Roczen: “As we got deeper into the night it became a pain battle”

In another round of rider-not-telling-everyone-about-an-injury at first, Ken Roczen rode press day at the Birmingham round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross but did not mention in interviews that he had crashed during the off-week and suffered a separated AC joint in his shoulder. It eventually became clear he was not quite a 100 percent, especially when he pulled off late in the final qualifying session of the day. That’s when the team revealed the situation. Roczen ended up toughing out a solid top-five in the Triple Crown format.

“It was a tough weekend for us here in Birmingham,” said Roczen in today’s Suzuki press release. “I had a practice crash a week ago and separated my AC joint a little bit. We rode press day to see how it felt, and it was pretty decent, but throughout the day on Saturday if definitely got worse. As we got deeper into the night it became a pain battle. But we made it through, ended up fifth on the night, and only lost one point in the championship. All things considered, we had a pretty good night and fought really hard. The Triple Crowns are now over and we’re back to regular races, and we still have a few rounds to go. I’m going to do my best to heal everything up during the week and try to just show up next weekend better than this weekend.”

Roczen’s gritty performance keeps him third in the 450 standings, and he actually only yielded one point to series leader Cooper Webb, who finished fourth. Had Roczen not raced, he might have relinquished third in the standings.

Roczen’s teammate Colt Nichols spoke about his night where he finished 18th.

“The birthday weekend wasn’t really the one I wanted, but that’s how it goes sometimes,” Nichols commented. “In the first race I just started way back. In the second race I started way back again and then crashed. It was just a tough night. I tried some settings to get a little more comfortable all day and I went the wrong direction on some; that was my bad. I just need to put myself in a better position; if I do that, I’ll be okay, I just haven’t done that this year and it’s been frustrating. But we’ll try again next weekend in Seattle.”

Kyle Chisholm rounded out the Suzuki’s efforts in Alabama with 16th.

“I’m pretty happy with my riding,” Chisholm said. “I always want to do better, but I went 14-14 in the first two races, and I was right there. I could see the 10th, 11th, and 12th just up in front of me, so we were kind of in the battle more,” reported Chisholm. “My bike was really good; I made just a few little clicker and sag changes throughout the day, so it’s been nice to just keep the bike mostly the same and just be able to keep riding and focus on myself. The team did a great job, and it was nice having the week off leading up to this; I worked on some stuff, and I think it paid off a little bit, but I still want more so we’ll give it a go in Seattle.”

“It was a tough weekend. The track was really good, one of the better tracks we’ve had this year, but Ken Roczen had an injury coming in and it was a bit of struggle,” said Larry Brooks, Twisted Tea/H.E.P. Motorsports/Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance Team Manager. “We weren’t even sure that Ken was going to race at the beginning of the week. So for him to race, and finish fifth overall – these Triple Crowns are quite hectic – it’s like a win to us right now. So, he lost a couple points, one point on the rider in the lead right now, but he’s still in the title hunt, and that’s really good. Kyle Chisholm finished 16th overall and Colt Nichols finished 18th overall, so we had three Suzukis in the top 20. It’s not a win, we didn’t win any of the races, but for us, as a team, it was a victory. It was something special just because Ken was able to race, and he dug deep, and was tough. So, for us, this weekend, we’re really happy.”