VOL. 52 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 6, 2015 P41
manship? No one goes into a title
fight/chess match with: I'm not
confident, I made a bad move.
As always, the best response
and the answer to the #whosnext
question was a #racewin! Re-
peating last year's season open-
er win at Anaheim, also answered
the question as to the credibility
of a fledgling team in its third year
of competing in one of the pre-
mier motorcycle championships
of the world.
"Great weekend," said Roc-
zen. "It was our first race together
so it was cool to actually get go-
ing. The night couldn't have gone
any better. To come out with the
win and obviously, the first for the
team, I take a lot of pride in that.
That makes me really happy and
proud. It just shows how hard
we have worked. We're going to
keep going from here. There's
more to come. It's just good to
get this first one out of the way.
Now, we'll go home and keep
working."
Also stepping up to the plate in
a big way was Roczen's new train-
ing partner—one of reknowned
trainer Aldon Baker's newest ad-
ditions—Rockstar Energy Racing
Husqvarna's Jason Anderson.
Anderson straight out of the gate
was in contention and got a good
Briefly...
back and think about it, the fact that
I haven't raced in eight months helps
keep it in perspective," said Tickle.
"I'm actually pretty pumped about it. I
got a little tight toward the end of the
race so I need to ride more and get
some intensity during the week. I think
that will help."
Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Baggett
was one of many rookies, like Dean
Wilson, Cole Seely and Jason An-
derson, in the 450 class. Although
his 450-class debut (not counting
the Monster Energy Cup) wasn't a
spectacular one, it was solid none-
theless. "My first 450 Main event
went good," he said after his 12th-
place finish. "I didn't get the great-
est start, but I just poked away and
learned a lot from it. I'm definitely
happy with [my finish] tonight and
I'm just going to build on that [ex-
perience] from here on out. I've got
to give it up to the whole Yoshimura
Suzuki team for having my back and
we'll just keep clawing our way up
until we reach the podium. Practice
went pretty good. I was just getting
my feet wet on the new bike and get-
ting a little bit more comfortable on
it. The Anaheim track is definitely
different from the test tracks. Each
session we learned a little bit more
and made some setting changes. My
main goal was to keep it steady."
GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac had one
of the most disappointing starts to
the season. After a successful "off-
season" racing in Europe, Tomac
was one of the favorites to win the
series opener. Tomac rode well
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