Ken Roczen made it clear at the opening Monster Energy AMA Supercross press conference on Friday afternoon that he was ready for a fresh start.
As questions, doubts and anticipation abounded in the room around him, the H.E.P. Motorsports Suzuki rider was reserved in his demeanor. He kept the expectations low, sharing that his goal for the upcoming year was simply to “reestablish himself” after a disappointing Supercross campaign last year.
Roczen’s season came to an abrupt end last March when he announced he would be taking a break from Supercross due to ongoing health concerns. Previous to his exit, his average main event finish was 8.6 — an atypical performance for the talented German.
He returned to make a fierce comeback in Pro Motocross over the summer, collecting an overall win and finishing fourth in the standings.
Moving into the offseason, the 28-year-old continued to make headlines after departing from longtime team Honda HRC to race the World Supercross Championship in October.
He then signed with Suzuki in December, leaving him just over a month to get comfortable on the bike.
While many have been skeptical of the transition — it’s been 12 years since Suzuki won a Supercross championship —Roczen called it a “desperately needed” change on Friday.
“I really want to put [Suzuki] back on the map. We might start off slow tomorrow or we might be right in the mix, I don’t really know,” Roczen said. “Basically tomorrow, it’s just another race for me. We’re going to start off, see where we stack up and see how much work we have to do to be where we want to be.”
Team manager Larry Brooks echoed Roczen’s sentiment when expressing his expectations for the Supercross opener.
“I think our base is pretty good,” Brooks said. “Kenny made changes that made him more comfortable, but again, we don’t know where we are. He’s really fast at our tracks, but when you go to race tracks with another 19 super-fast guys, you kinda see what level you’re at. I couldn’t tell you where we’re at until Saturday night.”
The track has been built and all teams have assembled for the first round of the season at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif. — a place that has been kind to Roczen in the past. Since 2014, his rookie year in the 450cc class, Roczen has won the opener four times — in 2014, ’15, ’17 and ’22. In 2015, he accomplished his victory with RCH Suzuki.
“There’s a lot of hype about this first race, but I’m mentally in a completely different spot than I was in years past,” Roczen said. “I’m going to have some fun with it and try to get back up to where I belong. There’s a lot of really fast guys up here, and it’s going to be difficult, but I’m up for the challenge.”