Germany’s Ken Roczen was in scintillating form at the 8th round of 12 in the AMA Motocross Nationals in the United States at the weekend.
The 27-year-old Honda man finished 1-1 at a rutted Unadilla track near New York at the weekend and kept alive his 450cc title hopes.
So perfect was Roczen, that even French national Dylan Ferrandis, the championship leader, had to admit at the end of moto one that he had nothing for Roczen and that second was the best he could hope for.
It ended up a European 1-2-3 for the weekend with French former world champion Marvin Musquin claiming the third podium spot for the 450cc class overall.
Roczen holeshot race one and the only man that could run with him was Aaron Plessinger but an incredible loop-out, just when Plessinger was putting the pressure on Roczen in the second half of the race, gave Roczen a huge lead over Ferrandis.
Unfortunately for Plessinger, he was unable to finish the first moto and didn’t race moto two. Ferrandis inherited second and was happy with that for the championship under the circumstances of a rough track and an exceptional Roczen.
Race two and Roczen started top four but worked his way by Cooper Webb then eventually got by his own Honda team-mate Chase Sexton to take another brilliant win.
Sexton took second in a good rebound ride after going down coming out of turn one in race one, where he got back to 11th. Ferrandis took third and was content with that, not pushing his over the limit, saying the track was very difficult and hard to ride.
Musquin made it a European clean sweep on the podium in America with two strong rides following poor starts, finishing 4-4.
Roczen, now 39 points behind Ferrandis, said: “It was unreal. I just felt like I got into that flow state. I was hitting my marks, the tracks brutal, really easy to make a mistake. The crowd is awesome.”
In the 250 class, Justin Cooper holeshot race one and with Jett Lawrence and Jeremy Martin on his tail, Cooper rode fantastically to ride mistake-free and pull away from his title rivals to take a big win and extend his lead to 11 points ahead of Lawrence, who finished second.
In race two Cooper holeshot again, with Martin and Lawrence on his tail, but this time Cooper couldn’t hold them off with Martin taking the lead then Lawrence making a big pass stick at the second attempt to move into second as Cooper started dropping off the pace.
As Lawrence chased Martin, and took the lead, RJ Hampshire passed Cooper who then totally dropped off the pace as Lawrence took the race win with Cooper, who won race one, a minute back in fourth.
After the race, Cooper explained he was fighting the bike and lost his flow in the second race, feeling he should have made a bike change for the second moto.
That 11-point lead after moto one has now shrunk to four with four rounds left as Lawrence won his first overall since the opening round of the season.
“I felt at home, I had such a good flow and felt so fast,” said Lawrence after his second moto win.
Photo courtesy Honda HRC
Find BikesportNZ.com on FACEBOOK here
