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Roczen's Return

Ken Roczen Plans to Return for Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Opener

While appearing on Race Day Live on Saturday, Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen confirmed that he will miss the remainder of Monster Energy AMA Supercross due to a hand injury sustained at San Diego. Roczen said he plans to return for the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross opener at Hangtown on May 19.

“I can guarantee you I really want to be out there, we were starting on the up climb, everything was going pretty well, it was just unfortunate,” he said. “I have to force myself to let that go. I have to focus on outdoors… it’s going to be eight weeks until the pins come out.” 

Roczen underwent successful surgery on February 16 at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, and the initial prognosis was that he would be out six to eight weeks, according to the team.

He said on Race Day Live he has a checkup scheduled for this Tuesday, where they hope to find out more.

Roczen’s Honda HRC teammate Cole Seely was injured in his heat race on Saturday and sustained fractures to his sacrum and the left and right sides of his pelvis. The team released the following update today:

“He underwent an initial procedure Saturday evening to realign the pelvis. On Sunday, a more extensive operation was performed to repair substantial damage to his abdominal wall, fixate the pelvis with a large plate and screws, and insert a screw on each side of the sacrum.”

Spiderman Baggett

Blake Baggett flies off his bike into the new safety netting above the tough blocks and then climbs his way down and keeps going.

Honda Needs A Supercross Rider

With Ken Roczen out of action for the second straight Supercross series, Team Honda had all their marbles on Cole Seely. Cole has been riding well, staying within himself and collecting enough points to go to Tampa in second place behind Jason Anderson. However, a heat race crash ended up putting a stop to his racing for awhile. Although the announcers say it was his femur—Honda reported that he fractured his pelvis. A full medical consult will determine how long he’ll be sitting on the couch.

Tomac Tops Tampa

Tomac win again

Posted on February 25, 2018

Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, took over Raymond James Stadium for the first time in 19 years for Round 8 of the 2018 season in front of 42,411 fans.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac earned his fourth victory of the season after a second-place start and went on to lead 13 of 26 laps.

“That was just a race that required patience,” Tomac said on the podium. “At first, I was a little bit off there and got passed by a few guys that were riding better than me early on, but I was able to get in the groove and just had fun riding my dirt bike.”

Tomac battled Team Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Marvin Musquin back and forth for the lead with Musquin leading 12 laps before Tomac made the pass stick. Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Jason Anderson started sixth and worked his way up to third, passing Monster Energy/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cooper Webb who started first but dropped to fourth by the finish.

Defending Western Regional 250SX Class Champion Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Justin Hill made his 450SX Class debut in Tampa and was running inside the top three until a minor mistake pushed him to sixth. CR22’s Chad Reed succeeded in breaking the all-time 450SX starts record with 228. After the start, Reed was running down the top 10, his best of the season, but a mechanical error forced him to DNF the Main Event.

Tomac earned his fourth 450SX Class victory at Round 8 of the Monster Energy Supercross in Tampa, Florida, joining Marvin Musquin and Jason Anderson on the podium. Photo credit: Feld Entertainment, Inc.

Tampa marked Round 2 of the Eastern Regional 250SX Class Championship. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner earned his first career victory after a second-place start and went on to lead 19 of 20 laps. Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star/Yamaha Racing’s Dylan Ferrandis finished second ahead of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Zach Osborne.

“I’m so stoked right now,” Forkner said on the podium. “This is my first podium of the season and first win ever. I’m super happy right now.”

For official race results, please visit results.amasupercross.com.

450SX Class Results
1. Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Kawasaki
2. Marvin Musquin, Clermont, Fla., KTM
3. Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.M., Husqvarna
4. Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., Yamaha
5. Broc Tickle, Holly, Mich., KTM
6. Justin Hill, Yoncalla, Ore., Suzuki
7. Dean Wilson, Clermont, Fla., Husqvarna
8. Malcolm Stewart, Haines City, Fla., Suzuki
9. Blake Baggett, Grand Terrance, Calif., KTM
10. Justin Brayton, Mint Hill, N.C., Honda

Roczen Talks

Ken Roczen interview

Posted on February 25, 2018

Today, Team HCC / Honda’s Ken Roczen joined Race Day Live at the 2018 Tampa SX with Daniel Blair and Jim Holley, and he talked about his crash in San Diego with Cooper Webb, the subsequent major hand and wrist injury he sustained in the crash and when he guesses he might be back on the bike. You can check out what Kenny had to say below.

