Roczen Fifth Overall at Glen Helen National, Craig Injured
Round two of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship took place at San Bernardino, California’s Glen Helen Raceway, where Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen scored an impressive fifth overall in only his second race back from injury, via 3-8 moto scores. Unfortunately, teammate Christian Craig was injured in the first 450MX moto, forcing him to withdraw from the race.
In moto one, Craig scored the holeshot aboard his CRF450R, with Roczen in tow. On the opening lap, Craig went down hard and was slow to remount. He was forced to withdraw from the race and sit out the remainder of the day with an injured left knee. With Craig down, Roczen moved into the lead, where he remained for over half of the 30-minute-plus-two-lap race. A small mistake allowed Eli Tomac to close the gap, but Roczen held tough, fighting hard to maintain the front spot. With 11 minutes remaining, the German was unable to fend off Tomac’s advances and relinquished the lead. During the final laps, Roczen came under fire once again, losing one more position before taking the checkered flag in third. When the gate dropped in moto two, Roczen came around the Talladega first turn in fourth and quickly moved into second, but when he heard a noise he decided to be cautious and roll to the mechanics’ area, where a rock was found wedged in his countershaft-sprocket cover. Once it was removed, Roczen returned to action in nearly dead-last position. He spent the remainder of the 14-lap race surging through the pack, putting together an impressive come-from-behind performance to finish the moto in eighth.
Ken Roczen 94
“The result is one thing, but there are always certain things that are out of your hands, which is what happened in the second moto. Still, leading for over 20 minutes in the first moto was good, especially for only our third moto back. I tried not to be like ‘Oh my god, I’m leading’; I just tried to keep a steady and calm mood. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hold Eli [Tomac] off, then Marvin [Musquin] got by me too. I tried to make a last-minute attack but got messed up by lappers, so I really just settled into third, which we were all happy with. The second moto, I got another good start but heard a noise and wasn’t ready to just send it over any of the big jumps when there might be a problem, so I went into the pit lane. It ended up that there was a rock in my front sprocket area, but better safe than sorry. After that I just went out and wanted to use this as good practice, and I kept telling myself, ‘Don’t quit.’ We made it all the way up to eighth place, which is pretty sweet. We’ve been working really hard, and it’s unfortunate because I think today we could’ve been on the podium. We have a lot of motos to go, so it’s coming. I’ve got to just keep building and I think we’ll get there.”
Christian Craig 32
“It didn’t go at all how I had hoped, obviously. I felt pretty good all day, qualifying sixth and getting the holeshot in the first moto. Halfway through the first lap, I went down pretty hard and instantly knew my knee was hurt. I’m just so bummed because this is the third year in a row that I’ve gotten hurt here and it’s frustrating. Rather than feel sorry for myself, I’m going to work on coming back stronger. Thank you to everyone for expressing concern, and huge thanks to the team for the opportunity this year!”
Erik Kehoe
“The goal for Ken is to get out there, get stronger, and get in a routine, so this weekend was awesome for him. The bad part was getting a rock stuck in the countershaft area during the second moto, but we got it handled and got him back out. He had a heck of a ride back to eighth, which put him fifth overall. We know Ken has the speed and he’s building his race fitness, so we just need to keep chipping away and building, which he’ll do. It’s a total bummer for Christian. He was riding so well and had a great pace going in the first moto, so it’s unfortunate to see him go down and get hurt.”
Oscar Wirdeman
“Today was a big improvement from last week. Ken led over half the first moto and then slowed down a bit but still finished third, which was awesome. I honestly expected him to be a little tired for the second moto, but he got another great start and got into second, then heard a noise. He came into the mechanics’ area and we got him going. He was about a half a lap down, but he rode awesome, getting back to eighth. His fastest lap was actually one of the last few laps, which was great. Considering last week, where we went from the front to the back, it was nice doing the opposite and going from the back to the front.”
Rich Simmons
“Things started out good today. We tried some things on press day but we ended up going back to our original setting. It was just a little change in the rear but it was the same fork from last week and this morning Christian was happy. He was confident going into the first moto and got a good start—holeshot again—but unfortunately went down. It’s tough, but we’re all pulling for him.”
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