The math between Ken Roczen and Hunter Lawrence is simple as the SuperMotocross World Championship decides its Supercross champion this week at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah this week in Round 17. Whoever finishes first, wins.
The difference between the red plate holder Ken Roczen and his only challenger, Hunter Lawrence, is a single point.
If both riders fail to stand on the podium and Lawrence finishes ahead of Roczen by one position, the riders could leave Salt Lake City tied in points. And as noted in this week’s Supercross preview, there are three riders, Eli Tomac, Cooper Webb, and Chase Sexton, for whom a case can be made that they will finish on the podium—but the likelihood that all of them will muster the strength to finish ahead of both Roczen and Lawrence is slim.
In 16 rounds so far this season, both championship contenders finished off the podium in the same race exactly once. Round 6 in Seattle found Lawrence fourth in the rundown. Roczen had his worst finish of the season in 10th.
My Title to Lose
“This is my title to lose, I feel like,” Lawrence said following last week’s victory in Denver. “And I feel like under pressure, I’ve been the best guy this year to be able to clutch up and make something happen. So, going to Salt Lake City, go have fun, enjoy it.”
Another similarity between the championship contenders has been their demeanor. Roczen and Lawrence both refuse to acknowledge that pressure exists.
Lawrence aims to complete all 17 rounds of Supercross for the first time in his career. Roczen has never held the red plate this far into the season. The latest he held it previously was Round 9 in 2021.
But one would not know Roczen is in rarified air this week in Salt Lake City, a venue that stands 4,226 feet above sea level. Not quite as high as Denver at 5,280 feet, but plenty to require a different kind of conditioning than riders face during much of the season.
Roczen has been so resolute about not changing how he approaches each weekend that the question never arose after his second-place finish in Denver.
Mine to Win
Only a three rounds ago, it was a different matter.
When Roczen won at Cleveland, he was one point behind Lawrence, but his rise to that position was incredible. Roczen was 31 points behind the leader, Tomac, after Birmingham and he rapidly chipped away at the disadvantage.
“You’ve got four races to go, and you’re 10 points down, and people think it’s a lot,” Roczen said following the Cleveland race. “I don’t think it’s a lot, and this is just how quickly it can happen, and that’s why I’m staying in my lane, and that’s why I don’t detour on my mentality.
:I’m going to do the same thing here on out. It’s about winning, and if that is not reachable, you decide how to do the most damage control. You guys might try to get me to change my mentality, but I’m not.”
The following week, Roczen won again in Philadelphia and took the red plate for the first time in 2026.
There is a truism that states, if it’s working, don’t fix it. Roczen and Lawrence both are living by that maxim.