It has been a while since we have seen a good mud race in Monster Energy Supercross, but East Rutherford delivered! Races like these are always nerve wracking because one slip up in the mud and the championship can completely change directions. Eli Tomac proved why he runs the red plate and Ken Roczen showed why he is a threat to the podium and race wins, with their strong rides. They met up in the post-race press conference, along with race winner Justin Barcia, to talk about their night.
The delay let’s talk about that. What did you do during the delay. Did you guys bro down?
Roczen: Yeah, I broed down a bit with Chase [Sexton] and Colt [Nichols] and my teammates. We were about to pop some vodka Red Bulls but we decided to lay off a little bit, just in case we decided to go racing! [laughs] Good thing we did.
Justin Barcia: I was in the motorhome, kid went to sleep, my brother was here, my wife. I called my trainer and said “Yo, what should I eat?” And he said just eat whatever you want. So, I just ate, ate, ate, drank some drinks, had a good time. I was obviously juiced up for this. My old mechanic Sean used to tell me I’m a duck, I love water. Snikey [old mechanic] would always say “Mud’s your bud.” I was back to the New York roots. Everyone was like, they’re gonna cancel, they gotta keep this going! And I’m like, whatever, I’m gonna keep eating and get ready to race.
Eli Tomac: I ate a little bit. Yeah, just tried to chit chat and stay awake. You’re just wondering what’s gonna happen.
Eli did you say you had to drink a cup of coffee?
Tomac: I did
Barcia: Me too. We were coffee, espressos, it was like back in the Paris days.
Tomac: That’s right!
Barcia: We were having a good time.
So how do you deal with the track? It rained, no sight lap, you don’t know what the bike is going to do. How do you go about it?
Roczen: You honestly just hold on for dear life and go for it. There’s no parade lap, no nothing. But I just try to stay relaxed through this whole thing, because it’s all out of your control. You’ve gotta stay ready. I want to make sure I enjoy this because anything can happen, and you’ve just got to roll with it. I got a good start, Chase did, too, and Justin did, too. You kind of, what made this tricky is that it was so hard packed underneath that the bike would just hook up like crazy. Definitely took some getting used to, but I thought it was super rideable at the beginning compared to where it was at the end. The ruts got deeper, it was a lot sloppier, plywood, all of that.
Tomac: I just think about trying to get through those first couple of straightaways with clean vision. That’s a huge part of the race, getting through the first turn and first rhythm lane without destroying your vision. That’s a huge part of my mindset in these races.
Eli Tomac | Second Overall
Eli, do you want to set the record straight on your knee so we don’t have to ask about it anymore?
Eli Tomac: Yes. I just basically gave it a big charley horse. I didn’t twist it, nothing is messed up that way. Just a nasty hit against my bar. Just a big charley horse and the more I moved it and warmed it up the better. I will say maybe that slower pace around the track [due to the mud] probably helped it, but overall, I barely felt it during that one.
Eli, it looked like you started to find your groove halfway. What changed for you?
I don’t know, I found a good flow, and I actually stopped jumping the finish line for a while and then went back to jumping it. I think I was making a lot of time there, I’m not sure when Kenny stopped jumping it. We just yo-yoed a lot in these conditions. Overall, it was solid, I was able to manage the clutch well and do my thing.
Eli, with the way this day started with the crash, and then the weather conditions, this night could have turned completely different for you in this championship. How does this podium feel considering what could have happened?
It feels good, I didn’t really know what was going to happen. For the first 30 min my knee was pretty stiff, but the more I rode the better it got. It's just one of those things, you can’t get ahead of yourself, just take it weekend by weekend. The crash itself, was the first lap of that practice and I was just doubling down the lane and it tried to take me out. I guess you just never know.
Ken Roczen | Third Overall
Kenny, New York City is an iconic city, and you got to light the Empire State Building. How cool was that?
Ken Roczen: It was super cool. Especially just for the cause, being there for St. Jude. We did a bunch of media stuff on Thursday and Friday as well. Then flipping that switch and turning the lights on for the Empire State Building, I told a bunch of people, I would have never thought, when I was little, that my bike would be on the top of the Empire State Building. So, it was rad.
Kenny, can you talk about that case of the finish line jump?
I cased the jump so bad, I think the jump was actually jumping me! I thought it was going to blow both of my hands off the bars. I held on for dear life, so that was good, but that did mess up my goggles really bad. All of the sweat from the inside of goggles just came to the front of my goggles. I had to take my goggles off, and as soon as I did, too, Dean Wilson he crashed right in front of me, and he laid the bike over, wide open, and roosted me so bad. I had a huge dirt clod on my eye the whole time. That was frustrating. Yeah, that case was brutal, not gonna lie.
Ken, you said when you won in Indy you weren’t just going to expect podiums to start happening. I know tonight’s track conditions were different, but you do have back-to-back podiums. Do you feel like your expectations have changed since then?
Umm, podiums that’s my goal every time we go, and I know that was a thin streak for a bit, but it does seem like in the second half we just kept tinkering with the bike. Once you have a base setting you can make a change and figure out if it’s better or not, and then you know where you want to go. That helped out a lot, we made a change coming into this weekend which I really liked. We were just solid tonight, I have to give it up to the team. I never even adjusted my clutch or anything like that. The bike held strong. I did start to ride worse just because I crashed and buried my bike in the mud. It was like suction cupped to the ground. I was trying to hold onto my clutch and my throttle while I picked it up. I almost couldn’t get the bike up, but I wanted to hold onto the clutch because… you know what it’s like out there… not having electric start. [laughs] Hey, we made it happen and that’s all that matters!
Kenny, you did mention that your eye is red from having to throw your goggles. Was there ever a moment with the lead that you had that you considered grabbing another pair?
No, that was actually not on my mind at all. I didn’t really know, we had no pit boards. I saw towards the end my mechanic signaled that I had a huge gap, but I was just trying to make it through. And honestly it wasn’t me at all it was the other riders making it really tough. We all went to the inside and only had a couple of rut that everybody was using, so it's not like I could go completely out of the way, I just tried the best I could to close my eyes. After Dean crashed and I get hit in the eye (with mud) it took me two laps, I even took my muddy hand and tried to wipe my eye. I kind of fell apart at the end I was just rolling around and did not want to case anymore jumps. But it's just part of the game and with conditions like that it can just ruin it. Still stoked to be on the podium though.
Ken, you’re on a new team, it seems like a fun vibe, tell us what the atmosphere is like?
Absolutely I am truly loving it. From when I first joined the team until now, I just love how everyone pulls on the same string. And the environment, every weekend it doesn’t feel like I have to be here or any weirdness going on. We all work together and make bike changes and I have to give it up to Matt our suspension guy. With the little amount of time, we have in between the races he’s done a really good job to set the bike up, we keep making steps forward. The changes that we made coming into this weekend was super good. We keep improving. I wish I would have had more time at the beginning of the season to be here a little earlier. But for what it's worth we keep getting on the podium at this later stage. Also, my teammates are super rad, it's a super fun environment and everyone works together too. It's a true team.
