ously I got the gift from Ken in
the first and then had to make a
couple of passes in the second,
but I think the most technical part
of the night was the dirt—it was
tough, very hard pack. I actually
almost fell in the third, near the
mechanics, in that last left-hand-
er. But overall, I just enjoyed the
whole schedule and the racing."
Roczen, in his first race as
a non-Honda HRC Team rider,
clocked in first as he set the
fastest time through the night's
one-lap Superpole qualifier on a
Genuine Honda-backed motorcy-
cle. He led early on in main event
one but washed the front end on
the slick racing surface, handing
over the lead to Tomac. Roczen
went on to finish second overall
with 3-2-4 scores.
"In that first main event, obvi-
ously things happened really
quick but from what I could tell
there was a tiny line or ledge,
and the angle I was coming in
on, I just wasn't set up for it,"
Roczen said. "It was so minimal,
but it just happened so fast. I
tried to save it but I couldn't. It
was a bit of a bummer because it
felt like it was set up to be a really
good race. But it was tough out
there and you couldn't really rely
on anything out on track because
the berms were really flat."
Vince Friese used consistency
to land on the final step of the po-
dium. The Motoconcepts Honda
rider logged a best result of sec-
ond in the first race and finished
third and fifth in the second and
third main events. The shorter
sprint races suited Friese's style
as he ran up front all night on the
hard-packed track.
"I had pretty good starts and
sprinted really hard in the first two
mains and that third one I kind of
just managed the podium," said
Friese. "I knew these guys were
pretty quick all night and I didn't
really want to put up too much of
a fight for that, I just secured the
podium spot, as I had my eye on
my teammate and a couple of the
guys who were close on points
with me, but I got it done and I
couldn't be happier."
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 11, 2022 P37
In the three 250cc
feature races, Shane
McElrath got on the
podium just once, but he
still came away with the
overall victory.
