Roczen Finishes 4th at St. Louis Supercross
OutdoorHub 03.31.14
Red Bull KTM Factory rider Ken Roczen of Germany finished fourth overall at the thirteenth round of the Monster Energy Supercross Series at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. Factory teammate Ryan Dungey battled alongside him but suffered a last lap crash that dropped him down the order into ninth.
Despite his bad luck, Dungey retains his second position in the overall points and Roczen holds onto fourth as he continues his great rookies season in the 450-class.
Dungey raced heat one and grabbed the holeshot and the first lap lead only to see the race restarted after it was red flagged for a fallen rider. This time Dungey came out of the gate at fifth place. He picked up one position early on and then spent the final lap in a three-way battle for second place. He banged bars with Justin Barcia and Weston Peick and came up just short of making the pass to finish fourth to qualify into the main event.
Roczen lined up for the second heat and pulled a third place start off the line. He maintained his pace and finished the race in that same position to advance to the main event.
When the gate dropped for the main event, Roczen was in sixth and Dungey got stuck mid-pack. Roczen made critical passes to move up to a possible podium position in the first half of the race and was in fourth at the halfway mark. Dungey followed suit and had moved up from eleventh to sixth by lap twelve. Dungey then made a pass on Justin Brayton to move into the top five and continued to work his way up to the leaders.
Dungey was able to reel in his teammate on the final lap and began to pressure for the position through the final rhythm section. But he then made a mistake and crashed while trying to battle for the spot and lost a few positions while scrambling back into the action. Roczen held onto his fourth position while Dungey cross the line in ninth place, just behind KTM rider Andrew Short.
Ken Roczen: “I really liked the dirt used on the track tonight. It didn’t get too deep or rutted but was still challenging and fun to ride. The whoop section was a little tricky and the lappers were hard to get around toward the end of the race. My result wasn’t quite what I hoped but definitely not the worst outcome either, so I’ll take it.”
Next Event: Houston, TX – April 5, 2014
Overall Results
1, James Stewart
2, Ryan Villopoto
3, Justin Barcia
4, Ken Roczen – KTM
5, Trey Canard
6, Eli Tomac
7, Josh Hill
8, Andrew Short – KTM
9, Ryan Dungey – KTM
10, Justin Brayton
Overall Point Standings –
1, Ryan Villopoto – 246
2, Ryan Dungey – 221
3, James Stewart – 207
4, Ken Roczen – 197
5, Justin Brayton – 185
