Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Ken Roczen broke through at round five of the Monster Energy AMA/FIM Supercross Championship at University of Phoenix Stadium to win his first Supercross final of the season. Roczen piloted his potent and agile Suzuki RM-Z450 to the checkers in front of 53,055 fans in the first series visit to the venue.
Ken Roczen has been improving every weekend so far this Supercross season, and on Saturday night, he broke through to score his first victory of the year aboard his RCH Suzuki RM-Z450. It was a convincing flag-to-flag win, with Roczen’s Suzuki exploding out of the gate before carrying him to a 4.540-second margin of victory.
The longest start straight in Supercross history played right into the strength of Roczen’s powerful Suzuki.
“The start was so important,” said a jubilant Roczen after the victory. “That was the longest Supercross start I’ve ever seen hands down. This stadium is awesome and the crowd went crazy. The track got really rough. It was super hard-packed and high speed, so that was something else for sure. We’re going to keep working hard and see if we can get a few more of those.”
With his win Roczen moved up from fourth to second in the series points.
RCH Suzuki team co-owner Carey Hart was thrilled with his rider’s victory. “It was a great night,” Hart said. “In that main, he was pretty much flawless. Hopefully this will give us some momentum going into San Diego and then as we head back east.”
