How Ken Roczen Put Suzuki Back On The Map, And Will He Retire On Top

Ken Roczen became the oldest rider to win the 450cc Monster Energy AMA Supercross championship.

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In one of the most dramatic finishes in Supercross history, Ken Roczen claimed his first 450cc title. How that came about will go down as legend in the history of the sport. With the glow still fresh the week after, in an exclusive with me for Forbes, I talked to Roczen, team owner Dustin Pipes, and Chris Wheeler, Motorsports Manager at Suzuki Motor USA, about the journey to the title, putting Suzuki back on the map, and whether “Kickstart Kenny” might be retiring.

It might be easy to say the stars aligned for Roczen to claim the 450cc title. Race dirt bikes long enough, and a mistake here or there can derail a season for any rider. But the path for Roczen and former racer-turned-team owner Dustin Pipes and his Pipes Motorsports Group team is a profile in dogged determination, focus, and an embrace of the underdog for more than just the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season. As is often the case, building toward a championship is years in the making.

To place it in perspective, betting odds at the start of the season had Roczen at over +1000 to win the 450 title. That’s like the odds for the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series. Roczen signed with PMG in 2022 and re-upped ahead of the 2026 season. At age 32, he was well above where one would expect a title winner to be. Before 2026, there had never been a 30-something champion.

For years, Roczen had been in the hunt early in a season, only to fade down the stretch. A crash in 2017 broke his arm so badly that he nearly lost it. Coming back physically and mentally, Roczen worked with Dustin Pipes with support from Suzuki to get the bike in order.

“First and foremost, I accepted that I was not the odds-on favorite over these last few years, because it’s been a really tough road,” Roczen said, pointing not only to the arm, but also to two years ago with a knee injury, and last season with his foot. “I went into the season and was totally okay with not being a title favorite — I almost preferred that situation — because you know, let the other guys deal with all the BS.”

At one point, Roczen was 31 points down heading into Round 9 in Birmingham, AL, when things really began to click. By the time the Salt Lake City finale to the season arrived, Roczen held a slim one-point lead over Hunter Lawrence. Roczen qualified fourth for the season finale, and while Lawrence grabbed the hole shot, Roczen made an overtake move for the ages, passing the Aussie on the inside of turn 2. Lawrence pushed Roczen for much of the race before having the front end washout and laying it down, finishing in seventh place. After being a runner up in 2016 and 2021, Roczen earned his emotional first 450cc Supercross title.

For Pipes, he saw all the pieces to make a title run: what was learned ahead of the season, the team members in place, and how to get Roczen in the best position to be there at the end.

“We saw Ken’s riding at Indy, where he won the first race before the fall [in Race 2],” Pipes said. “You saw it in Alabama, where he came from last to 2nd, and was arguably the best guy on the track, even though he didn’t win. I think it’s just that every team member had the same mindset, where we knew what we needed to do to go and execute. We never felt like we were battling for 3rd, so when people thought that of us, it was almost more of a disrespectful thing, right? Because there’s too much work. There’s too much effort that goes into this, to where we feel like we’re a team that’s relegated to 3rd place.”

“I never really focused too much on the big picture and the championship, looking at the points or anything,” Roczen added. “It’s a cliché, but I really just took one race at a time, and it ended up working out.”

Returning The Title To Suzuki

It’s hard to quantify what Roczen’s victory means for Suzuki’s motocross brand. You have to go back to 2010 when Ryan Dungy won the title to find the last time Suzuki reigned supreme as 450 Supercross champions. While they support the PMG team, it is a privateer company instead of a factory seat. Suzuki had not focused heavily on motocross development, and it’s been years since there has been a new design, so much so that Suzuki remains the only manufacturer to still have a kickstart, while others have gone to electric starters, hence the fan “Kickstart Kenny” nickname.

“We started off with a bike that’s really outdated, though when I test rode it the first time, I knew that the bones of the bike — the frame, the geometry, and everything that goes with it — felt familiar to me, that I was able to work with,” Roczen said.

After winning the title in Salt Lake, Pipes said post-race that Suzuki’s support had always been there. But it’s clear that as Roczen started climbing toward the points lead, decision-makers in Japan took notice.

