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KEN ROCZEN
450 MX / 2ND
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> There was a time when many doctors, fans, and even Ken Roczen himself, thought he would never race a dirtbike professionally again. Countless surgeries and procedures were done on him to reconstruct his arm last year and it took months for him to be able to use it like normal. He persevered and put in the work and miraculously lined up for Anaheim 1 this January. His performances were special, and he even came close to winning a main event. Then all went haywire again. This time it was his other arm that got mangled and it sidelined him until Lucas Oil Pro Motocross. He lined up and struggled mightily at the opening round, but he has improved drastically since then. With a pair
of moto victories and a number of runner up nishes heading into the nal round, it is safe to say
that Roczen has far exceeded any expectations that were put upon him. He just has one more box
to check before the season is over... Get an overall win. Roczen was excruciatingly close to his rst overall victory since all of his injuries last weekend at Budds Creek fueling him to come into Ironman with a vengeance. The mud and rain would add an extra obstacle for him to overcome if he wanted that overall win, but he still managed to qualify in the morning practice sessions with the fourth fast- est lap time. He was ready to give it a shot in the mud. Roczen did not get off to the best of starts in the opening moto. He was stuck in the back half of the top ten and managed to climb to sixth place
by the end of lap one. He stayed there for another lap battling with Dylan Merriam but was eventu- ally able to clear him to take over fth on lap three. This put him behind the long-time veteran Chad Reed. Roczen was having trouble with vision but was still managing to inch closer and closer to him. Just after the halfway point, Roczen made the move and solidi ed himself in fourth. Next in line was Phil Nicoletti and Roczen would pass him two laps later thanks to a slew of mistakes from Nicoletti. This put Roczen up to third and with no one close up ahead or behind, he would casually ride his Honda HRC to the nish line. The third-place moto one performance was solid but Roczen’s competi- tive nature craved more as they lined up for moto two. Roczen got out to a much better start in the second moto. He started third behind Justin Barcia and Reed. He made quick work of Reed to move into second and then set his sights on Barcia who was the rst moto winner. Roczen showed he could hang right with him and he applied some pressure to Barcia. He even busted out the big uphill triple one lap which was a spectacular sight to see in the mud. However, it wasn’t quick enough to make
up ground on the leader. The two of them would yo-yo back and forth for most of the moto but in the nal stages, Roczen lost touch with Barcia. He was just over fteen seconds behind with two laps to go when Barcia would go down, but the gap was too large for Roczen to capitalize and make a pass. He would have to settle with second place for the moto. His 3-2 moto scores were good enough for second overall on the day and also good enough to edge Barcia for third overall in the points stand- ings by one point. Although Roczen wasn’t able to capture that elusive overall victory, his season was quite the success story.
36 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 26, 2018