The Houston round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross over the weekend marked the first Triple Crown event of the season, and as Triple Crowns usually do it brought the excitement. Maybe even more so this year, as the field remains super close four rounds into this 450SX season.
Heading into the final race of the night Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb were tied with six points and Hunter Lawrence sat two points back with eight. The third 450 race was absolutely insane, with every pass made swinging the overall results in a different direction. The race started with Webb bumping into RJ Hampshire and not being able to jump the finish line jump, a scary moment. Webb and Roczen wold battle throughout the race, but Roczen got held up by his Suzuki teammate Jason Anderson at one point, and he could not quite get back to Webb in time to make one last pass and get the overall. In the end, he nearly won, but the math put him in third for the night, behind Webb and Hunter Lawrence.
“I’m a little bit bummed, because when you start off the first main with a low score like a first place or whatever, you have high hopes. And the other two mains I didn’t get the start, I had to work my way up there. Especially in the last one, so I knew the situation between me and Hunter and Cooper [Webb]… So, I tried all the way till the end, but the difference was I had to get [Justin] Cooper to win and then I got third."
Roczen was referring to the second race, where he started poorly and could only make his way back to fifth, with JCoop holding him off until the checkers. That 1-5 situation made the math tough, and ultimately Roczen ended up third overall.
"I can never be mad about a podium, but it is a little bittersweet because it was right there.”
Watching Roczen try to get Webb for a late-race pass for the win probably reminds fans of their huge battles over the years, and most of them went to Webb. Roczen says they're no longer "rivals" in that sense anymore, as everyone has gotten older and more mature. Roczen, right alongside Webb, Eli Tomac and Jason Anderson, who all happen to be in the top six in points this year, are all over the age of 30. Years ago the battles were a little more personal, especially between Roczen and Webb. However, Roczen commented that as years have gone by, mutual respect has grown.
“It's honestly been fun racing, I don’t want to say the elderly’s necessarily, but it's been fun racing the dudes that are older than some of the youngin’s. We’ve done it for so long and some of us get along better now.”
These “elderly” riders are like a fine wine, and their battles keep getting better with age.
After the race, Steve Matthes was able to talk further with Ken to hear about these battles, what was going on in his head during the race and his desire to still be in the fight at the end of the series.
Racer X: All right. Ken Roczen, a good night, but a guy like you, you had the overall. And dude, that third main was nuts. Like Eli went first to third and then third to first. You went up win the overall. You dropped back. It was a lot going on.
Ken Roczen: First off, the scary part was the first lap over the finish line jump.
Oh, I didn't notice.
Okay I think Cooper [Webb] ran into somebody, I don't know if it was RJ [Hampshire] or Justin Cooper. He shot off to the left and I was on the left and we jumped the finish line. He didn't though, and dude, I mean, if he would have, it was almost bad, like, really bad. So, then I was fine. I'm like, I knew I had to be in front of Cooper since we were tied, and I had to be at least just right behind Hunter. Yeah. So, I'm like, okay, all good. I can make my way up front. And then I couldn't get by Jason [Anderson], it kind of screwed me up. And I ended up messing up a rhythm. I would have to rewatch it, but when you mess up the rhythm, there was no second option anywhere, you were so out of sync.
Lose a ton of time.
Yeah. So, then I dropped two positions and then got Chase [Sexton] back because he got stuffed or whatever. And then I was right behind Cooper, and I just couldn't make the pass. I tried all the way to the end last couple laps again. And it was it's a tough pill to swallow just because it could have been my night with, you know, if things would have been different. But that's racing. Like I can't be too bummed. But it would have been such a big points swing. That's what makes me mad a little bit. But I'm only 12 behind still, and I'm just gonna keep calm and hopefully it'll pay off by the last race.
Looks like Jason did his thing. Didn't know it was you. And then when you came up on him again, he was like, “Go” [waved Kenny by].
I'm not blaming. It just was a shitty situation, you know what I mean? Like, we have a really good relationship and stuff.
And he's aggressive. So, he's doing that to a lot of people. And it's just the way he kind of rides. It's not great, but it is what makes him, right.
And honestly, like a track man, other riders thought it was sketchy too. It was so high speed. Right. And then jumping off those bananas, like, I don't think any of us like.
Why do we have these bananas this year? What is going on with bananas?
I mean, they're fine, but not if you land in a five-footer, you have to over jump those to get a pop. And if you land perfect, you kind of like hammer through it and then you almost like skim the top sometimes. So, it's just very sketchy. And then that tabletop after the mechanics area, you would go single over the tabletop, but this tabletop in the back was so steep, and from people landing it was impossible to land on the downside. So, you're literally slamming into the straightaway, hitting the triple, and then you can shoot right into the Tuff Blox. So, it was just very high speed. And then the ruts, they would start in the beginning of the turn, and they would go all the way to the takeoff. So, if you're right behind somebody like in main two, when I was behind Justin Cooper, I didn't know where I was taking off. So, you get off balance and everything, you know. So, it was just tough. I'm glad to get out safe.
It looked to me like when you were, before the incident with Jason, you were trying everything. Outside after finish, inside after finish, right side of the whoops, left side of the whoops. You were trying to find somewhere to go.
This wasn't the easiest track to pass on, you know, by any means. And then everybody cut down sooner and sooner and sooner. So, once I started, I was more comfortable on the left side of the whoops. But then I'd go into that turn, and the angle was just I mean, it was yeah, it was tough. But dirt bikes are tough, you know, it is what it is. And I'm just glad to be safe and yeah. It is what it is. Third place, podium though.
Yeah, at the end of the night you rode really well. But once this stuff happened to you, you lost your rhythm and it was like, hard to get it back. That's what I felt like watching it.
Yeah, it was. And I tried again in the end, but Cooper is hard to pass anyway. And he goes fast, especially in the end. So, it just wasn't enough. Unfortunate. But podium, you know, a year ago, a couple of years ago, I was over the moon, over the podium. So, I want to keep my emotions in check.
It's also a crazy series. Eli started off so good, but now we got Hunter so close to winning, you're close to winning. We got a new winner tonight, Coop. And like Chase can win at any time. So, for us watching it, dude I don't know man, it's crazy.
There's no certain thing you can say on who's gonna win or who's doing what. It's just, it's all over the place. But that's what makes it fun, right? And you know what's crazy, too? That if you think about it, the lap times are rather short. And we do three 16 lap mains. That would have been almost one main back in the day. You know how crazy that it's just wild to think about the Triple Crown nights are tough like and especially, I don't know if it was just me, but I feel like the turnaround times were quicker now than it used to be. I mean, I was after the podium, I was here for ten minutes, and I look at the thing and I'm like, “You gotta be kidding me. Like, we have to go down right now?”
Didn't we have a track work intermission at any point? Like what happened to that? I don't know.
These nights are tough. I don't think from a racer standpoint, anybody loves these types of events. But then again, the fans love it and they're part of it, right. Like you got to deal with them.
