With two weeks left in the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, Ken Roczen, the 32-year-old German born racer, is leading the championship points battle for the first time this late in the season in his career.
Roczen’s career in the 450 premier class could be described as a roller coaster with the ups and downs he has experienced. Roczen won his debut race in 2014 and went on to finish third in the championship. That summer, he went on to win his first of two 450 Motocross titles, with 2016 being the other year.
In 2016 and 2021, he was runner-up in the 450 Supercross championship. However, between these years, Roczen went on a long and hard-fought journey to be able to compete at the highest level again.
Going into the 2017 Supercross season, Roczen was the man to beat. He was the title favorite and he proved it in the first two races. He won the first two races of the season, and in the first race, he won by an atypical 16 seconds.
However, the third race of the season completely reshaped his career. In the main event, as he was jumping a normal triple jump, his suspension bottomed out on the takeoff, sending the rear of his bike into the air and ejecting him from his bike. This left him flying through the air for over two seconds.
After he was transported to the nearby hospital, trauma surgeons assessed his injuries and determined that his elbow and wrist were dislocated, and that he had broken his ulna and radius, the bones of the forearm, through the skin.
By the next morning, Roczen developed compartment syndrome in his forearm, which means that his injuries caused bleeding and swelling so major that his heart could not pump enough blood to his arms and his tissue was starved of oxygen.
Ultimately, Roczen’s arm was saved from amputation. After 12 surgeries and a year away from racing, Roczen returned in 2018 at the opening round of Supercross, in the same stadium where his career nearly ended. He did not look the same, but he ended up running the fastest lap during qualifying and went on to take fourth place.
After the first race, he went on to be on the podium for three out of the next four races.
However, the sixth week of the 2018 season in San Diego pushed the course of his career off of the rails again. Cooper Webb, one of Roczen’s biggest rivals, set up a block pass to pass Roczen for third in the main event. Roczen tried to pass back for third, but that is when disaster struck.
Roczen’s back tire spun out while cornering and he crashed into Webb. He tumbled toward Webb’s bike, which was lying on its side, still running. Roczen’s right arm, which was his healthy arm, was pulled in between the swing arm and spinning rear tire of Webb’s bike and was spit back out. His jersey was ripped, his arm and back were covered with rash, and the bones of his right hand and wrist were crushed. Also, his ligaments and muscles were torn.
After a handful of surgeries and months of recovery, he returned that same year for the Motocross championship, where he finished third.
In the years since, Roczen has still been a competitor, but his intensity has not been there, compared to the years before 2017.
He has had his share of wins each season, but he was never really a threat to the championship. Even going into this season, he was favored to win a race or two, but almost no one thought he would be in the battle for a title.
Now 10th on the 450 Supercross all-time win list, he is the points leader this season and is showing signs of the pre-2017 Roczen.
Roczen has five wins on the season and multiple podium finishes. He leads Hunter Lawrence by four points in the championship. In theory, if Lawrence wins this weekend in Denver and Roczen takes second place, Lawrence will gain three points and turn the title into a “winner takes all” situation at the final round.
Roczen has defied the odds throughout his whole career, and if he wins the title, this could be one of the biggest underdog stories the sport has ever seen. Regardless, whether Roczen does or does not win the title, this has been one of the best seasons he has had in a long time.
