After signing with Progressive Ecstar Suzuki for this year, Ken Roczen has really started to hit his stride in the second half of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship. Roczen has recorded four podiums on the season, including a win at Indianapolis and back-to-back podiums at the last two races in Atlanta and East Rutherford. The 28-year-old features in this latest Five Questions feature.

Ken, take us through that opening lap in East Rutherford and how you approached it. It had to be pretty tricky and nerve-racking going out there after a huge thunderstorm without having a sight lap?

I held on for dear life and we just went for it. I mean, there was no parade lap, no nothing, but honestly, I stayed pretty relaxed through this whole thing, because that’s just stuff that’s out of your control. Of course, you have to stay ready, but I wanted to make sure I enjoyed this because anything can happen. It can play in your favour, or it can be the total opposite, so you just have to roll with it. I grabbed a really good start, I just had my body kind of up. What made this tricky is that it was so hard pack underneath, so sometimes the bike would accidentally hook up like crazy, so definitely took some getting used to. But, I actually thought in the beginning it was super rideable compared to the end, the ruts got deeper and it was a lot sloppier, even getting down to the plywood and all kinds of stuff.

You came up pretty short on the finish line jump during the main. That had to hurt, right?

I mean, the finish line jumped me, pretty much [laughs]. In the air, I was literally expecting my hands to fall off my handlebars and I was going to land on the next takeoff. I held on for dear life, so that was good. But, that did really mess up my goggles, all my sweat just went in there, and I don’t even know. I ended up taking my goggles off, and as soon as I did, Deano Wilson crashed right in front of me and he laid it over with the bike wide open and it roosted me straight into my eye, so I had a huge clump right here, I’ve been messing with it the whole time. So, that was frustrating, because in these conditions you want to at least be able to see, so that was tough there for a little bit. But yeah, that case was brutal.

We know you threw your goggles off during the main event and your eye looks red. Did you ever think about pulling into the mechanics area and grabbing a fresh set of goggles, considering you had such a big gap back to fourth?

No, that was actually not on my mind at all. I didn’t really know, we had no pit board but my mechanic actually got it to work and showed me that I had a huge gap, but yeah that was not on my mind. I was just trying to make it through, and honestly, it was not me at all, it was more other riders, a lot of the line we’d go inside or there’d be a couple of ruts that everyone was using, it’s not like I could’ve completely gone out of the way. So, I just did the best I could to try and close my eyes. But first and foremost, Dean crashed and it hit me in the eye, it took me like two laps, I even took my muddy ass hand and kind of just wiped across because it felt like I had a full-on gravel pit in my eye. After that I really struggled because I couldn’t really see, my grips were so wet. I don’t know, I just didn’t want to case any more jumps and I was just putting around. I kind of fell apart a little bit in the end, but that’s part of this game, and with conditions like that, it can just ruin it. But, still stoked to be on the podium.

Four podiums so far in 2023, including a win and now two podiums back-to-back. Is your mentality different now compared to when the season started?

Just podium, that’s my goal every time. I know there was a bit of a streak there for a bit like I wasn’t anywhere near the podium for a few races, but it seems like in the second half, we kept tweaking with the bike and kept getting it spot on. But, once you have a base setting you can make a little change and it’s either better or not. So, it’s a lot easier to direct where you want to go. So, that helped out a lot, we even made a little change coming into this weekend, which I really liked. Then, of course with the mud, a setting can work against you or it can work with you. We were just solid tonight, I have to really give it up to the team, cause I never even adjusted my clutch oir anything like that, the bike held strong and I just felt good out there, of course, we all yo-yoed around a little bit. I was starting to ride worse because I crashed in the mud and my bike was like suctioned to the ground and I kept holding onto the clutch and my throttle to try and pick it up. I almost couldn’t pick it up and I just wanted to hold onto the clutch, because you know how it is out there with no electric start [laughs].

Seems like you’re having a lot of fun with the new team. You’re getting on the podium fairly consistently now. What’s the vibe like around the truck?

Absolutely, I’m truly loving it. When I first came on the team to now, how everyone pulls on the same string and just the environment, I don’t know, every weekend it just doesn’t feel like I have to be here, or there’s any weirdness going on. We literally all work together and we make good bike changes, I have to give it up to Matt, our suspension guy. We have – with the little amount of time we’ve had in between the races – done a great job to set the bike up. I think we keep making steps forward and the changes we made even coming into this weekend were super good and we just keep improving. I wish I would’ve had more time at the beginning of the season to just be there a little bit earlier. But, for what it’s worth, we keep getting on the podium here towards the end of the season. Also, my teammates are super awesome, every single one of them. it’s a super fun environment and everybody works together. Same when it comes to settings, we’re all an open book to each other and it’s a true team.