Anaheim – Right now, Ken Roczen is doing his best to be honest with himself.
What was the point of living a lie to feed his ego, telling himself that he was going to win the Supercross main event Saturday night at Angel Stadium when he knew that the odds were stacked against him.
“Believe me I want to do it and win races again, but I have been having these bad results lately, so there is no point in saying, ‘Man, I am going to go out there and win,” the factory Honda rider said. “I need to put the personal pressure down, and get comfortable with myself and my bike. That will turn things around quick.”
Roczen, who won the season opener in Anaheim last month, didn’t make a return trip to the top of the podium on Saturday during the AMA’s third and final stop of the season at Angel Stadium.
His race was over in the first turn when he got bumped off the track as Jason Anderson sped to the holeshot in the way to his second main event victory of the season.
Eli Tomac shadowed Anderson in the early going, but a momentary bobble in the whoops allowed Anderson pull away on his factory Kawasaki and claim a 3.481 second victory over Tomac. Justin Barcia, Malcolm Stewart and Dylan Ferrandis, who earned a spot in the main event through the last chance qualifier, completed the top five.
Anderson led all 22 laps in the main event and all eight laps in his heat race.
“At the end of the day I am winning a battle, and I want to keep on doing what I am doing,” said Anderson, who is second in the rider standings, 12 points behind Tomac. “We are giving the fans what they want.”
Roczen finished 11th, almost 50 seconds behind Anderson. He was the last rider on the lead lap.
Roczen said his problems started in December when he became severely ill.
While Tomac was tearing up a test track on his Yamaha, Roczen was sleeping on the couch.
That was Roczen’s life for two weeks as he recovered, and even when he did get back on his feet, Roczen said he had a hard time snapping out of the fatigue that still slowed him down a bit on Saturday.
“I just haven’t been myself. This isn’t my style,” he said. “Since I won Round 1 in Anaheim, things haven’t been great. I have been struggling. I didn’t ride in December, so how can you go out there and compete with someone who has been riding all of the time? I don’t even pay attention to where Tomac is at. I haven’t been close to him so why do that? I need to get on a run. These results are not me.”
Roczen finished sixth in his heat race, nearly a half-lap behind Anderson, who led all eight laps on his Kawasaki in a dominating 5.176-second victory over Aaron Plessinger.
A poor start put Roczen in the middle of the pack on the first lap, but he passed Max Anstie on the second lap to break into the top five.
Stewart, who was coming off a career-best second place finish in the main event last week, chased Roczen down, though.
They raced side-by-side on Lap 6 until Roczen almost ran off the track in the sand section, allowing Stewart to move into fifth.
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“This year, I have been battling a string of bad luck,” Roczen said.
Two weeks ago when the series was last in Anaheim, Anderson shoved Roczen off the track during the main event.
“And I just haven’t been feeling like myself,” Roczen said. “Now, it is going to take some luck and things falling exactly my way. You don’t want to be in this position in the championship.”
Roczen, the runner-up in the championship last season, is in eighth place in the rider standings, 42 points behind Tomac, who wasn’t perfect on Saturday either.
Tomac got a poor start in his heat race and was in sixth place on Lap 2, more than six second behind Barcia in first.
Tomac, though, steadily worked his way up the leaderboard, and for two laps, he waged quite a battle for fourth with Cooper Webb.
Tomac passed Webb, the reigning series champion, in a hairpin leading into the rhythm section on Lap 5, but Webb got him in the sand section.
The next time around, Tomac tried again in the exact same spot on the track. This time he held onto fourth.
Tomac passed Justin Brayton on the final lap to finish third. Barcia won his first heat race of the season, beating Marvin Musquin by 4.195 seconds.
“That really pumped up my confidence,” Barcia said.
Christian Craig cruised to a 25.423-second victory over Vince Friese in the 250 Supercross main event. Michael Mosiman, Garrett Marchbanks and Carson Brown rounded out the top five.