Roczen Executes in Crunch Time at Daytona

The Suzuki rider has always been known for his early-race pace, when he seems to slice through the field so easily it almost looks as if he has nitrous on his bike, giving him an easy speed advantage over others. But this time around, there were a few laps in the middle of the main event that really determined the outcome of the race. In a matter of about three laps, Roczen went from fourth to first, stamping himself into the history books as a first-time Daytona winner just as Floridian RJ Hampshire had in the 250SX main event.

Roczen was extremely fast in the section after the first tunnel jump followed by the sand section. The Suzuki rider had a great line through the sand and used his speed to triple up onto the outside of the following elevated turn, rail the outside berm of the long turn, and then double off that into the next section. Then, he would avoid the main inside rut and triple out of the 180-degree left that followed.

Roczen was one of a handful of riders taking the triple to the outside line in the elevated turn—Levi Kitchen was blasting the same line in his heat race and early in the 250SX main event until his brutal crash ended his night early. And Roczen told Steve Matthes and Jason Thomas on PulpMX Show #617 on Monday night that he picked up the line from Kitchen after his younger training partner’s heat race. Most riders were going inside-inside in the two-back-to-back 180-degree turns, which got chewed up due to so much traffic. Plus, the very outside line was getting tough to execute perfectly each and every lap, as Cooper Webb found out late in the race.

Still, Roczen used that line and was able to get by Webb, Jason Anderson, and Aaron Plessinger and take over the lead. But Webb got into second. Would we see another race with Webb running down Roczen late? Everyone was watching. But Roczen kept nailing his lines, Webb bobbled some, and the #94 lit up the finish line fire for the first time at Daytona International Speedway.

“I just really kept my focus and felt really good the whole main event, and that was really important to pull it off," Roczen said on the line.

Webb gave Roczen full props in the post-race press conference.

“He was just on it, right?” Webb said on Roczen. “He was just riding solid laps. It pushed me to try to ride a little harder and I made some mistakes and allowed that gap to get there, and, yeah, he won straight up.”

Watch Roczen hitting the outside line starting at the 2:22 mark in the video highlights below.

Although it did not come down to a close battle between him and Webb, Roczen told Matthes he was “ready to go to war” for the race win. Webb came up short in second, claiming P2 for the fifth time in a Daytona 450SX main event.

From the tunnel jump into the sand through the turn that led down the homestretch of the NASCAR speedway, Roczen was near perfect. Roczen had an average of 5.5 and only two podiums in his ten 450SX main event starts at Daytona International Speedway entering the weekend, but this time, he got the job done. Riding around and high-fiving all of the front-row fans, you could tell it was a big win for him and big in terms of the championship.

This year was the year Roczen finally got to take home that rare Daytona SX trophy. Is this the year he finally takes home the 450SX #1 trophy too?

For more on Roczen’s night, watch his segment from Monday night’s PulpMX Show #617 below.