Top Four, Top Six for Roczen, Tickle at Millville - Speedway Digest

RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/Suzuki Factory Racing riders Ken Roczen and Broc Tickle notched fourth- and sixth-place overall finishes in Saturday’s La Crescent Wine and Spirits Spring Creek National at Spring Creek Motorsports Park.

The solid top-four and top-six overall efforts marked the fifth time in this season that both Roczen and Tickle finished inside the top six in outdoor competition.

Despite the solid showing, the defending Pro Motocross champion lost ground to his chief rival, Ryan Dungey, in his pursuit of back-to-back outdoor titles. With four races left in the season, Roczen is still second in points, but now trails Dungey by 56.

“We had a decent day but I was hoping to do a little better,” said Roczen. “We spent a lot of time working on the suspension and, unfortunately, I never really got as comfortable as I hoped I would. We still ended up third in the first moto and fourth in the second moto. I’m going to California this week so we can do some testing and get dialed in for next weekend.”

For his part, Tickle, a Holly, Mich., native was eager to race in front of the Midwest crowd and felt good on his Suzuki RM-Z450 throughout the weekend. After a promising fourth-place effort in the first moto, the veteran 450 rider felt like he had enough in the tank to make a run at the podium in the second. Unfortunately, Tickle came up just short of a top five in moto two and ultimately came away from Millville wanting more.

Still, Tickle was able to maintain his stronghold on sixth in the standings where he trails fifth-place Jason Anderson by seven heading into Round 9.

“I was excited about the weekend,” explained Tickle following event. “I always enjoy riding at Spring Creek. I felt good in practice and the first moto was pretty solid. I started 11th or 12th. First lap I came around 10th and I ended up fifth so it was a good first moto for me. I passed a handful of guys and felt solid, like I had more in my tank. In the second moto I had a decent start again. I was racing with a group of guys and kind of lost them about midway through and rode to sixth. It’s solid on paper but I’m not that pumped with it. I feel like I could have been a lot better in the second moto. I felt like I should have been stronger.”

The 12-race Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship heads for the Pacific Northwest next weekend when the series returns to Washougal MX Park in Washougal, Wash.

The first moto of the Peterson CAT Washougal National will be televised live on MAVTV Sat., July 25 beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 1 p.m. Pacific. Live TV coverage for the second moto will shift to NBCSN at 6 p.m. EDT. All motos can be streamed live online through ProMotocross.com or the NBC Sports Live Extra app. NBC, NBCSN and MAVTV will combine to televise over 60 hours of racing over the course of the 12-round season.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.