Roczen wins race one at Indy Supercross triple crown

Ken Roczen took a race win on his way to fifth overall at the Indy Supercross triple crown event at the weekend, but a crash in race two cost him a shot at the overall victory.

 

Roczen was seventh across the holeshot line in race one but on lap four he blitzed the whoops on his RM-Z450 to take the race lead. From there he pulled out an 8-second lead to take the win.

 

Looking to again fight at the front of race two, a small mistake on the opening lap resulted in a midair collision. He remounted and recovered to a top-10 finish. However, it seriously dented his hopes the win overall on the night.

 

Showing just how much pace he had, Roczen put in another strong performance in race three to finish on the podium in third, earning him fifth overall. The result demonstrated the potential he had for the overall win, leaving him to rue the crash in race two.

He said, "Here at Indianapolis, the track, it breaks down so much, and the triple crown here is really intense. We had such an amazing day. I felt pretty comfortable all day. The first race was really kind of like a dream ride again. I just felt connected, made some passes happen, and was able to take that one home. I really enjoyed that. You know, sometimes you need those rides.

 

"And then, everything went south in the second race; I made a mistake that was just unfortunate with bad timing. Right after the start I cross rutted and high sided off the tabletop, and then I couldn't clear it. As I was bouncing up, another rider was right behind me and just rode basically under my bike and put me in a backflip. He got scraped up pretty good and we both went down pretty hard. So, not the ideal situation. But, once I checked that everything was good, I just went to work and, for the situation, I felt pretty fast and smooth out there, so we just did damage control, but it was an opportunity missed.

 

"In the last race, it was not the greatest start, and ended up bringing it home at third. So, my riding was really good, we’re definitely taking the positive of that. It'll be nice going into an off weekend and then we’ll come back strong."