it was pretty gnarly. I just ride and I don’t really remember. I got out of the gate really good, but the ruts coming out of there were pretty long. I kind of just went off to the right. I mean, I went off to the right a lot. It wasn’t just a little bit so I kind of feel bad. I don’t want to take anybody down or be that kind of guy, but it was totally not on purpose. Luckily, nobody went down.

Making the braking bumps look nonexistent.
Making the braking bumps look nonexistent.

You said you made some bike changes this week. What are you working on now?

I have a complete different fork pretty much. I don’t know what the internals changes were or whatever. I was messing around with it a little bit and I think it was working pretty good.

 

It looks like you like it.

Yeah, in the first one [moto], I didn’t. For me, there’s a fine line where it feels good. We’re trying to figure it out ’cause air is so inconsistent towards the end of the moto. My front end gets a little bit worse. The second moto it seems we adjusted well and we were fine.

 

Between last weekend and now this weekend where you look like your old self, did you pick anything up during the week? Did you take any time off?

No, not at all. I actually had a little bit of a harder week for me. I changed my forks, and I think if I would have had these forks that I have right now last weekend, I think it would have been a lot better for me. The important thing is that we’re fixing things, but at the same time try to not go too crazy.

Just like after his 2014 450MX Championship, it looks like Kenny will be taking his #1 and leaving the team he won it with. If he wins the Championship, we expect to see the #1 on a Honda in '17.
Just like after his 2014 450MX Championship, it looks like Kenny will be taking his #1 and leaving the team he won it with. If he wins the Championship, we expect to see the #1 on a Honda in ’17.

Muddy Creek you and Tomac were close, but then you bounced back and RedBud was really good. Last week, you got second, and you bounced back here. Is that something that runs through your mind like, “I don’t want to give anybody extra momentum?”

Well I’m just racing my best out there, and I don’t want to settle for anything less than a win no matter how big the gap is. Everybody has their off days. Obviously, Eli was on it last weekend; no doubt about it. But there was something where I can go from winning to backing down that much. Something didn’t feel right. I feel like I’m back to my normal self. I never asked for a perfect bike, but just something where I can ride the bike, the bike’s not riding me. I think everybody has their bad days or their off motos.

Interview brought to you by Ride365.com

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.