Supercross
Roczen vs. Lawrence was the most unlikely Supercross finale ever
The Salt Lake City Supercross finale was a shocker before the gate dropped; Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence were not championship favorites. Yet they produced the closest points battle in 20 years.
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Someone’s heart was going to get crushed. We had an entire week to prepare for it. Before the race, Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence sat together at a table, microphones in hand. A reporter asked if they had prepared for the loss one of them, inevitably, would have to face.
Roczen didn’t allow the interviewer to finish; he picked up the microphone and curtly barked, “Life goes on.” He quickly set down the mic, indicating the end of that conversation and gave a tight-lipped smile.
Hunter Lawrence and Ken Roczen Post-Championship Race
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool
Lawrence laughed and maybe wishes he had thought of that response first. He echoed Roczen but with more words:
“Obviously, you still wake up the next day. One pays a lot more than the other but that’s racing, there’s only one winner… Life goes on. You go back to work.”
An Unlikely Matchup
Nobody saw this coming; a winner-take-all championship finale between Hunter Lawrence, who had yet to win a race (or complete all 17 rounds) and Ken Roczen, who had been trying to win this number one plate for 13 seasons.
Hunter Lawrence, Ken Roczen
© Garth Milan / Red Bull Content Pool
The 2026 Supercross Championship was a matchup between two of the most likable and root-for-worthy athletes in motorsports. Yet also completely unexpected; Roczen had long missed his chance and Lawrence had yet to establish himself as the guy.
Or so we thought.
Both riders traveled (figuratively and literally) through hell to get to the starting line for the May 9 event in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Roczen’s entire career (and left arm) was nearly lost in Jan. 2017 when a severe compound fracture in his radius and ulna (and a dislocated elbow and fractured scaphoid) resulted in a dozen surgeries, the first of which was to simply save the limb. "We were fixing his arm so he could eat dinner, not so he could ride again,” Dr. Randy Viola told ESPN in 2018 of that first operation.
Roczen’s rebuild was a two-forward-one-backward journey; shattered metacarpals in his right hand just six races into his 2018 comeback, then several seasons of dealing with the Epstein Barr Virus that sometimes still leaves him feeling “lifeless”.
But he had positives: marriage, kids, a return to winning in 2020, American citizenship, and a switch back to a Suzuki team willing to build around his needs and lifestyle. At that point in his life he was reaching for something he feared had become impossible.
“I was just trying to grasp on to something to be halfway good again,” Roczen said of searching for new opportunities at the end of 2022. “I wasn’t anywhere near championship material.”
Until, improbably, he was.
Hunter Lawrence’s slog to become a Supercross championship contender started in Brisbane, Queensland but went through many adventures in Europe where finances got so thin the family rationed cans of tuna and jars of peanut butter.
They had sold everything in Australia and plan B didn’t exist. Injuries, however, came in quicker than win bonuses. Hunter was 17 and living in Germany with Heiko Klepka (Roczen’s father) when Kenny suffered the devastating arm injury. The Lawrence family moved to America at the end of 2018 and Hunter intently watched Roczen’s rebuild. Maybe it helped, because he had to do the same himself.
Setbacks and surgeries piled up: knees, collarbones, shoulders, labrum, scapula. Entire seasons missed, the future was reconsidered.
“It’s kind of like house money because you almost get to the point where you’ve accepted walking away from it.” Hunter said the day before the SLC SX, speaking to the fact that he had once come close to giving up on racing. “But to rebuild yourself is cool.”
Against The Odds
Lawrence wasn’t a title favorite entering 2026 but he was a likely option to become the 70th different winner in 450SX history. Roczen was so far down the title favorite list that oddsmakers had him at +1402 in pre-season betting (a $100 bet on Roczen for champion would yield a $1402 payout). For reference, Lawrence was +311 and Eli Tomac was +240.
To further build the case against Roczen (now 32): the record for most seasons before winning a title was seven (Tomac, 2020) and the average is 3.1; Also, no rider past the age of 30 had ever won a premier class championship. Roczen had only completed a full season six times.
Ken Roczen wins the 2026 SMX World Championships
© Garth Milan
Twenty twenty-six didn’t listen to oddsmakers or experts, however; Roczen clawed back from a 31-point deficit to take the lead after the Philadelphia Supercross, the first time he’d held the signifying red plate in the second half of a season.
Roczen and Lawrence rolled into Ski City separated by one point and the most evenly matched box scores ever–5 wins, 12 podiums and 14 top five finishes each. Lawrence’s clear advantage was a better starting position average, but Roczen had led more laps throughout the season.
That consistency set up the first winner-take-all finale since 2006 when eventual champion Ricky Carmichael came to Las Vegas tied in points with Chad Reed. And that once-in-a-generation situation came two decades after a tied-up 1985 showdown was settled in the Rose Bowl.
Curiously, none of the riders involved in these scenarios actually won the race, not Carmichael, not Reed nor names you might only distantly remember, such as Jeff Ward and Broc Glover. Not even Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence.
Life Goes On
In the end, both riders struggled. One admitted he was “an emotional wreck”, the other asked “a little too much of the front end coming into corners.” Lawrence and Roczen came through the first corner of the main event together. Roczen made a gutsy and aggressive passe in turn two. It felt like script writers were orchestrating the outcome with the purpose of maximizing emotions.
Roczen and Lawrence stayed hooked for 10 laps; no mistakes, no strikes for position. They matched each other, dared each other to make a mistake. Lawrence was the first to get bit. On lap 11, with his childhood rival Jorge Prado close behind, Lawrence went off the course, an error that gave Roczen just a skosh of breathing room. Twenty seconds later Lawrence hit the ground, an unforced error. He got up, ran into another rider, fell again, like a bad dream you’re desperately trying to escape.
It seemed like it was over, checkmate Roczen. But with more than half the race to go, and the accumulation of hardships and heartaches Roczen experienced for 10 years hovering invisibly overhead, the feelings of doubt and disbelief remained heavy.
Ken Roczen celebrates his SMX world Championships win
© Garth Milan
For Roczen, who stayed flawless for 22 laps before a swarm of non-championship competitors overtook him, “Every lap felt like a championship last lap,” the roar of the crowd was so loud. Roczen did the only thing he truly needed to do to realize a lifelong dream; he finished ahead of Lawrence.
Roczen could finally let it all out: the emotion, the tears, the pain, joy. After the race, his words reassured us he is human. “I was an emotional wreck today,” he said. “I’m exhausted physically and mentally from these last few weeks.”
Combined with Pro Motocross and the SuperMotocross World Championship in 2025, this was Hunter’s 3rd consecutive runner-up finish. He earned a title in grace and sportsmanship when he gave Roczen a congratulatory embrace and stuck around on the floor to absorb someone else’s joy. Or lean into a feeling he’s trying to escape.
Either way, life goes on.
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