Although the warm, humid weather and rough, sandy track meant that Southwick, Massachusetts’ The Wick 338 National was anything but easy, what likely made things even more difficult for Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen were the absolutely brutal conditions of the previous week’s Florida National in Jacksonville. So challenging was that event that it apparently reignited the endurance issues that had plagued the German for much of the AMA Supercross series, but that he had largely put behind him for AMA Pro Motocross, in which he had posted a pair of overall victories prior to this, the sixth round. Roczen once again showed impressive speed in the early going of both motos at Southwick, setting quick lap times and making strong passes, only for his physical limitations to then thwart his progress and see him overtaken by several competitors. In the end, Roczen’s 12-10 scores held him to just ninth overall, but he and his team are determined to continue working for solutions in an effort to secure a strong second half of the outdoors season.

NOTES

  • In the combined times from the two morning practice sessions, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen ended up third-quickest, with a 2’08.332” lap in the second session.
  • Coming on the heels of the Florida National, Southwick was the second sand race in a row, and Team Honda HRC ran a similar setup on Roczen’s CRF450R. “This track has been becoming less sandy over the years, but we still put on sand tires and made minor suspension adjustments, just to make the bike a little more stable,” explained Roczen’s mechanic Oscar Wirdeman.
  • Although he was disappointed with his results, Roczen posted the fastest time of any rider in the second moto, his 2’18.465” coming on lap three. He had the third-best lap time of moto one.
  • Even with Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely on the sidelines recovering from his June 18 shoulder surgery, his mechanic Jordan Troxell made the trip to New England, where he lent a hand to Roczen’s mechanic Oscar Wirdeman.
  • Seely’s first couple of days after surgery were difficult, as the operation was a little more extensive than predicted, but Troxell reported that his rider is up and around now. “He actually went up to the Mammoth Motocross,” Troxell added. “He had a couple of friends who were racing, so he decided to go up and check it out.”
  • GEICO Honda was hurt by mediocre starts at Southwick, but RJ Hampshire did a good job of recovering on the challenging circuit, notching 4-4 moto finishes for fourth overall in the 250 class. Hunter Lawrence had to settle for 11thoverall, whereas Chase Sexton had to sit out the second moto after finishing 13thin moto one, evidently still suffering the heat-related effects of the Florida National, where he also missed moto two after winning the first race.
  • Roczen slipped a spot to third in the points standings, two behind second place.
  • Up next for Team Honda HRC is next week’s RedBud National in Buchannan, Michigan, which traditionally hosts its AMA Professional Motocross event on Independence Day Weekend.

Ken Roczen 94

“I was coming into Southwick fairly excited, though struggling a little bit recovering from last weekend’s race. Still, I came in with full motivation and a new fork setting that unfortunately didn’t work out very well for me in the first moto. On top of that, I could’ve recovered a little better from the weekend before, but I knew that I went out there and gave my best. For sure it wasn’t what we were looking for, but we’re going to continue working hard on the bike and I’m going to continue working on myself to get back in top shape and get back to winning races. For now I have to take it as it is, but I’m going to keep my head up and hope for a much, much better result from RedBud. I’m going to do everything I can throughout the week to prepare myself and get back to the very top. Other than that, there’s not much to say about my result besides we’re not very happy with it and are looking to turn it around next weekend.”

Erik Kehoe

Team Manager

“It was a tough day, even if Kenny showed speed early on in both motos and his arms didn’t get tight in the second moto. Still, he was frustrated to not have the stamina to keep that pace up. For us, we’ve got to learn something from this weekend so that we’re prepared for next week; he looks to be having similar problems to what he struggled with in supercross, so we’ll get with his training team and figure out the next steps. The good thing is that the bike felt good to him this weekend, so Oscar and the guys did a good job with that.”

Oscar Wirdeman

Mechanic (Ken Roczen)

“The day started off good with Ken qualifying third-fastest. Unfortunately, I think he’s still feeling the effects of last week’s hot race in Jacksonville. He took it very easy this whole week, but coming here he was still tired. In the first moto he was up there going fast. Then, 10-15 minutes in he ran out of steam and basically just made sure he didn’t throw himself on the ground. He ran great in the beginning of the second moto because even though he got a mediocre start, he was closing in on the leaders. After that, it was the same as in the first race. Physically, he’s been struggling this whole year. The heat last weekend made it flare up again, so we’ll just try to get him some good rest and come back better for the next one.”

