Roczen, McElrath Win WSX Opener
K
en Roczen (Pipe Motorsports
Group Suzuki) and Shane
McElrath (Rick Ware Racing Ya-
maha) kicked off the 2023 World
Supercross Championship in
Birmingham, UK, with wins at the
British GP, July 1. Roczen topped
the WSX (450cc) class and
McElrath won the SX2 (250cc)
division.
Roczen was the top WSX quali-
fier but Justin Hill (BUD Racing
Kawasaki) was quickest in the
Superpole, which offers a point to-
wards the overall championship.
But Roczen flourished in the
evening's three-main-event format,
going 1-4-1 for the overall victory.
Vince Friese (MotoConcepts
Honda) kicked things off by near-
ly winning the first WSX race. He
was leading when he went down,
handing Roczen the win. Friese,
who is still recovering from an in-
jury he suffered last year, got up
in time to salvage second, while
Hill finished third.
In race two, Friese held off
Roczen for the victory but both
riders were penalized afterward
for jumping through a medical
flag and demoted to third and
fourth, respectively. Hill was
declared the winner with Joey
Savatgy (Rick Ware Racing) tak
-
ing second.
In the deciding third and final
moto, Roczen, Friese and Hill
battled up front until Friese
went down again and eventually
finished 10th. Roczen went on to
win the race, followed by Hill and
crowd favorite Dean Wilson.
"The track wasn't super tech
-
nical, but it was hard tonight,"
Roczen said. "And my starts
weren't where they needed to be,
so I gave myself some work and
had to make some passes. With
the races being so short you had
to make a plan on the fly and
pass when you could, and it got
a bit close. But I was strong in
the whoops and tried to stay low
over the jumps. I had to push hard
tonight, and we've got some areas
where we want to get better."
WIND
IN THE
P36
Ken Roczen and the PMG
Suzuki crew celebrate
their opening WSX round
win in Great Britain.
