Press
Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki’s Ken Roczen and his Suzuki RM-Z450 delivered a top ten result and retained fifth overall in points at the Daytona Supercross, round eight of the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season.
Roczen’s qualifying speed earned him the first gate pick in heat one. Emerging from the first corner in fifth place, Roczen put his Suzuki RM-Z450 into second place before the third turn and battled for the lead throughout the race. Unfortunately, a poor start in the main, in fifteenth place, put the German racer’s speed to the test. Roczen put his Suzuki’s power to the ground and quickly picked off riders to deliver a top ten result.
Ken Roczen: “I was up on the board pretty much every practice, I had a really good heat race, but unfortunately messed up the start in the main. With a better start, my result could have been a lot better. What I’m most excited about is that I haven’t really done any bike adjustments today. I could simply just ride the track and ride my bike. I’m really excited to be there. Our result doesn’t really show how good we’ve been in the last week and we’re going to continue working hard. I’m looking forward to Indy already.”
Larry Books – Team Manager: “It was a pretty good day,” “We’ve been working really hard on Roczen’s bike, and we made some big improvements. The result in the main event wasn’t as good as we were expecting because of a bad start, but it just happens sometimes. He finished seventh in the main event. Shane McElrath finished thirteenth. His speed was better, his riding was better, so we’re thinking bigger and better things are ahead for him. In the 250 class, Marshal Weltin finished eleventh. It was a good ride for Marshal. His start was terrible, so he had to come from behind and he outlasted the field; he was able to pass a lot of guys at the end. Eleventh is not bad, and I think we will build on that. We missed Kyle Chisholm. He had a crash during the week and was unable to race today, but we think he’s going to be back at Indy next week.”
