In extremely hot, humid conditions, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen tallied 2-10 finishes for sixth overall during the inaugural Florida National for round five of the AMA Pro Motocross series at the WW Ranch Motocross Park.

In the day’s first moto, Roczen launched his CRF450R to a second-place start before moving into the lead on lap two and opening a small gap. Not long after, Marvin Musquin closed in and began applying pressure. The German fended off his advances but ultimately relinquished the lead at the halfway point. He settled into second, which is where he finished. In moto two, Roczen came around the first turn in sixth and moved up one spot by the green flag. At the halfway mark, he made a mistake and went down, falling to seventh. Struggling to regain his composure in the Florida heat, Roczen slipped three more spots to take the checkered flag in 10th.

NOTES

  • On Friday, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen was joined by GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton, Christian Craig, RJ Hampshire and Hunter Lawrence for a dealer appearance at Cycles of Jacksonville, where they signed autographs and took pictures with fans.
  • Roczen started the day off strong, laying down a 2’08.910” time during the morning’s first timed qualifying session, landing him second-quickest on the day.
  • With the WW Ranch Motocross track featuring deep sand throughout, Team Honda HRC opted to mount Dunlop “scoop” sand tires to their CRF450R race machines; mechanics also added Twin Air filter covers to ensure sand didn’t enter the engine.
  • With such high heat and humidity, teams had large trash cans and inflatable pools filled with ice water, for riders to soak in after motos in order to lower their body temperatures.
  • The second-best Red Rider in the 450MX class was Fredrik Noren, who rode impressively throughout both motos to secure 9-8 finishes for ninth overall.
  • In the 250 class, Hunter Lawrence lead the charge for the GEICO Honda squad, landing his CRF250R race machine in fifth overall with 8-4 finishes, while RJ Hampshire was eighth with 6-11 results. It was a rollercoaster day for teammate Chase Sexton, who dominated the first race to score his career-first moto victory, only to withdraw from moto two after struggling from the severe heat and humidity.
  • Following his sixth-place finish, Roczen sits second in the championship chase with 209 points, six behind Eli Tomac.
  • Team Honda HRC will once again do battle in the sand next week, as they head to The Wick 338 in Southwick, Massachusetts, for round six of the AMA Pro Motocross series.

Ken Roczen 94

“Jacksonville was a tough one. The brutal conditions made for some crazy racing. I finished the first moto in second, which I was okay with. Unfortunately, I had a hard time cooling down for the second moto. I was okay until the halfway point, when I made some mistakes and went down. After that point it was just about survival and making it through. It’s definitely not the weekend we wanted, but I’ve been putting in a lot of work throughout the week. We’ll be back at it hard next weekend.”

Erik Kehoe

Team Manager

“Today was by far the toughest conditions of the year, and definitely a challenging track with the deep sand. Although I know Ken had hoped for a better result in the second moto, I think getting out of here with a sixth overall is good; we could’ve lost a lot more. Knowing the conditions were going to be so tough, he should’ve taken a lighter week so as not to overexert himself in the same conditions that we were going to race in. Next week could be similar conditions.”

Oscar Wirdeman

Mechanic (Ken Roczen)

“Today’s conditions were pretty brutal, so I think we’re lucky to be walking away with even a sixth overall. Ken rode really hard in the first moto for second and was pretty exhausted afterward, so our goal for the second race was to finish and salvage as many points as possible. Bike-wise, we tried a few settings that we found during the week in practice but ultimately switched back to our base setting for the motos. With the heat and sandy track conditions, we used more fuel than normal but didn’t have any issue.”

AMA Pro Motocross 2019 
Race Round 5  

450MX Moto 1 Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 25 Red Bull KTM KTM
2 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 22 Team Honda HRC Honda
3 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 20 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
4 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 18 Red Bull KTM KTM
5 OSBORNE Zach USA 16 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
6 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 15 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
7 TOMAC Eli 3 USA 14 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
8 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 13 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
9 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 12 TiLUBE Storm Lake Honda Honda
10 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 11 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
11 SAVATGY Joey 17 USA 10 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
12 LOCURCIO Lorenzo 44 VEN 9 None Honda
13 BLOSS Benny 60 USA 8 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
14 LAMAY Ben 907 USA 7 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Honda
15 CHISHOLM Kyle 11 USA 6 Chisholm Racing Kawasaki
16 BOWERS Tyler 69 USA 5 Bowers Racing Kawasaki
17 MILLER Henry 81 USA 4 Trigger Racing Yamaha
18 TOMITA Toshiki 718 JPN 3 Team Honda HRC Honda
19 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 2 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
20 LOPEZ Felix 577 MEX 1 None KTM
AMA Pro Motocross 2019 
Race Round 5  

450MX Moto 2 Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 TOMAC Eli 3 USA 25 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
2 OSBORNE Zach USA 22 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
3 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 20 Red Bull KTM KTM
4 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 18 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
5 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 16 Red Bull KTM KTM
6 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 15 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
7 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 14 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
8 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 13 TiLUBE Storm Lake Honda Honda
9 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 12 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
10 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 11 Team Honda HRC Honda
11 LOCURCIO Lorenzo 44 VEN 10 None Honda
12 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 9 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
13 LAMAY Ben 907 USA 8 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Honda
14 BOWERS Tyler 69 USA 7 Bowers Racing Kawasaki
15 WEEKS James 700 USA 6 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Yamaha
16 HUBERT Matthew 647 USA 5 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Husqvarna
17 SHORT John 253 USA 4 ACM Services/ Short racing Yamaha
18 SAVATGY Joey 17 USA 3 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
19 MILLER Henry 81 USA 2 Trigger Racing Yamaha
20 HARRISON Heath USA 1 Got Gear Motorsports Kawasaki
AMA Pro Motocross 2019 

450MX Rider Standings

Limited to top 30 results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor
1 TOMAC Eli 3 USA 215 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
2 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 209 Team Honda HRC Honda
3 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 184 Red Bull KTM KTM
4 OSBORNE Zach USA 182 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
5 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 182 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
6 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 166 Red Bull KTM KTM
7 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 129 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
8 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 117 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
9 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 114 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
10 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 99 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
11 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 81 TiLUBE Storm Lake Honda Honda
12 SEELY Cole 14 USA 59 Team Honda HRC Honda
13 LAMAY Ben 907 USA 52 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Honda
14 HILL Justin 46 USA 51 Autotrader/ JGR/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki
15 WATERS Todd 477 AUS 46 Todd Waters Racing Husqvarna
16 LOCURCIO Lorenzo 44 VEN 45 None Honda
17 BOWERS Tyler 69 USA 44 Bowers Racing Kawasaki
18 SAVATGY Joey 17 USA 41 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
19 MASTERPOOL Jake 146 USA 35 None Yamaha
20 MILLER Henry 81 USA 28 Trigger Racing Yamaha
21 BLOSS Benny 60 USA 27 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
22 TOMITA Toshiki 718 JPN 20 Team Honda HRC Honda
23 MERRIAM Dylan 559 USA 18 None Yamaha
24 SHORT John 253 USA 18 ACM Services/ Short racing Yamaha
25 KOGA Taiki 929 JPN 11 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Kawasaki
26 CHISHOLM Kyle 11 USA 7 Chisholm Racing Kawasaki
27 WEEKS James 700 USA 6 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Yamaha
28 COOPER Cody 121 NZL 6 Crownkiwi Enterprise Honda
29 HUBERT Matthew 647 USA 5 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Husqvarna
30 KAHRO Erki 218 EST 5 None KTM
Author

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