This interview is almost a little more than myself needs to hear and know but it is what I'd ~expect to hear from a GER. Spent a little time over there in the service and have talked to a few sitting in bars in Manila over the past few yrs, so, hearing straight, down&dirty talk is what I would expect. This guy laid it out so hard, not sure how RCH is gonna go forward without changes unless the results are ok with that team. -- PER MotoAddicts.com We don’t know much about the German Motocross magazine, “Cross Magazin”, but it appears an interview came out today in their latest edition that will not sit well with the RCH/Soaring Eagle team. The interview is with Ken Roczen’s father, Heiko Klepka, and printed in German, but someone on Vital MX dropped a translated version. All we can say after reading this is: “Wow!” We knew things were rocky under the RCH tent, but I’m not sure anyone thought it was this rough. Heiko Klepka absolutely tears the RCH operation apart and pulls no punches. Heiko goes after the team manager, team owners, Ken’s agent and more. About the team “The RCH Racing Team is not a team, but a randomly mixed bunch of self promoters. In this so-called team there is no team spirit, because everybody just works for his own interest. It’s about money. There are people on the team, that obviously have no function, but they’re getting payed. For example there is Mark Johnson, who was brought in by Carmichael from the Indycar series. This man is just superarrogant and he has no clue about suspensions. That affects the mood of the team and the performance of my boy. It’s purely about sponsors and money at RCH, Ken is just a playing ball. I have never experienced something like this in all the GP years.” About the management “I’m sure Ken would leave the team immediately. But that isn’t easy, because his management is also involved with the team. […] If he violates the contract, he’ll have to pay 2’000’000$ fees. Also, his manager Steve Astephen has no clue about the sport. For example, at the beginning of the outdoor season, he told Ken: “Tomac doesn’t ride in your league, why do you let him pass you?” When I heard that, my jaw dropped (Original german saying: ‘blieb mir die Spucke weg- my spit stayed away). […] There is already a little Clique that developed around my boy and success in the sport is only a small part. He has no control, not over the bike and not over the team. Of course Ken noticed this too. Actually, the vibe was gone after 2 months, because the people in the team already tried to part him and Kelly Lumgair. These people never were in the workshop, and Kelly was a real confidante for Ken and it was a really hard decision for Kelly, to go with Suzuki. He gave up the best job in the world then. And now he goes back to KTM- any questions?” About Ricky Carmichael “Of course Ricky isn’t a bad dude, but as a team chef, he is an insult for Ken Roczen. It’s hard to believe, but he shows up a couple of times during the year, waves and lets out some cool patters. You want a tasting sample? ‘Everyone has problems with the air forks. We can’t make the shock that good, or else it wouldn’t work with the fork.’ I know that he doesn’t even watch Kens races, but he rather drives out with his boat. Other than that, he seems satisfied with how everything is going.” Did they lie to Ken from the beginning on? I’ll shorten it up a bit here: They don’t get the suspension working because nobody cooperates with each other, for example, in the workshop they just rebuild the complete bike. The 19th place in the first moto isn’t the result of his back, but of a completely unrideable bike(!!!). They didn’t even start preparing for Supercross so far. Roczen searches for solutions himself “We tried to clarify that internal, and tried to bring a german suspension specialist, that Ken trusts blindly, into the team. Of course that was rejected. Then we tried to get a stock Suzuki, but ended up buying one ourself. The german suspension guy came and was completely ignored by the team. Ricky knew who he is and why he was here, and just asked if he was spending his vacaction here. We then tested with the stock bike and Ken was 3 seconds (Hell yes, 3 effing seconds!!) faster than with his factory bike. With stock suspension and a stock engine.” Shortened ending: They tried to contact everybody, Geboers, sports boss of Suzuki in Japan, but they couldn’t help because RCH is no factory team. Only Suzuki USA offered help by the factory team, but that was rejected by RCH. At the middle of the season, they wanted to test, but RCH said: ‘No, we only can next week’. They had their guy, but RCh brought 7, which all didn’t help. They were allowed to ride Baggetts suspension later, which RCH worked on after 1 race- with result of Ken not liking it anymore. Then they wanted to see the contract with Showa, if they could get a new one, a 10 year old one or the old one of Baggett. But RCH didn’t show it to them. He also said, that if the air forks won’t work, they will go back to the traditional forks, which they did, as we all know. What could’ve solved the problems? “At the middle of the season, they should have fired all the incapable people and replaced them with our confidante. Then we would’ve had a unstoppable Ken Roczen on Suzuki. But because of the arrogance at RCH, only escape remains for Kenny. Talking about 2015 MXoN: Ken won’t start at the MXoN not just because of his back problems which have to be examined by surgery, but also because Ken fears to shame himself in Europe with that bad bike. -- And no, I do not see this the same as the #800 riders fall from grace. Different people, from different cultures, and different riding skill levels at play here, and only 1 GRP aimed a laser at a rider from the sidelines. KR94 battled and was hanging with RD5 in the MXdN a few yrs ago on a 250cc bike. He runs at the speed of ET3 ... Something happened this yr with the new team and new bike and this rider. Next yr might not be any better unless someones starts listening ... With all this say and done, KR94 is a grown man and he chose this path and team. He is responsible for his actions.
whoa heavy! his old man's a bit of a weapon from what ive read but if even a third of that is true then it doesn't bode well for young ken
Been lots of chatter about this last few weeks. Be interesting to see how it all plays out. Several rumors floating around about Roczen switching to Honda in 2016. Here's Roczens reply to the interview. He basically says what he HAS to in my opinion. http://racerxonline.com/2015/08/20/redux-roczen-speaks I have never gotten the feeling that Carmichael is very involved as a team owner. He was in the broadcast booth for quite a few SX races this season. When was the last time Mitch Payton or any of the other team owners were in the booth? Never. They are all way too involved with running a team. Ricky is a figurehead in my opinion and not much more.
Ken has always whined about suspension. I've also seen interviews and behind the scenes stuff with him and he cant even explain it well. In one episode he says, "if you put two broom sticks on here for forks, that's how it feels" WTF are you going to do with that description. I'm sure there are issues on both sides but someones dad bitching about stuff is not good. Always EZ to blame the bike. And in the end he chose to move away from KTM and decoster which was probably a bad move. He has also blamed Alvin Baker for over training him and taking the fun out of it. I like Roczen but he seems to bitch and moan about everything but himself.
And I think that was his plan all along. Brings money and notice to his team. Thats his job and seems like that was pretty clear from the get go. Also provides practice tracks and other stuff. Not sure anyone thought he would be deep in the mix more the figurehead for the camp. Nothing wrong with that if that's the plan. He is involved in a lot of stuff.
Yep thousands and thousands of companies have hired figure heads. IF Ricky was hired for that then that's his role. I'm not sure the new breed of riders would want a Ricky telling them how things are going to be. To bad the dad got into it though. It never seems to work out when they do. If he's not happy and it sure seems that way from the outside I hope they let him go. Life and the sport is to short.
The 'family-tradition' just does not always work out for everyone ... As far as his Dad, I've never heard anything on him before now and we'll see what the future holds ...SX racing up first next yr ... -- Word is that KR94 dropped the air forks just now and the results speak for themselves ....
