Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 4 / JANUARY 26, 2019 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA / US BANK STADIUM P60 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS iii My Own Race: 94 KEN ROCZEN 2ND 450SX Ken Roczen is still winless, but he's back in the points lead. In Minneapolis, he spent too much time behind Joey Savatgy after Cooper Webb went by and Webb got away. "Once Cooper got by him, Cooper gapped us," Roczen said. "I felt really good, and even early on, when Joey was still leading. I had a couple of good spots, but then when I was behind Joey and Cooper was out front, he [Cooper] started going, and Joey was slowing us up a little bit; yet he was still going good enough to where I couldn't really pass. I just wanted to pick my battles a little bit." 17 JOEY SAVATGY 4TH 450SX Joey Savatgy was the fastest qualifier and he led most of the main event in Minneapolis, only to come home fourth. "Man today was just awesome," Savatgy said. "Of course I would have liked to win the main event, but we learned so much. You have to start somewhere with getting the experience of leading laps and tonight we accomplished that. My KX450 was a rocket ship all day long and helped me get the day started properly as we qualified first and then got third in the heat race. In the main event, I got a great jump out of the gate and was able to make a quick pass into first. I need to clean up a few mistakes but tonight was a big step in the right direction." 3 ELI TOMAC 6TH 450SX Eli Tomac finished second to Webb in their heat race, but he suffered a horrific start in the main event and could only muster sixth on the night. "Championships are won on your bad days and today we managed ev- erything thrown our way," Tomac said. "The positives are that it is a long season and we leave Minneapolis healthy and only two points outside of first place." 22 CHAD REED 7TH 450SX Chad Reed (JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki) had another good ride. "We made some great progress with the fork settings this past week," Reed said. "That car- ried over into the weekend, and helped contribute to my best qualifying result of the year. My speed and fitness are good, but I am frustrated with my starts. I'm not giving myself a fighting chance with track position being so important. It was a hard-fought seventh place. Honestly, it was my best ride of the season. I'll continue to work on my starts and fork settings so I get to that next level out of myself." 32 JUSTIN COOPER 3RD 250SX EAST In only his second-ever AMA Supercross event, Justin Cooper looked fantastic on his way to third in the main event, pushing veteran Alex Martin off the track one turn before they both took the white flag. "A lot of mistakes out there coming from everyone," Cooper said. "The track was breaking down pretty quick, and yeah, I was just being patient out there. I kind of let the race come to me. I think I settled a little bit too much in the beginning, but that came with a bad start, and toward the end of the race, there were like two minutes left, and I knew it was time to make the pass or get fourth. So, I stuck it in on him before the finish, and I think it was the white flag right there, and I brought it home for third."

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