If Ken Roczen’s left arm could talk, he wouldn’t have needed to show up to the 2018 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season-opening press conference at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, today. And probably neither would the other seven riders invited to the annual AMA Supercross preview chat with the sport’s stars.
Naturally, the talk centered mostly around Roczen’s fitness, which likely be questioned right up until the time he crosses the finish line in the main event—and that’s assuming that he makes it into the main event, a fairly safe bet.
Roczen’s return to racing after nearly a year’s layoff and 11 surgeries to repair the arm was just many of the story lines to be followed as the series launches off the gate tomorrow night for the first of its 17 rounds. The 2018 supercross tour marks a season of change, with revisions to both the race format and the series point structure. Both have been revamped, says series promoter Feld Entertainment, to make the sport of supercross more competitive and more exciting for the fans.
Let’s start with the points. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the points payout structure has been revised to tighten up the field. The gap between first, second and third remains unchanged, but the new system has been devised to tighten the race to the championship. The new points payout pays one more point for first place, 26 compared to 25 last season, while maintaining the three-point gap between first place and second place (23), and the two point gap between second place and third place (21). However, fourth place will now earn 19 points rather than 18 and fifth place will earn 18 points rather than 16. The point differential then drops to one point less per position from sixth place to 22nd place.
It’s a subtle change from the previous system, but as Supercross Live’s Jim Holley pointed out at the press conference, had the new system been implemented in 2017, Ryan Dungey and Eli Tomac would have tied atop the leaderboard on 376 points after the final round in Las Vegas, and Tomac would have won the championship by virtue of owning the tiebreaker with his nine round wins instead of losing it to Dungey by four points.
The format changes include a Monster Energy Triple Crown for the 450cc class, which will include Anaheim on January 20, Atlanta on March 3 and Minneapolis on April 14. The Triple Crown events will feature three main events of three different lengths. In the 250cc class, there will be two East-West Shootouts, the original taking place at the season finale in Las Vegas while another East-West Shootout takes place earlier in the season at Minneapolis. There will also be amateur supercross events at four rounds of the series, at Anaheim on January 21, Glendale on January 28, Tampa on February 25 and Atlanta on March 4. The 17-round schedule is also slightly different than 2017, with the Atlanta round moving to the new Mercedes Benz Stadium while Houston and Tampa also return to the schedule.
But, when it came time for the media to have their turn with the riders in the press conference, much of the talk centered around Roczen’s arm injury and his fitness, a subject that he is clearly tired of having to discuss, thank you very much. But he got at least some positive support from some of his fellow competitors when one reporter asked the others what they thought of Roczen’s attempt to come back.
“I mean, I think it’s a huge accomplishment, you know, for him to come back from an injury like that and to see the progress he’s made in coming back, and the determination. Autotrader Yoshimura Suzuki’s Weston Peick said. “It’s exciting to see that he actually made it back. Congratulations.”
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac added, “It’s a lot better to have a guy back with us. You never want to see anybody have an injury that bad, so it’s awesome that he’s here. You never want to really lose competition, especially with an injury like that.”
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM/WPS’ Blake Baggett agreed, adding, “It just shows how tough everybody that’s sitting up here, that wins races and championships, how tough the guys in our sport really are. They don’t take time off if they don’t have to. Kenny is back, and Chad is still here. He doesn’t have to be here, but he wants to battle on Saturday night, and that’s what makes our sport one of the best, and what makes all of the top guys tougher than most.”
When it comes to tough, Eli Tomac is right at the top of this list. The Coloradoan is the prohibitive favorite to take the 2018 Monster Energy AMA Supercross crown after coming up just four points shy of the mark last year after racking up nine wins—over half the main events on the 2017 schedule. Last year is still clearly on Tomac’s mind, though he says he is ready to put it behind him and start fresh for 2018.
“Last year was tough,” Tomac said. “Those four or five points, whatever it was—but it was just a handful of points—you look back on that and your like, ‘Man, why did we miss that.’ So this year is just about minimizing mistakes. It’s easy to say but a lot harder to do, so that’s the goal at this point. You know, we’re healthy right now, and we have had a really good November-December, but the end goal is to really go after that title and be in a position like we were last year, to where we have a good shot at it by the end. So, it’s all good.”
As far as last year goes, Tomac said the past is the past.
