Supercross: Roczen becomes 5th unique winner in 2024, climbs into all-time top-10
Saturday night in Glendale, Arizona, Ken Roczen took home his second win on the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki RM-Z450 and the 22nd win of his career.
Roczen left Honda and went to the much smaller Suzuki team two years ago in a move that shook the industry. But now, two years later, Roczen is still performing upfront and battling for wins. At Glendale, Roczen barely had a battle as he captured the holeshot and ran a near-flawless race, leaving the rest of the field to contend for second.
“I haven’t won much in the recent years, so I take these moments in so much," Roczen said. "My start was really good. I got a super good jump. I may have shut the throttle off a little bit too early, so I almost got swallowed up there. But I had the inside and as I went around the first turn, I’m like, ‘This is what I need.'
"The track was really tricky, it just got so slippery. I made so many micro-decisions on the track in certain areas that I picked out. As I ran through some of the first few laps, I just noticed some of the key spots that are really tricky and can really bite you. So I just managed the race the whole way. I tried to not look at the time, I just clicked my laps, lap after lap.”
Ken Roczen celebrates after Saturday night's Supercross win in Glendale, Arizona.
Roczen’s triumph was his 22nd career victory, which ties him with current Yamaha competitor Copper Webb. Webb, Roczen and Eli Tomac are the only current riders to hold a position in the top-10.
With only two wins in the last two years, the climb up the ladder gets slower with age, but Roczen has talked for the past year about a mentality shift that he’s gone through as he approaches his 30s. He’s content and happy to be on a bike, happy to be competitive, and happy to talk about the sport that he loves.
Championship Points Ranking
With the parity at the top of the 2024 season, Roczen became the fifth winner in six rounds. This is his second podium in a row after finishing third during Round 5 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The German-born rider currently sits sixth in the standings, but only 15 points behind points leader Jett Lawrence. In years past, a 15-point difference could easily be what separates first from second place.
Jason Anderson, who is currently one position ahead of Roczen in the championship points, finished second at Glendale. The start of this year has been a big bounce-back year for the New Mexico native who considers Glendale to be one of his home races.
Jett and Eli Battle
Jett Lawrence battled back to a podium finish and maintained ownership of the Red Plate after battling with Webb for fourth position early on and being forced off-track.
During the Lap 1 battle, Webb was slow to give up any space to the Supercross 450 rookie and where Lawrence thought that he saw a hole, the space was not large enough. Lawrence would rejoin the group around Lap 8 and have to battle past the likes of his former teammate Chase Sexton, San Diego winner Aaron Plessinger, his brother Hunter Lawrence and a much-anticipated pass on Eli Tomac.
Due to Tomac’s Round 16 injury last year, fans didn’t have the luxury of watching Tomac and Lawrence go head-to-head in the outdoor season. Then as the 2024 Supercross season took off, A1 became an establishment race for Tomac as he struggled to get comfortable, then two back-to-back mudders, and a triple crown format.
“I didn’t give myself the best opportunity to go on for a win today with just getting a terrible start, " Lawrence said in the podium press conference, “But it was cool to climb my way through. It was a cool accomplishment to catch and pass Eli… So it was a cool accomplishment and just happy I was able to fight back to a podium position”
Tomac finished one position behind Lawrence in fourth for his second-best finish of the year, after his second place in A2’s Triple Crown.
Hunter Lawrence had his best finish of the season in fifth, which means that the Australian brother duo pulled off a new piece of history as the first brothers to both finish in the top-five of a 450SX race.
250SX Standings Before the Break
After five races in six weeks, the 250 West riders have a reprieve between next week’s league-wide break and run of East Coast rounds. Going into the evening, Jordan Smith and Levi Kitchen shared the red plate with R.J Hampshire a few points behind in third.
Smith and Kitchen battled early and during a red cross caution, Smith was slow to see the flashing light and accidentally jumped into Kitchen, pushing Smith off track and losing valuable positions. Kitchen later lost the lead to Hampshire but had enough positions between him and Smith to secure sole ownership of the championship lead going into the break.
RJ Hampshire leads Levi Kitchen in the 250 class Saturday at Glendale, Arizona.
“I don’t know,” Kitchen said when asked about the collision with Smith, “That’s a bad situation. I feel really bad, I’m glad Smitty’s okay. But yeah, you come around and they’re blinking. I didn’t know if I could jump on, and he jumped on behind me and we hit. Luckily we’re both okay.
"That’s a weird thing with the lights and everything. I just didn’t want to be in the wrong, and get docked. Glad I’m healthy, glad he’s healthy, and yeah, stoked to go into this long break with the red plate, obviously.”
Also, after a tough start to the season, Jo Shimoda secured the first podium finish for Honda thus far this season.
250 Podium (from left to right): Hampshire, Kitchen, Shimoda.
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The series now takes a week off before resuming Feb. 24 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.