VOL. 51 ISSUE 9 MARCH 4, 2014 P73
him. And I look forward to chal-
lenging him every weekend and
trying to beat him."
And on the negative side, at the
San Diego Supercross, Roczen
was changing his line through the
whoops to get around a lapper
when Reed was trying to find his
way by for third place on the last
lap of the main event, and Reed
ended up going down, ending
his season, after clipping the rear
end of Roczen's KTM. Roczen
finished the race, then instead of
going up on the podium, he went
out to the track to see if Reed was
doing okay. It was quite a gesture
from a teenage competitor.
"Even though we race against
each other, me and Chad have
always been good together,"
Roczen said. "I see him as my
friend. Same with Shorty [Andrew
Short]. Shorty is actually one of
my best friends, I would say. We
race each other, but man, I had a
good battle with Chad and I kind
of felt like he maybe touched my
rear or something because I got
a little squirly in the whoops. I
just thought it was the right thing
to do to go over there and check
on him, you know? I didn't just
want to leave him there because,
like I said, I consider him one of
my friends. That was just a nor-
mal thing for me to do. I grew up
riding with friends and we care
about each other. A lot of the
times in the U.S. it gets a little
bit too crazy. I mean, it's my job,
but I'm mainly racing because it's
fun."
>>TRAINING/SETUP
After winning the 2013 AMA
250cc Western Regional Super-
cross Championship, Roczen
got off on the right foot outdoors,
(Left) The former 250 MX
World Champion is used to
being the center of attention.
(Right) Roczen backed up his
Anaheim I win with another at
the Atlanta Supercross.
(Below) With the 2014
Supercross Series reaching
the halfway mark, the race
for the title has, at least for
the moment, narrowed down
to two riders – Roczen and
points leader Ryan Villopoto.
PHOTOGRAPHY
KTM
IMAGES/SIMON
CUDBY