“You just have to deal with it,” he said. “For us, it’s just racing. It seems like now [with the new points structure] you don’t get quite as nailed if you have a bad finish now, so maybe that’ll keep things tighter. Looking back, it would have benefitted us last year, but I can’t do anything about that. I just have to go race.”
One rider who Tomac and the rest will definitely be battling with his Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin. The Frenchman has been on fire since the end of the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, becoming only the sport’s second Monster Energy Cup millionaire, repeating as the Red Bull Straight Rhythm Champion and destroying the field in both European supercross events.
“I’m feeling really good,” Musquin said. “Like you said, winning the Monster Energy Cup, all three motos, was amazing. And, yeah, just like you said also, just keep up the momentum of the off-season. We had a great boot camp, training with the guys, and we’re just waiting for the new season.”
With the retirement of future shoo-in AMA Hall of Famer Ryan Dungey, Musquin is also the new number one man at Red Bull KTM, and he hopes to take the knowledge and experienced learned from training and riding with Dungey all those years to create his own legacy in the sport. That could start with the 2018 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series title.
“I feel like everybody saw that for many years Ryan was the most consistent rider, and he was able to win a couple main events, but the bad days he had he was always in the top three or the top five,” Musquin said. “That’s what I learned from him. I’d been his teammate for many years, and always looking at him and training with him, and I learned a lot. So know I’m in his position, to be the guy with the Red Bull KTM, and I just want to really good for that.”
Not that he is feeling any added pressure to win, something Musquin has done his fair share of lately.
“No,” Musquin said. “I just want to give my best and win. I know those off-season races were not part of the championship, and all of the guys were not lining up, but I try really hard all the time to be the best, and I am ready right now for the new season. It is always fun for me to do those off-season races. I love to travel to Europe, and that is the only time I can do it. So, it definitely helps for the new season. It helped for me last year, so it definitely helped me this year.”
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson also has to be considered a contender. One of the most consistent riders in 450cc supercross, the former Anaheim I Supercross winner got back in the win column last year with a victory at the season finale Las Vegas Supercross. To prepare for 2018, he has spent a lot more time training in California rather than Florida while developing the new Husqvarna Rockstar Edition, Husky’s answer to the KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition.
“Husqvarna got a new bike, so I thought I would stay out with the team a little bit in California and kind of develop it a little bit more,” Anderson said. “I was still able to make my back out East and do the whole boot camp deal and stuff like that. I did a couple off-season races and got a new bike, so I think that we’re ready to go and do battle.”
California was an unusual scenario for Anderson, who spends most of his time in Florida, training and riding with Aldon Baker, but he says that the change was good.
“Being in California was completely different,” Anderson said. “For the past few years I’ve been in Florida from October to Anaheim I, but this year we had the new bike, which was a lot of work. But it was something that I kind of wanted to do, to kind of develop it and kind of be there through the whole process. I basically did the same thing [training] that we do in Florida. I just did it in California while we developed the bike and everything. I also had a couple off-season races. [But] my program was the same, you know. I did the road rides, did the gym, did the motos. It was just more different in location and a couple of off-season races, which, I think those were super super fun. I’ve been very serious, and it’s not like I didn’t take it serious, but it was kind of fun to have a little change of scenery, I guess you could say. I still worked my butt off, and we’ll see how it goes. I think I’m ready to go, and, yeah, ready to see how that new bike does.”
Baggett will be seeking some of that Anderson-like consistency in 2018. That would be a change for a rider who has shown excellent speed in the past, especially during the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship where he led the 450cc class points and was a legitimate title contender.
“I definitely think change is good,” Baggett said. “I’m excited about the triple format thing since last year the only time I went to a semi was when I looped it out in front of all you guys. [laughs]. That was a first for me. So, yeah, I’m excited for that and also the metal starting platform. I think that will even it up. If you have a mistake in qualifying and can’t get a good spot, you might be able to get a start from the outside or [from] not an ideal gate.
“I think the speed is in there,” Baggett added. “It’s hard to make speed, but at the same time just be more consistent and try to make less mistakes. I think last year I was a bit of a pinball machine. I just ended up wherever I ended up. I had a lot of mistakes and a lot of crashes, but was slowly figuring it out toward the end. I had a good race in Vegas, so I think I’ll just try to take some of that this year, and try to maybe harness some of the speed into some stability.”
Like Anderson, Webb and Pike, Baggett is also aboard a new bike, the latest KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition, which he switched to after having thumb surgery once the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship season ended.
