Ken Roczen is no stranger to success at Anaheim 1. With four A1 wins to his credit, Roczen is one of the best at starting the season strong. The 2025 opener was more of the same. Despite a dismal 14th place qualifying effort, the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki rider crossed the finish in second for his seventh opening round 450SX podium of his career.
When asked about his struggles in qualifying, Ken told Steve Matthes: “I came off and I asked Billy [Hartle, mechanic] ‘What did I end up?’ He’s like, ‘13th’ and I’m like, ‘You got to be f***ing kidding me.’ I was calm, I’m like, ‘I know how to race, I’ll be fine.’”
Roczen had a shot at the win after a stall by Chase Sexton but explained after the race, “I was close, but he gapped me right away and I’m like okay, I got a little gap to the back, let’s just stay here [and] click off some laps.”
On the podium Kenny commented about how happy he was with his runner-up finish. When asked about his comments he said, “I’ve won Anaheim 1 quite a bit and it kind of leads nowhere. I was just stoked being on the podium because the last couple weeks I haven’t ridden much. It’s been a bit rough because my whole family, we all got sick as a dog.”
He added: "So, it was more so just like a kind of a relief and it was just these games that I played in my head before the main event where I said, You know what, a second place would be kind of like perfect like not winning because that never has never led to a championship for me or anything, but a second would be just kind of sweet.”
Roczen came into the season a bit under the radar but proved he is a threat to win once again in 2025.
