MX noticeboards on both sides of the Atlantic were at full speed after an English translation of an interview from a German magazine with Heiko Kelpka, father of Ken Roczen, appeared online.
In the article Klepka, now back in Germany, slammed the RCH Suzuki team but Roczen was quick to distance himself from his father’s comments in a telephone conversation with RacerX.
“I didn’t know about this interview at all,” he said.
“I was very shocked as I read that. This is very extreme. I’m 21 now, I’m my own man, I speak for myself.
“I choose to be on this team, that was my decision and nobody else’s.
“Have we had some struggles? Yes, we did. Have we worked hard and tried to turn things around? Yes, we did. The last couple of races have been a lot better for me.
“It’s been a tough year for us and we’re still trying. Nothing is ever perfect. Yes, we figured things out later than we would have liked to have.
“But the bottom line is I speak for myself. My dad is thousands of miles across the pond. The only person who can make a statement like this is me. I’m old enough to choose my words and make my own decisions and say what I want to say.
“The team and I, together, have worked very hard to make some progress. We have changed a lot of things we have needed to change.
“A little late but I made the decision to go with the team I’m on and I’m going to give it 100 per cent and I know the team will, too.
“I’m my own person and I know when it’s time to open my mouth and say things.
“When we started in supercross we found a pretty good base setting. We always tried to improve here and there but we didn’t really make a step forward.
“But I had something I had spent a lot of time on and something that I liked enough to be able to ride up front.
“After the injuries and stuff things turned around a bit and part of that is the injuries – you have to take time off.
“I have to say for the outdoors things started to get more difficult.
“From the beginning on, for outdoors, I never found something I was happy with, nothing that I would say was easy to ride. We had struggles. But you’re going to have struggles everywhere.
“Every brand, some years the bike will be great and other years it’s brand new and it’s going to take some time to develop everything.”
Rumours immediately started flying around that Roczen could return to the GPs with the factory Suzuki team but these were dismissed by Sylvain Geboers.
“Of course Ken would be welcome but his heart was already in America when he raced GPs as a teenager,” he said.
“We should be able to finalise a second rider alongside Kevin Strijbos within the next few weeks.”