“We didn’t start riding until November 10, but we started on the old bike,” Baggett said. “Sometimes when they throw a lot of information at you and a lot of new parts and stuff, and you’ve got a new track, and you’ve been off the bike a long time, you can tend to get lost. We started on the old bike until I felt like I was up to speed and could pinpoint what it was doing, and then we switched over to the new bike and tried to continue to make that one better than the old bike. I think we’ve done good. We won’t know until Saturday night, but Sunday morning we’ll know.
Monster Energy Knich Yamaha Factory Racing’s Cooper Webb is another rider who can’t be overlooked. After a checkered rookie season that some finish on the podium a couple times, he is looking forward to coming back armed with more experience and a new factory machine based on the 2018 Yamaha YZ450F.
“It’s a big difference,” Webb said. “Last year we were able to get a rookie season in and, yeah, just seeing the lack of preparation last year from my end and knowing what to expect this year, racing with these guys last year and stuff like that, yeah, I’m excited. I have a good bike, and I’ve had another year with the team, so hopefully learned from my mistakes last year and will do good this year.”
Webb says that he has also benefitted from having retained the same trainer, Gareth Swanepoel, in the off-season.
“I’ve been with ‘Swanny’ for quite a bit now, so I’m excited to continue with him, and everything else is rolling really well,” Webb said. “I feel like the new 2018 YZ450 fits my style a lot better, and I feel the best I’ve ever been. Second year, and I’m excited to go line up and see where we stand. It’s hard to pinpoint one thing [lack of preparation in 2017]. Obviously like I said, I think the new bike is going to help us a lot. And the training aspect of it, we to kind of learn from the 250 days to the 450 days. We learned from that, and I have someone to be there that’s been there from the beginning with me, with ‘Swanny.’ So, it’s nice to learn from our mistakes, and I felt like I had a lot of ‘em last year. We really sat down with the team at Yamaha and my guys, and we revived a plan on what works and what doesn’t. We went away with all the negatives and fixed a lot of the problems, so, just looking forward to my sophomore year and, you know, seeing where we stand.”
But Webb also said that it’s not only the experience that he feels will help him, it’s the motivation. And as we’ve seen with his 250cc championship triumphs, a motivated Webb can be formidable.
“There’s a new motivation in me to want to really do well this year and humble some people up,” Webb said. “It should be good. I think that was a lot of the reason for the off-season work [I] put in. Obviously a new bike, another year, and it should be a good one.”
It was almost hard to fathom that Peick was taking part in his first Monster Energy AMA Supercross pre-season press conference in his nine years as a professional. Another consistent rider, it seems as if he has always been near the front of the field if not in front of the reporters at the annual press conference. Perhaps the change will boost his confidence right along with his new Suzuki factory ride.
“It’s just good to be up here for the first time,” Peick said. “It’s been a long time, a lot of hard work and stuff, so it’s good to be up here. We’re looking forward to this season.”
Peick arguably deserves to be where he is right now, and he has consistently made progress throughout his nine years as a pro, especially in supercross. The question is, can he make the step from being a consistent top-10 rider to being a consistent podium finisher? He obviously thinks so.
“Just [by] learning experiences over nine years of riding with all these guys, and now with being factory-supported—JGR and Suzuki—and a brand new bike for 2018 as well,” Peick said. “The same thing is being consistent every weekend and staying on track and doing the things you need to do, the little things, and keeping up with it. That’s what I think this year is, just stay healthy and not get injured, and I should be on the right track.”
Peick is taking to the track as part of a completely revamped JGR team that has grown exponentially larger with factory support that sees the team fielding a full 250cc program as well as its usual 450cc program in 2018.
“Just being able to have that full-time partnership with factory Suzuki now has been awesome. It has made my riding a lot better with what we have. To go back and do everything that we have to do with parts and whatnot. It has been a big change for the team, you know. We’ve hired twice the staff, and, a lot of changes, a lot of good changes for everybody, and I think it’s just going to be better for me.”
Meanwhile, two-time Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series Champion is clearly in the twilight of an amazing career, beginning his 17th AMA season on a privateer Husqvarna. The Australian is clearly still hungry, though he is not in full beast mode, having suffered an ankle injury last summer that is not yet fully healed. Reed had surgery to repair the damage 10 weeks ago, and his doctors had recommended that he not place any weight on the ankle for 12 weeks, but it shows what he is made of that he plans to be on the starting line at Angel Stadium tomorrow night.