AMA Pro Motocross 2019 
Race Round 6  

450MX Moto 1 Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 25 Red Bull KTM KTM
2 TOMAC Eli 3 USA 22 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
3 OSBORNE Zach USA 20 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
4 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 18 Red Bull KTM KTM
5 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 16 Autotrader/ JGR/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki
6 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 15 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
7 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 14 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
8 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 13 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
9 BLOSS Benny 60 USA 12 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
10 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 11 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
11 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 10 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
12 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 9 Team Honda HRC Honda
13 MILLER Henry 81 USA 8 Trigger Racing Yamaha
14 WEEKS James 700 USA 7 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Yamaha
15 SHORT John 253 USA 6 ACM Services/ Short racing Yamaha
16 DOWD Ryan 776 USA 5 Kenny G’s Performance Tuning KTM
17 SCHOCK Coty 319 USA 4 None KTM
18 PLESSINGER Aaron 7 USA 3 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
19 BOWERS Tyler 69 USA 2 Bowers Racing Kawasaki
20 TOMITA Toshiki 718 JPN 1 Team Honda HRC Honda
AMA Pro Motocross 2019 
Race Round 6  

450MX Moto 2 Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 OSBORNE Zach USA 25 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
2 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 22 Red Bull KTM KTM
3 TOMAC Eli 3 USA 20 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
4 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 18 Red Bull KTM KTM
5 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 16 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
6 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 15 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
7 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 14 Autotrader/ JGR/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki
8 SAVATGY Joey 17 USA 13 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
9 SHORT John 253 USA 12 ACM Services/ Short racing Yamaha
10 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 11 Team Honda HRC Honda
11 LOCURCIO Lorenzo 44 VEN 10 None Honda
12 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 9 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
13 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 8 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
14 SCHOCK Coty 319 USA 7 None KTM
15 LANE Tristan 711 USA 6 None KTM
16 PLESSINGER Aaron 7 USA 5 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
17 LAMAY Ben 907 USA 4 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Honda
18 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 3 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
19 CANNING Chris 376 USA 2 Manchester Honda KTM KTM
20 KOGA Taiki 929 JPN 1 TPJ.com/Fly Racing 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 257 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
2 MUSQUIN Marvin 25 FRA 231 Red Bull KTM KTM
3 ROCZEN Ken 94 GER 229 Team Honda HRC Honda
4 OSBORNE Zach USA 227 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
5 ANDERSON Jason 21 USA 212 Rockstar Husqvarna Husqvarna
6 WEBB Cooper 2 USA 202 Red Bull KTM KTM
7 BARCIA Justin 51 USA 159 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
8 FERRIS Dean 111 AUS 136 CDR Yamaha Yamaha
9 BAGGETT Blake 4 USA 131 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
10 BOGLE Justin 19 USA 117 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
11 NOREN Fredrik 40 SWE 111 Autotrader/ JGR/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki
12 SEELY Cole 14 USA 59 Team Honda HRC Honda
13 LAMAY Ben 907 USA 56 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Honda
14 LOCURCIO Lorenzo 44 VEN 55 None Honda
15 SAVATGY Joey 17 USA 54 Monster Energy Kawasaki Kawasaki
16 HILL Justin 46 USA 51 Autotrader/ JGR/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing Suzuki
17 WATERS Todd 477 AUS 46 Todd Waters Racing Husqvarna
18 BOWERS Tyler 69 USA 46 Bowers Racing Kawasaki
19 BLOSS Benny 60 USA 39 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS KTM
20 SHORT John 253 USA 36 ACM Services/ Short racing Yamaha
21 MILLER Henry 81 USA 36 Trigger Racing Yamaha
22 MASTERPOOL Jake 146 USA 35 None Yamaha
23 TOMITA Toshiki 718 JPN 21 Team Honda HRC Honda
24 MERRIAM Dylan 559 USA 18 None Yamaha
25 WEEKS James 700 USA 13 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Yamaha
26 KOGA Taiki 929 JPN 12 TPJ.com/Fly Racing Kawasaki
27 SCHOCK Coty 319 USA 11 None KTM
28 PLESSINGER Aaron 7 USA 8 Monster Energy/ Knick/ Factory Yamaha Team Yamaha
29 CHISHOLM Kyle 11 USA 7 Chisholm Racing Kawasaki
30 LANE Tristan 711 USA 6 None KTM
Author

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