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Roczen Wins Daytona

Roczen Wins Daytona

Mar 2

  • News

While the big story from Daytona was victory to German rider, Ken Roczen, who guided his Suzuki to victory ahead of Cooper Webb and Aaron Plessingers, the most important part of the story, was probably the failure of Chase Sexton throughout the evening.

Sexton, who had held the red plate a couple of rounds ago, nearly didn't make the main event after having to fight his way through the last chance qualifier, and then lost places late in the main event to finish in fifth place.

As for Webb, he now holds a 10 point gap in the points over Sexton and as he does in championship pressure, is looking stronger and stronger to take his third AMA Supercross Championship.

Main Event 450

Jason Anderson grabbed the holeshot ahead of Aaron Plessinger, Cooper Webb and Ken Roczen, while Chase Sexton was 14th and struggling big time from a bad gate pick. Anderson made a break from the field, and Sexton was making his way through the field, getting Justin Cooper and Malcolm Stewart to start to see the back of the lead group.

Plessinger riding well made a pass to take the lead as Roczen passed both Webb and Anderson and went after Plessinger, as they pulled away from Webb and Anderson. Roczen was all over Plessinger for the lead as Sexton passed Anderson. Roczen took the lead with a pass on Plessinger. Then Webb put pressure on Plessinger for second. They battled for two laps, then Webb made the pass, but unfortunately stalled his bike.

Sexton passed Plessinger and was all over Webb, but Webb responded instantly by putting the hammer down and getting away from Sexton, and at the same time Roczen made some mistakes and Webb nearly got to Roczen’s rear fender with 2:30 on the race clock, but then he cross-rutted coming out of a corner and nearly went down. This allowed Roczen to pull back away. Meanwhile, Sexton was struggling down the stretch, and Plessinger got by him to bump him off the podium.

In the 250 class, it was R. J. Hampshire who got the win and Max Anstie who extended his points lead. Anstie did crash early in the 250 main, but fortunately for the Brit, he continued to lead the championship points, as he tries to add an AMA 250 Supercross title to his World 250 Supercross Championship.

Ken Roczen: "I honestly still can’t believe it! I really put my head down. I had some really good lines, and when you make those passes you have to put your head down and focus on your lines or they will retaliate. I seriously can’t believe this happened. I mean, now Justin Brayton has been giving me crap for a long time because he has one of these and I don’t. We made a bunch of changes to the bike and that really helped. I made some good passes and the track was actually really racy tonight. I think it was at its best in the main. I’m so proud of this team, we put in so much work. I’d like to get a few more of these, but we’re gonna celebrate tonight."

Cooper Webb: “Yeah it was. You can’t make mistakes, as many as I did, and expect to win, but Kenny rode great, he made a pass on me, got around AP, and that put the urgency in me, but I made too many mistakes. Yeah another second place for me here. Hate to say it! But a good night for points. We’ll regroup and try to get it going again at Indy, and try not to be so complacent next weekend."

Aaron Plessinger: "Yeah I'm pretty satisfied after the start of the season. I gotta give it up to the whole team, they’ve been behind me and believing in me, it’s been a ride but we pulled it off. I love this track, it’s a good night and I’m gonna go celebrate."

450 Main Event - Results

250 Main Event - Results

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