“I guess [it’s] just the love of it—this isn’t my first press conference,” Reed joked after being introduced right behind Peick. “You know, 16 years here in the U.S., doing this, and it has been a lot of fun. [It’s] just that same drive to come out and go racing with the best dudes in the world. It has been a struggle. It has been a long off-season of a completely different meaning to what all those guys say about long off-seasons. But we’re here. That was the goal. I woke up from my surgery, and one of the first things that my doctor said to me is, ‘I think we have a good chance of making it.’ So here we are. I’ve maybe rode the bike like three or four times. I’m not fit. I’m a little overweight like [compared to] a normal year, but, you know what? I’m ready to go have some fun and race my dirt bike, something I haven’t done since May.”
Because of the layoff, his relative lack of familiarity with his new Husqvarna FC 450 and his current level of conditioning, Reed said didn’t really know where to set his expectations for Anaheim or for the season.
“Like I said, just being here is awesome, but, you know, obviously you want to be in the main event, and you want to try to collect some points,” Reed said. “Truthfully, you just go out there and do what you can do. What that is, is yet to be seen. I’ve had such little time on the bike. It’s not my first time doing this either. In 2004, six weeks before the first race, I had shoulder surgery, and I think we literally did a photo shoot, and then it was one of the easiest wins of my career. Do I think that I can do that this year? Probably not. But it is what it is. I’m just stoked to be here, stoked to be going racing. It’s a long season. I feel pretty confident in the fact that I’m the only past champion that’s up here [on the interview podium]. So, just knowing that and putting all those years to good use, it’s going to take everything I’ve got to dig into this weekend.”
Reed did say he is happy to be aboard a Husqvarna for 2018 after testing several models.
“I rode a lot of the bikes, and you know you kind of ride them and you feel it or you don’t, and you move on to the next one,” Reed said. “You kind of just narrow it down to a couple of bikes. Just how I felt, and what I feel that I can achieve out of the bike… Doing it on your own you want to make a bike that’s quite simple and you don’t have to go spend a bunch of money to make it good. So, I think my choice [of Husqvarna] has been good. I have a lot of fond memories… It’s been a long time since I rode a bike that feels a lot like my ’12 Honda, and that was a good time. So, yeah, it was an easy choice for me.”
All that remains is to see what Reed can do with it. He is keeping his expectations in check, but he said that a good season for him will be to get back toward the front of the field and race for podiums and for another win.
“One of my priorities is to be the oldest supercross winner [in history],” Reed said. “I think [Mike] LaRocco has that now, and he also has the most starts. So, I think I’ll crush his starts record, and I hope to do the same with the oldest winner.”
But, of course, the bulk of the questions this year were aimed at one man, Ken Roczen, who once again bucked the tradition of wearing team colors in favor of wearing a suit to the press conference. Roczen claims that he feels as good as he looked.
“Obviously there are certain restrictions, but I think it’s like anything—the more you ride or the more you do anything, the more you get used to it,” Roczen said. “So, it’s all about dealing with whatever you have. So, when I go off of my mental state, I feel like I don’t have any problems or… what’s the word… yeah, or weakness or anything worse than anybody else out here, so… That’s the way that I wanted to approach this whole deal. Obviously, I’ve been off racing for quite some time, but it’s a little bit of a mixture because it does feel super-familiar being here, and it’s something that I’ve done—for how young I am—for quite some time. At the same time, I’ve never been off of racing for about year. So. I’m just super lucky and happy to be here to sit up here with those guys and be down on, line up on the gate. We’re going to have some time, riding for press later on, so that’ll get some riding time out of the way. But, all in all, lining back up, going racing, doing what I love is what it’s all about about. And like I’ve said before, whether it’s a win or a third or a fifth, it doesn’t really matter to me because this is the first round of 17, and I’m really just ready to have fun out here.”
Roczen was also once again asked to address some of his social media posts from last year, which generated some controversy while he was injured. In them, the German-born rider appeared to take offense to the notion that he was being forgotten as one of the top championship contenders in the 450cc class.
“I think it’s really… I know because I’m in my body, and I know what my arm feels like and I know the work that I’ve put in, so I guess for other people, they just don’t know,” Roczen said. “They see the injury, how severe it was, and I was gone for a long time. And what they don’t see is the work that got put in, and the people that I have around me. So, sometimes I got a little bit too excited [on social media]. It’s just for the simple reason that I know what I’m capable of, and I believe in my program, my bike and my team and the people around me. I don’t know—I just got a little bit heated, and… I’m going to be in there. It’s [a] no hard feelings type of thing. I just like to vent on Instagram.”