We see you’re in a cast or somewhat of a cast. That a modified looking thing you have on? What is that thing?

Luckily I can get away with just a splint. I’m not allowed to have any wrist movement or my thumb joint, but I can move my fingers. I started therapy already. There’s not a whole lot I can do as of right now just because it is so fresh. I can do a little bit of soft tissue and get my fingers moving. If you don’t keep up with all the muscles around your shoulders—the lats and all that—this stuff goes so quick. I’ve already lost so much weight, just muscle. I’m going to start working out on Wednesday again. I just want to give it a little rest. Simple exercises me and my therapist do, it keeps my whole shoulder and my shoulder blade working. That stuff stops working so quick. 

With the splint, this gives you the ability to do all the other things and then get into some soft tissue before you start therapy.

Luckily, not a big cast. That helps out a lot. I have to clean out the incisions. I have five incisions on the hand because I have so much damage in there. We have to keep that clean. Every couple of days of so, I have my girlfriend clean it up and keep it nice. We try to make the incisions as clean as possible to prevent infection. And also, to hopefully keep them from looking too freaky once I get also that stuff off

I know it’s a little early to talk about when you’re coming back. Do you have any time frame? Have you written off coming back for SX?

Trust me, I can guarantee you that I really want to be out there. We were starting on the up climb, and everything was going pretty well. This was just unfortunate. I have to force myself to let that go. I have to focus on outdoors now unfortunately. I mean, I’m looking forward to outdoors. It’s going to be eight weeks until the pins come out. I have a check up on Tuesday. We’ll see more of how everything is healing. We’ll get more of a rough time estimate of when I can get back on the bike. As of right now, from surgery on, it will be about eight-weeks. Then I can hopefully start with some easy riding. That gives me plenty of time to get ready for outdoors. I can do everything cardio-wise and strength-wise right now so my body will be fit. Then the riding part, I look at this as a walk in the park compared to what I had last year. I’m hoping everything will be good for outdoors. That’s our main focus. Obviously this [SX] is done, but…

That was probably one of the weirdest crashes I’ve ever seen. Can you walk us through it and tell us what happened?

So I went through the whoops. You can see right there I got stuffed a little bit by Cooper Webb, just racing instinct. I didn’t even touch him right there, but I opened the throttle a little bit too early and the rut hooked me so hard. It literally slammed my body and I whiskey throttled off the bike. My arm got stuck in the back. An arm or a hand doesn’t fit between the swing arm and the wheel. Because the wheel was spinning—and the knobby—it sucked it in there and then out of there. So I have all five carpals dislocated on the wrist, a second metacarpal that is shattered and a bunch of torn ligaments in there. All the way up the elbow did not feel very well, but luckily up top was just road rash and a lot of muscle. My elbow is still a little swollen. I went to the medical crew—obviously they have an x-ray in there—but it’s not very clear what the damage is. In the beginning, they said it was just the metacarpal and it won’t be that big of a deal, but I told them from the beginning, I’m like, “man, I’ve had injuries.” When you know how something is broken… I knew how bad it was. I’m like, “I don’t know there’s gotta be something else.” Sure enough, four days later, Dr. Viola—who was in Korea for the Winter Olympics for Team USA—he flew back and we did further evaluation—so a couple shattered metacarpals and torn ligaments, all five dislocated from the wrist. That is unfortunately why I have to keep this wrist so stable right now, because of the ligaments and all that. That’s going to take time, but we can work on getting range of motion back later on down the road. Again, crap happens, unfortunately. It was a very weird crash, I agree. I’m still bummed about it and still think about it even though I need to let it go. I want to be out there. I talk to people and I say, “hey, I went from 2009 through 2014 without missing one race.” It seems like everything comes at once.

Antonio Cairoli Commits to Another Two Years with Red Bull KTM

Antonio Cairoli Commits to Another Two Years with Red Bull KTM

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing have announced that reigning MXGP number one and nine times FIM Motocross World Champion Antonio Cairoli will remain part of the team for another two years committing to the team for both the 2019 and 2020 Grand Prix seasons.

The 32 year old Sicilian renewed his contract on Thursday in Rome in the presence of Team Manager Claudio De Carli and KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer. The agreement means that Cairoli – who gave the factory their first title in the premier class of the FIM series with the KTM 350 SX-F in 2010 and delivered the KTM 450 SX-F’s first MXGP crown in 2017 – will register eleven years with the brand.

