Ken Roczen is without question back. After his horrific injury a few years ago, the HRC factory rider seems to have finally found his mojo and is winning again, in fact, you start to wonder if he can take it all the way and finally clinch an AMA supercross championship, something that has eluded him since his move to the 450 class.

With a handy points lead over Eli Tomac, the former MX2 World champion and former AMA motocross champion is still searching for the consistency to take him to his first major indoor title in America. A fan favourite after his horrible accident, the German is getting more than enough support from the often anti-european fans.

MXLarge: Coming into Glendale, you had the red plate, so a lot of red isn't it. How did that feel coming in?

Roczen: I blend right in don’t I. It is good, second place was solid in A2 and 17 rounds is a lot of races and last year I had too many not good ones. We are in a good position and trying to take it weekend by weekend. Have a clean slate no matter how the weekend before was. I am trying to improve my starts and that is focus. Even if you click off five in a row and come into a race thinking you are the man, that is how mistakes come. I like to enjoy myself and then go back to the win and put in hard and consistent work and try and eliminate the stress. I know I have the red plate, but it can change and there are a lot of good guys out there and just try and have good weekend.

MXLarge: Those first corners were hectic.

Roczen: After that second start, I went all the way up there, and started braking and the guys on the inside just ploughed to the front right there. I was kind of shocked that way, it was kind of like a 250 start, they just didn’t let off and that ended up in a red flag. I just try and have a clean slate every time something like that happens. I had good battles with Eli, and I am just having fun and my starts are good.

MXlarge: A lot of carnage too?

Roczen: Those red flags, they are never fun to see, especially for the person involved. Every time you start there are 22 guys going down to the first turns, so there is some sketchiness happening there and any extra start doesn’t help. Overall, we had two holeshots tonight and just rode really well and calm and we were really focusing, and I am still blown away with three awesome wins.

MXLarge: With the three main sweep, I guess they are never easy to win, but was it easier than normal getting three wins in a row?

Roczen: I don’t know if that is the right way to say it at all. The starts were important, and nothing is ever easy and the first one I had Eli om my tail the whole time. We had some good battles going on, and even going into the last one, before the red flag we were kind of buried in the pack and we were going back and forth, which was awesome, because everything was super clean, so, we had a lot of fun. Even though you can technically improve your start, I was disappointed to see the red flag, because I was like, damn, another one. Again, I cleaned everything out and tried to improve.

MXLarge: We talk about starts, and how key they are, and starts in Glendale are a completely different beast.

Roczen: I prefer longer starts, because is spreads out the field a bit and it should take the craziness away a little bit, but a start is a start, and anything can happen. I am a fan of longer starts, because for positioning it doesn’t matter if you are inside or outside, so technically you can get a good start anywhere.

MXLarge: How much more endurance does the triple crown have compared to the normal program?

Roczen: Well, we obviously have our day program and then we go into the night show. If you compare those two, it is more fast race time, but we prepare for it and it shouldn’t effect anything, but the triple crown is more pure race time and normally we are not in the track that much, and due to the red flags we rode a lot tonight for sure.