Part of the frustration, Roczen said, is that he knows he has put in the hours at the gym to get himself as ready for the season as the arm will allow.
“That’s why I’m like, I’m coming back, and I’m going to win again,” Roczen said. “When that is, it’s not really my point, but I’m definitely going to be in there. That’s simply because I know the work that I’ve done. Anything can break again, but it if was fragile, and I could barely do a push-up or barely put any weight on it, I feel like I wouldn’t be [sitting] up here. The people that my team and I have hired to go through PT [physical therapy] for months and months have done a pretty phenomenal job. And also, I think the main part would probably be Dr. Viola, the way he prepped my arm. It’s never going to be the same, but it’s definitely good enough to race dirt bikes and, in my eyes, have good strength in it to handle the bike and do whatever with it.”
Roczen said that while he won’t be wearing any kind of special orthopedic brace, he will be wearing a Mobius wrist brace when he lines up tomorrow night.
“I wasn’t even, at first, considering a wrist brace for the simple reason that I wanted to gain range of motion, and I feel like that the riding part was probably going to help me out a lot,” Roczen said. “But then at the same time my wrist felt pretty weak, and I’ve done a lot of therapy for my wrist and I don’t need a whole lot of range of motion, if any. So, I decided to give it a shot, and I was actually really, really, surprised. I’ve said it before that I feel like I’d be kind of maybe screwed a little bit if I didn’t have it just for the simple reason that it supports my wrist a lot. And, in case of a crash, it blocks from hyper-extending the range of motion that I have right now. It just supports it and makes it feel a lot stronger and more stable, so I chose to go with the wrist brace. But that’s the only thing that I’m riding with.”
“To be honest, for me, I don’t really think… It might actually be… but I feel like I’m riding the same,” Roczen said. “After weeks and months of riding, this feels normal to me. I’ve never ridden any different, but then at the same time, you know, I’m just trying to be precise, I think my position on the bike… It might be different, and it might not. I feel like this is just how I’ve been riding now, and it has become normal to me. But I don’t think it is that big of deal for me because I’m able to ride and I’m able to go fast. So, whatever I have to do is what I’m going to do to be able to be up there.”
When asked if his goals are the same as last year, however, Roczen appeared to hedge his bet a little more.
“I think it’s really tough,” Roczen said. “I just had a conversation with someone about that. I think it’s really tough to come back after a full year of [not] racing and come in and just expect yourself to win. So, I want to be smart about it. There’s going to actually be more racing, because we have the Triple Crown races, going on. I want to just get some race time under my belt, and I’m always going to ride hard and ride fast, go for the win if I have a chance. But whether I’m first, second, third or fifth, it doesn’t matter to me as much just because it’s just a long season. We have seen riders not win a whole lot of races and win the championship. We have seen riders do really good at Anaheim, win Anaheim and win the championship, and it’s gone the other way too. So, I’m not really too focused on, ‘I have to go out there and I have to win, but at the same time I’m doing what I love. I’m going to ride hard, get a good start, stay out of trouble… Anything that has something to do with bad finishes or possibly not a good finish, I want to stay away from, and just put focus in it, I think, each and every lap and every turn I hit.”
It’s all about mindset, Roczen said.
“It just kind of runs in the blood,” Roczen said. “There have been a lot of stories where—not that my doctor anything bad—but there’s certain doctors that say, ‘Hey, you’re never going to do this again,’ or ‘You’re never going to do that again.’ Well, it ends up happening that you’re able to get back to normal and do your thing. Sometimes the odds are not in your favor, but I think if you mentally try and physically try… I just wanted to cross everything off the list that I’ve done to give it a shot and come back. I think hard work gets rewarded with success and whatever you put in your mind. So, there wasn’t really ever any doubt, I mean, that I’m not going to come back. And [I] worked towards it, and here I am, back at the press conference and about to line up down there.”
So, who will be the man who comes out on top when the series lands in Las Vegas next May? This is supercross, and while there are some safe bets, anything can happen and it usually does. The only thing we know for sure is that, barring some unforeseen cosmic disaster, the race for the title will get underway at Angel Stadium tomorrow night.
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