IIIMY OWN RACE:
sions on the first two corners because
it cost me a few spots," said Shimoda
a er Saturday's main event. "I did feel
much be er this race from the start,
but I couldn't get comfortable in the
whoops, and it was causing a li le arm
pump. It takes a lot of energy out of
you so that will be something I need to
fix for the next race."
55 JOHN SHORT
11-8 250SX EAST
John Short (BarX/Chaparral/Ecstar/
Suzuki), on the lone Suzuki RM-Z250, fi-
nally cracked the top 10 a er two 11
th
-
place finishes. "It was the first track of
the year that had the me to be lost
in the rhythms if you didn't hit your
marks," he said a er Saturday's (H3)
eighth. "Normally, my mes between
when the track's rough and when it's
smooth are about the same, so when
the track breaks down, I feel like it
lends a hand to me. I had another rider
right ahead of me for the whole main
tonight. I passed him once and made a
mistake before I could seal the deal. In
the last six minutes, I'm thinking, 'Just
throw down two fast laps and you're
going to blow by him and you're going
to keep moving forward,' but I had to
tell myself, 'Hey, be smart, just keep it
on two wheels, you're fa gued.' I know
as my fitness gets a li le be er, I can
do really well."
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 26, 2021 P61
appropriate, considering he'd
never been involved in an incident
like this before.
But what really got Roczen's
goat came Saturday night during
the main at Houston 3. After lead-
ing and holding off Cooper Webb
for most of the race, a slower
rider, veteran racer Dean Wilson,
momentarily stalled Roczen's
progress halfway through the last
lap, which allowed Webb to get by
the Honda pilot. Roczen took the
checkers less than a half-second
behind the Red Bull KTM rider,
Webb.
Roczen was furious as to
how he lost the win and lost
what would've been three ad-
ditional points in his pocket. Out
of frustration, he said from the
podium Saturday night that he
wanted to "punch a hole in the
wall." However, he then quickly
added that he's not going to dwell
on what could've been and will
instead chose to focus on the
next three races in Indianapolis,
this most likely encouraged by his
new sports psychologist, who is
someone Roczen can certainly
use right now.
