Emotions flowed on Sunday as Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen finally found the top step of the podium in round 15 of the Monster Energy Supercross season. Since the return of Supercross in Salt Lake City for all seven races, Roczen has been a fastest heat qualifier and heat event winner numerous times, but he could not last the entire 20 minutes of the main event.
Roczen, who has been incredibly forthcoming in social media posts about his health, cautioned that he hadn’t made the full recovery he wants but is going to leave it all out there during the final two races.
“When you are straight up beat by a better rider that is one thing,” said Roczen. “But when you start great and fade the whole race, it is obvious that something is wrong. I have always been up front with my fans in regards to my riding and my health. I feel like in the past few days that I have been able to get a good handle on my body and pairing that with the comfort I have with my bike, we were able to keep it strong the entire day as a team and come away with the win.”
With the win, Roczen jumped back in front of Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb who has won twice in Salt Lake City and was looking strong aiming for a third win, both riders trying to close the points gap between themselves and series points leader Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac.
“We have two final races and we are going to go for it,” said both Roczen and Webb.
Webb continued, “the goal is always to win the title every year, but this year has had its ups and downs but we are pleased with how we are closing the season out strong and getting on the top of the podium. If we cannot close out and defend the title, we are still happy with potentially finishing second in the points and building a lot of momentum for future racing.”
Points leader Tomac, finished in third once again climbing from the middle of the pack into a podium postition.
“With two races left, I feel like I am in a great spot,” said Tomac. “If things fall my way on Wednesday, we can close out this championship. When I found myself in the middle again I made the moves to get to where I finished but I made the decision to not be as aggressive getting into the front as races past. There were a few places were I got a little sideways so the risk reward wasn’t worth it. The pace was so fast in the front, that risking it to get there and run with Cooper and Kenny and risk going down rather than protecting my position wasn’t the smart play. Right now I am looking at the big picture.”
While the premier class unfolded to a similar script seen in the back half of the season, it was the 250SX west class that brought the fireworks to the evening with several key players adhering to the adage “rubbing is racing.”
A crash in his heat race put Dylan Ferrandis in a bad spot off the start; he still managed a holeshot around the slick, flat first corner just ahead of GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig, with Forkner in third. Three and a half minutes into the 15-minute plus one lap event, Forkner cut under Craig for the runner-up position and started to work down the 1.6 second gap to leader Ferrandis. With four and a half minutes on the race clock, Forkner put an aggressive contact-pass on Ferrandis, sending the Yamaha rider temporarily off the track.
Behind them, GEICO Honda’s Jett Lawrence, a 16-year old rookie, carved his way forward, using lappers to his advantage, and reached his first ever Monster Energy Supercross podium. The win narrows the gap between Forkner and Ferrandis to seven, and gives Forkner the mental edge going into a one round break – which only means one week with the 2020 accelerated race schedule – before the title is decided in the East/West Showdown, which pays standard race points as the top riders from each division race head-to-head for the only time this year.
On the podium Forkner was asked about his charge forward and past Ferrandis after two races earlier in the year when the Yamaha rider had caught and passed him, “The roles were reversed this time. I was behind this time. I was the chaser this time whereas it’s usually been him. So, he had all the pressure on him… I felt really good. Honestly, that race was one of the best races I’ve ever raced as far as Supercross goes. My speed was super good. I was really patient. The track was pretty easy to make a mistake on… those two tight little turns were glass, so it was easy to make a mistake. And I was patient and I waited for an opening. And it wasn’t much of an opening; I had to cut the turn pretty tight and make a pretty aggressive pass. But I mean, you know, he would’ve done the same thing – he’s done the same thing to me, so, you know, I mean all’s fair, it’s racing. And I rode – I’m really happy about that ride. I felt really good.”
The racing in Utah continues, with Round 16 held this Wednesday, June 17th, at 7:00 PM ET. The racing is carried live on NBCSN on cable or over the NBC Sports Gold app over an internet connection. The event will host the final standard-format Eastern Regional 250SX Class race before the season finale wraps up the full 17-round series, including the East/West Showdown, on Sunday, June 21st. That mid-day race will be split with live airings on NBCSN and NBC, or in its entirety live on the NBC Sports Gold app.