Ken Roczen topped his heat race, grabbed the main-event holeshot and turned the fastest lap time on his way to a nearly 8-second winning margin. It was Roczen’s fourth victory of the year and the 19th of his career, but his first since the February 6 Indianapolis 3 race, and it moved him to within 13 points of the title-chase leader, with three events remaining in the 17-round series.Meanwhile, Roczen’s Team Honda HRC cohort, Chase Sexton, was also impressive, finishing in the runner-up position for the second time in three days.
The Illinois native sat third after the first couple of turns and moved into second on lap two of 14, and that’s where he ran for the rest of the race.In 250SX West action, Hunter Lawrence turned in a solid second-place performance aboard his CRF250R. The Australian was sixth on the main event’s restart and lost several positions early on, but from ninth, he steadily advanced through the pack, securing second with two of 11 laps left and staying there until the finish.
Roczen: “I changed my mindset bigtime for tonight’s race. It started already in free practice, with setting the fastest lap time by just being aggressive. At the same time, we did some changes to the bike that helped out, but of course it’s always unproven until you start racing it. We did a bunch of changes throughout the entire day, and it really seemed to pay off. I was pumped with how I was riding, but I knew the main event was going to be a long one, just because of how tough and long the track was. I’m so pumped for Honda to have pulled off a first and second; it was a huge night for us, also in the points chase, and I hope we can keep this up and come back and battle again for Atlanta
