Ken Roczen is the only rider to have won the SX1 Title in the FIM WSX Championship, but he will have a fight on his hands this year from Eli Tomac. He knows that, though, and he's ready to up his game to tackle that challenge. After round one, when he finished second, he also weighed in on the WSX format. Time gets tight when you have to kickstart your bike!
Opening photo courtesy James Lissimore
Racer X: All right, Ken Roczen, well, look, it probably didn't go the way you wanted to. That's really impressive to get into second and the second main and then, I don't know what happened. You went down.
Ken Roczen: Yeah, I hit this turn on the very end inside and obviously there were so many rocks. So on the take-off, I hit a like a pile of little rocks and just lost the rear and my front end was so tweaked after that and I was so pissed because I was so far back, got in the second and I'm like, ok, let's bring this one home and then I, and then I pulled that move. So, uh what a bummer. But hey, I'm, I'm honestly really glad to get out of here safe. This was an insane dirt bike track. I mean, I have never ridden anything like it just because we had the rocks added to it, you know.
Yeah, it looked like that was half the battle, right?
Dude, yeah, I was praying every lap to just get out of here. I mean, you could not let go on your focus. Very, very sketchy. But again, and then I have to say, you know, Eli [Tomac] is just a step better than me right now. But what an opportunity it is for me to build and get better. I know exactly what to work on. And I'm stoked to have a few week’s time now. Get to work and I want to get better. I need to get better. So, like I said, you know, he's just, he's better than me right now. I totally respect that.
Hey, a lot of racing, man. A lot of races…
We have to do some tweaks because we literally have three quarters of the day of not doing anything and then it's like wide open, you know what I mean? So, there is a few things that I didn't like with the, the little breaks in between. But me kicking the bike, dude, I was redlining before the board even went sideways because literally we're on the gate. Green light goes, the board goes up. I had no goggles on, my bike wasn't started, so I couldn't get it started. And then it did that lock thing, you know, when you kick it and it's like, dude, I couldn't get it down. So by the time I had my goggles and had the bike started, the board almost went sideways and my heart rate was just freaking hanging. So, I need to ask them to please like hey, put the minute board up or something so we can, like, slowly get ready. I don't have a button to start. So, I don't know. A few minor tweaks would help us a lot.
I like the SuperPole. I like the SuperFinal. It's kind of neat. Different, right?
Yeah, it is. It's just a lot cramped into a little time. It really is. It makes it very physical, no doubt about it.
It was really cool watching you and Eli go at it for a little bit there. That was fun.
Yeah, I just the second main definitely it hurt me not getting the start and then following everything I did. But yeah, like I said, he's just better than me right now, but I need to learn from it and get better. I'm excited.
