Ken Roczen is rolling right now. On Saturday, Roczen went 1-1 in the 450 class at High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania to win his third overall in the first four rounds. The Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki-backed rider has now won seven of the first eight motos and is a mechanical away from being perfect. Although forty-one points clear of second place Eli Tomac, Roczen said his focused hasn’t changed. During the post-race press conference on Saturday, Roczen talked about another win, Ryan Dungey being out and more.
Racer X: Take us through your day.
Ken Roczen: Today was great. I think this was probably the gnarliest track we’ve ridden this year. It just got super rough. They added a lot of mulch in the track, which I don’t think it was really nice because most of the stuff just pushes to the side, especially when you water it. So it was really sketchy. Definitely a tough track, which actually made for great racing, I think. I grabbed the holeshot in the first moto, which it’s always good to have a clear track. I think a couple of people crashed behind me so I had a little gap. I just rode a smart race to take the checkers. I was super happy with that. But I never want to take on the easy shoulder. I knew I had to go at it again in the second moto. Obviously Eli [Tomac] was right behind me the whole time. I grabbed another good start to begin with. I didn’t have the best lines, I don’t think. I tried some other things and the ruts were so deep that completely messed me up and I lost a bunch of time. I think with a little bit more speed around the track, but really just a little bit smarter line choice and just kind of my momentum, I could have been faster. But there’s really no negatives about the day. Went another 1-1. I’m going back and taking the momentum into this week and especially next weekend.
As far as the track went, it looked a little soft in some of the corners in qualifying. Did it get those sharp edges in moto number two as things started to dry out?
Yeah, there were some harder spots but overall the track was actually pretty moist all day and pretty deep. I think the last three races or so have actually been more on the harder side and this one was the complete opposite.
You’re always your worst critic. What was one thing you felt you needed to work on during these two motos walking away? Wish you could have done better?
It’s really tough because there’s so many lines and ruts out there that sometimes you can be experimenting and taking a new one, like I did sometimes at the bottom of that triple right here. I did it two laps in a row and I lost a crap ton of time because it was just so deep and it cut over and messed everything up where I lost a lot of time. I actually didn’t do that triple going into that second rut up there. I didn’t do it all day, and I know that I lost time right there. The track was that tricky and had that many ruts that most of the time I stuck to the same lines, and they weren’t the greatest. But I tried to go fast on them. Obviously it was enough but I think I could have been smarter with line choices.
Has your mindset changed now with Ryan out?
Not at all, actually. I know a lot of people were talking about this. It’s never easy and I think the worst thing possible you can do is think it’s going to be easy. That’s why I needed another 1-1 just because I don’t want to ever let loose. I think that’s the worst thing you could possibly do and it’ll bite you. Obviously Eli’s going good right now too but there’s absolutely no mindset change.
Were you kind of as surprised as everyone else when you did hear about Ryan’s injury?
I was. I don’t know how bad his injury is, so there is a lot of speculation always. But he did finish the race pretty solid and all of a sudden there was something wrong. If it’s something bad and you have to stop then you have to do that. I don’t know anything about his injury. I had an injury last year and it was super painful and it kind of freaked me out a little bit because it was a fracture in my back. It’s still there, but I’m still racing. You have to give the guy credit. He’s pretty much done every single race since like ten years ago or something like that. So obviously you never want to see anybody get hurt but it is what it is. I hope he heals up quick. Especially in the neck area or back area, it’s usually really bad. But I have enough things on my plate that I need to focus on. I obviously haven’t really given a lot of thought about it either.
It’s the 40th anniversary of this race. How meaningful is it for you to be number one today on such a historic day?
It’s great. Obviously it’s 40th anniversary so that’s a pretty big number. Coming away with a 1-1, I can’t complain at all about today. Obviously the most important is to be healthy, that all of us are healthy. It seems like it was good racing today.
On the broadcast I believe that you mentioned over this break you’ve kind of amped up your training, taking it to another level. Can you kind of go into depth on what you’re doing different now?
No, I can’t really go into depth with that. Everybody’s trying to get better and you can see the other guys are stepping it up, too. But I think it’s more just doing the right things and mentally getting stronger. Obviously I haven’t had too big of gaps today but that doesn’t really matter. A win is a win for me. We’ve been doing everything right right now. I hope it keeps going obviously. We’ve been getting great starts and we’ve just been riding smart, so that’s all we need.
You’re 41 up through four rounds how do you maintain the focus and not get lost in, “Man, I have this huge lead already?”
I didn’t even know. Even coming into the race, I was curious but I told myself I’m just not going to check because nothing is changed to mentally, and I don’t want anything to change. So now you told me and you kind of messed it up! [Laughs] It’s great, but a lot of things can happen. So I’m just going to keep riding and doing what I’m doing right now. We’re going out for moto wins and overalls especially and the big picture obviously is the championship. I know there’s a lot of people that say it’s already a done deal and this and that, and I absolutely hate it honestly when people say that, but I can’t really control what other people say. Next week going to go out and put in all the effort I have.
I heard you were giving out free samples today. Post-race testing?
We were just testing pee today. We did blood last night. We’ve done it so many times now. Obviously they don’t know. They’re like, “Is this your first test or whatever?” I’ve probably done 38 of them! Obviously it’s tough in an outdoor because we drain our bodies so much. Obviously we got tested yesterday so I kind of just knew that we were going to get tested today again. Before the moto I kind of had to go pee. I didn’t go because I’m like, every time you come back you’re dehydrated you just drink a lot of water and it just doesn’t help. But it actually happened pretty quick today. So all good. I’m grabbing some food and going home.
In that second moto I think at one point Eli dropped it from seven to four. Did you know where he was? Did you kind of ramp it back up? By the end it was around 11 seconds.
I saw obviously he was going good. That’s what I mean when I say I should have done a few things different. I was going to go for that triple all the time too, but the tough part is that the ruts are so close to the landing and they’re so big that if you over-jump it by just a bit you can possibly crash. As long as he’s not really right on me where I don’t have to do it I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing. There’s certain spots, especially in the beginning of the race, I made a couple of big mistakes. I took a different line to try up by the rollers that absolutely didn’t work out and it cost me a lot too. But towards the end I was just trying to get away because you never want the gap to get too close. Just tried to somewhat put the hammer down.