And we have another rider entering the 450 Class of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship—at least for this weekend. Ken Roczen is set to compete at the fourth round High Point National in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Roczen, who won the Indianapolis Supercross 450SX main event, was aiming for third in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship with the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki team at the supercross finale in Salt Lake City, Utah, but he twisted his knee up in the final main event and was unable to finish, finishing fourth in the standings.
Now we’ve heard that Roczen is back to race High Point this weekend, as he’s on the press day list for the event, and posted some hints on his own social media about wanting to race on Father’s Day Weekend.
He signed a three-year commitment to the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) for this year, 2024, and 2025 in early May. The 2022 WSX Champion is set to race the 2023 WSX season aboard a Pipes Motorsports Group (PMG) Suzuki RM-Z450 when the six-round championship kicks off in July. Although Roczen signed on to become a supercross-only athlete—racing WSX overseas and AMA Supercross in the U.S. over the next two years, as well as the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) playoff rounds—he was not against racing Pro Motocross again.
The currently 29-year-old stated he hopes the move to focus on supercross will help lengthen his professional racing career, which has already spanned about half his life. He even said in the WSX press conference in early May he could lineup for a Pro Motocross national or two, especially if the SMX points got close. Again, WSX is the overseas supercross series now ran by Australian promoters SX Global, and the SMX championship is the all-new combination of AMA Supercross and Motocross between Feld Motorsports (promoters of AMA Supercross) and MX Sports (Pro Motocross promoters and sister company of Racer X). So Roczen will go overseas to race WSX and then will return to the U.S. for the three SMX playoff rounds in September.
The two-time 450 Class Pro Motocross Champion has two 450 Class overall wins at High Point Raceway (2015 & 2016) as well as two additional overall podiums and the fan favorite will surely turn heads this weekend.
Through 20 rounds of the 31-round SMX Championship, Roczen sits sixth with 304 points. Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton are currently tied for the lead with 416 points apiece, although Sexton’s status for this weekend is up in the air as he continues to recover from a concussion and mono.
