Larry Brooks on Ken Roczen's Series Lead in 2025 Supercross

Anaheim, CA Anaheim 2Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship

Really cool story with the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR HEP Suzuki team getting the red plate with Ken Roczen after his runner-up finish in Anaheim this past weekend. Larry Brooks, a guy who knows a thing or two about a team leading the points in Monster Energy AMA Supercross (he managed Jeremy McGrath, James Stewart and Chad Reed to titles) is the team manager for Roczen’s squad. We talked about that fact and more after the race.

Racer X Online: I didn’t realize it until I was walking out of the stadium. Red plate. Really cool story. Kenny doesn’t usually celebrate second places because he’s Ken Roczen, but he fist-pumped. Great ride. He’s stoked.
Larry Brooks: No, this was a valid second place. He’s super happy and I’m super happy. I didn’t expect to be in the points lead so early. I would prefer not to be in the points lead right now, but it is what it is. We’re going to fight all the way through it. Now we’re in the points lead at the third race, and now we have a whole lot of racing to do. There’s a lot more racing. We’ll see what happens, but so far so good this year.

You’re right. [Laughs] Grabbing a red plate for Jeremy [McGrath] never really worked out by the end of the year, so you’re right!
[Laughs] Hey, it worked for him, but he was a special guy. Jeremy was very special.

Who knows how it goes from here. He’s going to Glendale, which is great for him and a triple crown. We maybe didn’t talk enough about Kenny. Jett [Lawrence] Chase [Sexton], and all that stuff that goes on, and then all of us are looking at the guy on the bike with the kickstarter and not giving him enough credit. Really, really cool, man.
It’s honestly good. I was really happy to come in under the radar and no one talking about us. Usually it just builds pressure. You don’t want all that on your shoulders coming into a new season. I think Ken has been in this situation before. I’ve been in this situation before. The team has been in this situation. So I think we just take it day by day, race by race and just keep plugging away. What it is, 17? How many races to go? It’s still a lot of racing to go, and then we’re just going to plug away.

Roczen takes the red plates to Glendale Align Media

On the bike side of things, hard whoops. Rain on the track. All of that stuff tonight. It was tough so the bike must have worked well. He looked comfortable. That’s a real challenge out there for a lot of guys.
We’ve been working pretty hard with suspension, REP Suspension. We did a full week. Kenny stayed out in California this week and we worked pretty hard on it. Then we came here and kind of changed around a little bit. Mark [Johnson, from REP] and I and Ken, we all kind of got together and made a couple changes before the night show and it was really good. We’re pretty happy with the suspension right now. Ken is super pumped. It’s hard to please him with suspension, so if he’s happy, you know the bike is pretty good.

Do we think the electric start thing is going to make an appearance at some point?
I don't know. I’m having trouble. It’s definitely not as easy as I thought.

Do we blame the Canadians? [Where the electric start is made]
No, not at all. They’re doing everything they can. I’m just taking it slowly, just because I’m afraid to throw it on there and then have a failure. So, we’re in the points lead with a kickstarter. I think we’re pretty sure the thing can start. I just don’t want to take a chance. Right now I’m going to take it day by day. I’m really confident with it.

Roczen holds a three point lead over Chase Sexton in the championship heading into Glendale. Align Media

I think [Colt] Nichols is struggling a little bit, from what I can see, what I watch. What do you see? How do you fix it? How do you get him back closer to probably where he wants to be?
He needs to get starts. Period. Done.

You know how to start. I’ve watched you help riders with starts. So, what are we doing?
He’s got Wil Hahn [as a coach]. Wil can help him. I do help, I think he just needs to work on them. Practice the first five laps. He’s easing into his motos and supercross is not an ease into the moto kind of thing. You have to spring right out of the gate. He’s taking baby steps right now because normally if you take too big of a step it’s not good. So, we’ll keep working.

I think you should go to the track with him like you’ve done with so many other guys. Start yelling at home, and show him some things with starts.
It’s funny that you know that! You’ve been there before.

I have. I’ve heard about you helping riders with starts. Whatever it is, you were a great starter and your anger and your aggression and whatever you do. So I’m going to tell Wilbur to tell you to help. I’ve just volunteered you for a new job. Thank you. I don’t work hard enough… [Laughs].

Also Chiz [Kyle Chisholm], he’s too old to be flipping.
I know. He stepped over, drug the hay bales and just turned it upside-down. It was ugly. He’ll come back. Banged up a little bit.

Are you still using Chiz a little bit on the testing side of things, from what I understand? He’s still a valuable resource that way? Especially with the switch for Kenny?
Yeah. Kyle has been great right from the beginning of this when we all came over here. We use him obviously for the testing parts, and then we ease those parts into Ken. So far, so good.

With the red plate, how much percent does Chris Wheeler [from Suzuki] deserve of this red plate? How much did he really do?
[Laughs] Everyone has worked hard to get this red plate. It’s going to be a lot of work. It was a lot of work to get here, but it’s going to be even more work to finish it off. We still have a lot of racing to go.