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Heiko Klepka, Ken Roczen’s father
how he came to motocross
You were an athlete yourself
I did competitive sports during the GDR period of time.
Athletics, decathlon, long-distance running, middle-distance running
I was also invited to the sports high school
But I was too short
I didn't want to leave home.
I started to ride Enduro in the GST organisation, this brought me finally to motocross
As I first rode in the sand I thought I had chosen the wrong sport
Back in the days on the track in Schwedt
the former track in Schwedt (extremely heavy)
It was crazy, I simply tipped over on the straight.
I rode for the Club «Erfurt Süd»
I had to wait until the boss was on the track
to be able to ride one or two laps.
In terms of fitness I was on top
but riding a motorcycle is another story
You have to follow a dream
to achieve goals
and you need some support.
I've always cared about Ken's future
motorsports demands more and more attention
you have no time to work anymore.
Fortunately Kenny’s talent and uniqueness was visible for everybody
some important people got notice of him.
Luckily Ken was discovered by Bert Poensgen.
It was a highlight in my life
to meet such a personality.
Today I would be happy
to have such a support for Philipp [Tonn]
A person like Bert Poensgen would be delighted to see such a huge talent again.
Bert would be able to see the potential of such a young talent like Philipp.
Did you build this track in Mattstedt for yourself or for Kenny?
I built this track for me and my friends.
I owned this area
and we created some jumps
and we rode there
until some officials asked us
what we did here.
We explained we simply wanted to ride motorcycles.
We were really treated like criminals.
Finally, we registered the track as a sports facility
The most important thing is always the money.
It is what it is, everything has to be
complicated.
I owned a small team at this period of time.
And we had results for 20 or 30 riders.
It was too much for all the newspapers.
You were born in Apolda?
Yes.
It was the time of Paul Friedrichs
We travelled to the GP-races to Holice for example.
Here we could see the top guys of the sport.
Those were the tracks were the sport took place.
Also in Talkessel. There were more than 30.000 spectators during the «Pokal» races
Even the track «Tannengrund» in Apolda was a GP-track at this time.
Riders like Roger De Coster raced there,
in front of 25.000 and more spectators.
Apolda region has this kind of history.
The youth don't know that anymore.
The tracks are outdated in the meantime.
You can still ride in old school manner
but with modern bikes you don´t really want to ride there anymore.
It is much too dangerous to jump inbetween the trees there.
Harry Everts told me he was inspired by Paul Friedrichs.
I know Paul Friedrichs well, he was here together with his son.
I have still good relations to Gunter Frohn.
We rode races together.
And we are still good friends.
All of them are sportsmen with real passion.
Also Torsten Wolff and Heinz Hoppe.
Gunter Frohn rode the Suzuki in the 80s.
We are still friends with Heinz Hoppe, also with Wolfgang [winner of olympic games in bob sports], they lived in Apolda.
Heinz Hoppe rode the Husaberg on this track
We are sort of a family.
Everybody knew anybody.
Your Suzuki was also arranged by Gunter Frohn, wasn’t it?
This bike was the bike of Bernd Häußer.
It was a 500cc frame with ČZ engine.
In this time the reglement required the use of ČZ based engines
At the end we had separate classes, the so called «Spezialtechnik»