In a race where one mistake could have ended his championship hopes with no electric start in the mud, Ken Roczen rode the perfect race under immense pressure in Philadelphia to pass both Cooper Webb and Hunter Lawrence to take a vital win that included holding off a charging Cooper Webb at the end to underline that it’s a different Ken Roczen in 2026!
With Lawrence third after crashing while chasing Roczen, the German now has the red plate, leading the championship by four points in maybe one of the best rides of his career under pressure that saw he and Webb lap fifth place!
Ken was still in no mood to over celebrate in the press conference keeping his lazer focus aligned with a relaxed attitude as the championship comes down to the wire. With two rounds still to go, Roczen is closer than he has ever been ro his dream of winning a 450 Supercross title, it would be the story of the year.
Ken on…
The win and dealing with the mud…
The track was way tougher in the main event than it actually was even for the heat race. So my head was just that I need clear track, clear track. So obviously Hunter, Coop, like two of the fastest guys of the field right in front of you, ain’t easy, but we somehow made it happen. And then I just stuck up front doing my thing. I know Hunter, he dove to the inside. It’s really tough when we race in these conditions and we have roll-offs on because the canisters of the roll-offs compared to a tear-off, they’re so… You don’t see very much when somebody dives to the inside .Like those half an inch or whatever it is, you know, is really crucial when it comes to that.
So after that, I was just trying to keep two wheels down, push and ride conservative at the same time. They were part of the track where like the rhythm section, they were really tough and the whoops and everything else was actually okay where you could push it a little bit more. And then ultimately towards the end, it was a super tight race because of the lappers. I mean, yoyos for us anyways and that just because, you know, you can get lucky with the lappers and then the opposite. So I just had a couple laps of where I’m literally… I rolled everything because of the riders in front of me rolling everything and that’s what tightened everything up like big time. So I really had to keep on my toes, but I’m kind of glad that I could get it done.
Backmarkers getting in his way…
Honestly, Jorge and Harrison, I mean, Harrison, I’ve said it over and over and over. I don’t blame these guys most of the time when the conditions are like that because it’s really hard to know where to go. You know, we’re all just trying to survive, but Harrison, I don’t have no problem saying his name. He is a problem every single weekend. So a couple laps, same with Jorge. I don’t think, I think that was the second time we lapped him, and he may have not realized that I’m behind him, but I just rolled all the rhythm sections where you can actually flow through and make up a little bit of time because once you start rolling those, you’re just, you’re dabbing your foot, you’re crossing over three rods, and you’re hitting big mud puddles, and before you know it, you lose three, four, five seconds like it’s nothing.
Tempted to play it safe and settle for second behind Webb?
I was thinking about that and… But those three points are just so valuable, you know, and after having like seven or eight seconds at one point, like towards the end, I just like sacked up and I didn’t have any doubt in my mind, but I really had to keep on my toes just because as you try to push harder again, this last lap, you know, there’s a lot for me to lose when it comes to that.So I had to push, but make a calculated push and not just send it through the whoops and go for luck type things. So it was hairy there towards the end. I’m not going to lie, but all I thought about was how important these three points are and to stick it out.
3 points can make all of the difference 📈 #SupercrossLIVE #SMX #Suzuki pic.twitter.com/F5BhwKCWB4
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) April 26, 2026
On taking it race by race despite the red plate
I’m just, I’m overall just working on myself when it comes to these situations, honestly. And then with the advice from Larry and the whole team in general, I’m just trying to figure out how I take and what I need to do to do what I’m doing out there, and it seems like it’s working. So I think over the years, being a pro for as long as we have been and being on all different sorts of spectrums of my career, like being really good and then not really good, and then, I don’t know, I just, I’m trying something different, something new, and it seems to work out for right now
Nothing’s going to change on my side because when the gap is that close, just anything can happen, and I feel like I’ve done a really good job of, you know, not throwing things away and just doing what I’m doing, so I need to do the same thing and mainly offense because Hunter is obviously running really good, and then, you know, we can’t always just talk about us, but some of the other guys that are really fast, too, so it takes nothing to have two, three guys in between us, and then it’s a big point swing, so, again, two rounds to go. It’s almost like it is Anaheim 1. You know, that tight points gap is just, you know, it’s really nothing, so we got to go out and win.
Watch Roczen’s incredible performance below:
