The Red Bull KTM factory pilot talks about his race at round three of the 2013 Supercross season.
Red Bull: Take us through your night.
Ken Roczen: It started off with me forgetting my chest protector in the morning. I borrowed one, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Then in practice I took a really big digger and hurt my ankle and wrist a little bit. My wrist is worse than I thought right now, actually. For the race it didn’t really bother me, but now it’s starting to swell up a bit. It was the first main where I got a good start, and I really enjoyed the racing. Everyone raced clean, and Eli [Tomac] is just super strong right now. He’s one of the fastest out there. But we’re working and getting closer, we’re right there. All I can do is pick it up a little bit. I’ll pick it up here and there, and we’ll go to Oakland next week and see what we can do. We’re solid right now with another second place, and it’s still early in the championship. Anything can happen and I’m really positive about it.
It looked like you checked up a little bit when Tomac got by you. What happened?
I was jumping to the inside there, and it was super slippery and I went a little bit too wide and had to go around some Tuff Blocks. He went outside and carried a lot more momentum and stuffed me a little bit, but it was all good. It took me a while to get by Cole [Seely]. I tried to make the pass happen, but we were basically going the same speed. It was hard to pass tonight, and I wasn’t feeling it tonight with the track. The dirt was super hard, and it wasn’t the nicest track, but it was the same for everyone and in the end, I enjoyed the race. I’m glad that we’re all healthy and still on our feet.
Did the pain from your crash in practice affect you at all, or were you running on adrenaline during the main?
The crash was gnarly! I was really high up in the air, and I landed on my feet and the dirt was so hard. I really thought it was going to end up worse than it did, and I think for how it happened and how big of a crash it was, this was the best that could have happened, injury-wise. But it didn’t affect my racing. It’s the way it is, and another second place is all good.
You beat Tomac in the heat race, and you’ve had competitive lap times in qualifying. What’s it going to take to beat him in a main?
He’s really aggressive, it’s hard. We’re all trying our best. Maybe one day it’s just going to click. But it’s not easy, and like I said, we’re all riding our best and at a good pace. It’s such a small bit of speed you need. It’s hard to say; all you need is a good start and to ride focused and push as hard as you can for the whole race.