The 2018 contest begins next weekend with the first round of nineteen taking place at Neuquen for the Grand Prix of Patagonia Argentina. The South American fixture will mark the beginning of Cairoli’s fifteenth term as a full-time GP rider and his ninth in Red Bull KTM colors.

In a remarkable career that boasts nine titles (seven in the premier class since 2009, six with SX-F technology), 213 GP appearances, 83 career wins and 145 podiums (with 163 moto victories) Cairoli is still the reference for the sport as he bids for a record-equaling tenth championship and his first viable ‘defense’ of the No.1 status with the KTM 450 SX-F.

“I’m really happy to announce this because we already made history in 2010 with the KTM 350 SX-F against the 450s and succeeded with that challenge. I feel a part of KTM because of that success and since then the company has grown a lot,” commented Cairoli.

“I put in a lot of effort to bring titles and I feel very proud to be part of the company. They invest a lot and do a lot of work in development and you see the result because it is the top off-road manufacturer in the world. I’m happy to continue and to do another two years and to try for more titles. I’m fully motivated for the upcoming seasons.”

“Around two years ago people were already saying that Tony was getting too old to stay at the top and I took that moment to declare that we had full trust in his skills and capabilities. He had two tough seasons but it was amazing how he bounced back in 2017 and showed that we were absolutely right,” Pit Beirer added.

“It made me happy and very proud that he wanted to continue and he wants to keep pushing. I believe Tony has found the right balance in his life - personally and professionally - to keep racing and wanting to achieve. He is very passionate about it and this is why he continues to be so strong.

"I’m only too happy to make this strong commitment to Tony and very pleased that our MXGP story will go on. I also want to thank and pay credit to Claudio De Carli and his role. He has had a big say in the Cairoli-KTM success over the years and long may it last.”

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing head to Argentina in the coming days as world champions in both categories of the FIM Motocross World Championship for the sixth time this decade.

Marvin Musquin | Close to Home

Taking on Tampa

February 23, 2018 By Austin Rohr

      

Although Marvin Musquin is originally from France, he has made Florida his home here stateside in pursuit of the best training grounds possible. The Tampa Supercross marks the first Supercross back in the city since 1999 and it is a short drive from where Musquin resides. Combined with the fact that the season has been quite tumultuous so far, a special press conference took place ahead of race day at Raymond James Stadium. We took the opportunity to get in a quick interview with Musquin to discuss the season, the 2018 Tampa Supercross, and what it’s like racing so close to home. 

At the beginning of the year, you had the win at Anaheim One and then the crash and injury at Houston. But now you're really not too far out of this championship. Do you have a plan for the remainder of the season or do you just take things race by race?

For sure you take it race by race. I'm pretty far back in the championship after that DNF and dislocating my shoulder and not being able to compete at the level that I want to. I'm getting better every weekend and now we're back on the podium over the last two weekends. To be honest, I don't really look at the championship. I just want to be the best out there and to get a lot of points.

Being that you've trained in Florida for the last few years and now we're in Tampa, does anything change for you because you have no extensive travel to get to the race?
It changes a little bit and it was nice to drive here, like when we are in California for Anaheim or San Diego. We need this because a lot of guys are based in Florida now and it's nice to race close to home.

It's hard to miss the bright white sand section in the middle of the track. When you have a flow with the rest of the track and you come to that, something that changes in traction and terrain, is there any different technique involved?
Yeah, for sure you have to have technique to adapt. We will definitely have to adapt to that sand section. It'll be the same for everyone.

Tampa is quite a bit warmer than what we are used to for Supercross. You train in the heat week to week, but does it change anything when it's significantly warmer?
Yeah, it'll be good to see how strong I am in those conditions. Now I am used to it from training in Florida, that's why we are down here, to get used to the humidity. It's not summer yet, but you can feel the heat and tomorrow will be warm.

Reed and Records

Chad Reed will set the all-time starts record in Monster Energy Supercross Saturday night in Tampa, Florida--but while the record means a lot to him and will no doubt be popular in front of his adopted home crowd, Chad is adamant that he didn't line up this year just to break a record. He still believes he can be competitive once he gets healthy. Beyond that, he's racing because he loves it, despite all the ups and downs that come with it. The record will come, but Chad Reed will not go--as long as he feels he can still be competitive. That belief is still there.

MXGP ...Team KTM

READY TO RACE MXGP: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Motocross Team | KTM