Pipes said that the idea that Suzuki hasn’t supported the PMG effort is overblown by the media. That, as he said post-race in Salt Lake, “Japan has always been there.”

“They’ve continued belief in the [PMG] program, and continue to step up their level of support,” Pipes said. “We’ve seen that the last four years since Ken’s been here, so there’s been a steady, steady build. That’s what I meant by Japan’s been here. We’ve had their support, and everybody’s been pushing in the same direction to get better and to win this title. So it’s not really a surprise to me.”

Roczen said a key change to the fortunes of the season happened during testing when Suzuki sent a factory transmission.

As to why Suzuki had been where they were and how it changed, it boiled down to resources.

“Japan had moved resources in other places, and it’s almost like PMG and Roczen helped kick the door open,” said Chris Wheeler, Motorsports Manager at Suzuki Motor USA. “There’s always a small internal group that is super fans of the motocross line and effort. So, you’re depending on where our resources are allocated. When Ken did come on board, it helped get more eyeballs on the effort, and then getting a win, it was like, all right, we kind of helped get the chain going, and getting Japan fully back growing in that direction.”

Breaking a title drought dating back to 2010 is something for Suzuki to crow about, and that’s well on the way with meetings already taking place. Wheeler had been in a marketing call just before speaking to me.

“Obviously, Suzuki wants to maximize everything from this title win we can,” Wheeler said. “Being prepared and pushing out marketing that we were the underdog, and everybody loves an underdog. We’re hoping everybody buys Suzukis right now. That’s why we do this. At the end of the day, we’re all companies trying to sell products, but we’re also passionate enthusiasts, as well. We all grew up doing this sport.”

Will Roczen Retire?

Roczen said that with all that happened over the course of the 2026 season, by the end, he was an “emotional wreck.”

“There’s a lot more anxiety to deal with, you know, just constantly competing, so it comes with a lot of discomfort, and being in a championship hunt like that can really be a burden on you,” Roczen said to me.

Being the oldest rider to win the 450cc Supercross title is the culmination of a remarkable career. He has won the 2014 and 2016 AMA Pro Motocross 450 Championship. He has won the FIM World Supercross (WSX) Championship in 2022 and 2023. He was the 2013 AMA Supercross 250cc West Champion.

That begs the question: how many more mountains does Roczen have to climb?

He said that over the last few years, he wanted to retire so many times when things weren’t going his way. Roczen then opened up earnestly, in an honest and sincere reflection of the road one travels over a long career.

“I just had some really tough times, where at that point I’d done this for many, many years,” said Roczen. “It’s like I wanted to retire and leave it at that.”

He said that during a past interview, a question was asked about his injury status, and he replied, “Miracles have happened before, so why not be one of them?”

Through the trials and tribulations, Roczen still felt like he could manifest the championship at his age.

“The discomfort and the stress that comes with life – and it doesn’t even just have to be in sports, but what it could be in your career in business, or whatever — that I won this championship at 32 and I was dealing with the same stuff, but ultimately you can conquer it, and push through that,” says Roczen. “You always see the trophies and the podiums and the race wins. There are a lot of dark times that I think a lot of us have, whether it’s dealing with injuries or other things.

“For the future, I really have to make the decision at some point. Do I keep racing? Do I go out on top? Because I told my wife really clearly over the last couple of years, I’m like, if the stars ever align again and I could win the championship… it felt so far away, like it wasn’t really in the picture much. So, the feeling of getting a championship, I’m like, man, if I can get one, I’m done, because I’ve tried for so many years, then I could finally do it.”

It’s then that the racer – the one that has been doing it at the highest levels – understood what actual retirement might mean, especially so soon after the emotional title win.

“I also know that it’s kind of a sensitive time to make the decision right now, because we did just come up a really long season, and yes, I don’t just want to sit on my dirt bike right now and go ride, but after having a summer off, you never know, it might keep going,” he said.

It’s one thing to say you are going to retire; it’s another to do it. He has that #1 plate that would grace him in 2027. And then there’s just knowing that with retirement, the pace of life changes dramatically.

“I tread very carefully with retirement,” Roczen closes with. “We’re busy, busy, busy, busy, and then all of a sudden all of it stops, and I know that that is a difficult task.”