Roczen, Tickle Solid at Muddy Creek - Speedway Digest

RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/Suzuki Factory Racing riders Ken Roczen and Broc Tickle raced to second- and seventh-place overall finishes in Saturday’s Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Red Bull Tennessee National at Muddy Creek Raceway.

Roczen earned his first moto win of the season and charged from fourth to second in points on the strength of a championship caliber 3-1 outing. With eight races remaining on the 2015 outdoor calendar, Roczen trails leader Ryan Dungey by 37 points.

Roczen was spot on all weekend and despite struggling with the handle on his No. 1 Suzuki during the first moto, the 21-year-old raced at the front of the field and finished third.

In the second moto, Roczen collected the holeshot and never looked back, leading all 18 laps. At one point, the defending Pro Motocross Champion built a comfortable 12-second lead and ultimately cruised to an eight-plus second margin of victory over Dungey.

“Our day was a little bit better,” commented Roczen following his post-race media obligations. “I got two good starts. We made some changes to the bike with a different fly wheel so I could shift a lot later. I struggled a little bit with the bike and the track in the first moto. I couldn’t really ride the way I wanted to ride so we made some changes for the second moto and it was quite a bit better. I still think we can get better on the bike to make it easier on us. We got a win in the second moto and finished second overall so I’m not too bummed. I’m going to keep putting in my work so I can make adjustments while I’m on the track, too.”

Tickle turned in his typical workman-like performance, notching a 7-7 finish, good enough for seventh overall. While the Holly. Mich., rider slipped from seventh to eighth in the standings, he’s only one point out of seventh, nine out of sixth and 11 from the top five.

Tickle’s No. 20 RM-Z450 showed the way in Saturday morning’s opening qualifying session, scorching the rugged Tennessee race course in just over 1 minute 52 seconds, besting his next closest competitor by nearly three-tenths-of-a-second.

A hiccup out of the starting gate in the first moto forced him to grind his way through traffic before settling into eighth. As the moto wore on and the laps clicked off, Tickle stayed focused and snagged one more spot before the checkered flag waved to notch his sixth top 10 in eight motos this season.

The veteran rider made corrective measures when gate dropped for the second moto and went on to record back-to-back seventh-place efforts.

“We had a pretty good day,” explained Tickle. “First moto, bad start. We were fastest in first practice and I was fifth-fastest in the second so we had a good gate pick but I had a bad start. The track got pretty rough. It was a little different than last week but I felt good. Made some passes. Got up to eighth and then passed a guy at the end to finish seventh.

“Second moto, I got seventh again. I had a much better start so that’s the positive. Other than that, the second moto was a bit of a struggle. It took me too long to get going. I was able to pass a couple guys and then rode my way to seventh. With how it all played out, I ended up seventh overall. It was a good weekend for points. We’ll keep working hard and getting better at starts and hopefully we can keep building on this and have another good weekend at High Point.”

The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship heads to Mount Morris, Pa., this week for Saturday’s UPMC Sports Medicine High Point National from the famed High Point Raceway. The first moto from Round 5 of the 2015 outdoor campaign will be televised live on MAVTV Sat., June 13 at beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, noon Pacific. Television coverage for the second moto will shift to NBCSN at 5 p.m. EDT. All motos can also be streamed live online through ProMotocross.com or the NBC Sports Live Extra app. NBC, NBCSN and MAVTV will combine to televise over 60 hours of racing over the course of the 12-round season.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.