“One word, survival,” said Ken Roczen. “This track can bite you so quick. You have to wait a little bit and, and I think it was more wet and saturated than it was last year. Last year I feel like the ruts were a little bit more consistent. You gotta just really pick your battles.”
The Indianapolis Supercross is known for soft, rutted dirt, and Ken Roczen is a master of those conditions, evidenced by his thrilling 2023 win at Lucas Oil Stadium and also a clean sweep of all three 2021 Indy races in the “residency” season. Jett Lawrence’s insertion into the class has had a big impact on the races, though. Roczen has a sparring partner, and one with a similar approach. These are two riders that try to stay smooth and in control, even more so when the track is tricky. When the duo both nailed their starts for all three Triple Crown races, the duel was on, one of strategy and smarts on a rapidly-changing track.
“Kenny's always been really good at his first few laps and sprinting,” said Lawrence, who ended up sweeping the night with 1-1-1 scores to Kenny’s 2-2-3. “I was trying to keep him close. I would have liked to do it at the start, but no, Kenny just kept that gap at the start that he's really good at doing that and managing that first half. I was kinda just was, ‘All right.’”
From there, Lawrence would have to learn and adjust. While some battles come down to heart and grit, who is willing to hang it out the most, this one was more strategic.
“I was trying to find some lines that I can flow to at least maybe try and pull him in or something,” said Lawrence. “And then, once we got halfway, I got into a good rhythm and would just try to get close. It wasn't too much of a planning, ‘I can pass him here.’ It was, ‘If I can get close enough, I’ll try to pass him wherever the opportunity came up.’”
The whoops played a huge factor as they changed throughout the night. Roczen discovered some good lines as he moved around.
“Yeah, I've been telling myself to just try and adjust, not get stuck in the same rut and I wasn't really happy with what I was doing before,” said the Progressive Ecstar Suzuki rider. “Because we had that last half whoop right there, there was only one rut developing, but then I went to the left side and it was fairly smooth right there and I skipped that one [half whoop] and could like make a new line, cut over the inside rut. So that’s what I was going for. In last main actually, in the parade lap I saw that the very right of the whoops was actually the freshest, so, made it through there a couple of times. Really good.”
Later, Lawrence would counter with his own jump line. While following Roczen, he learned how to jump into the whoops from the big single before the whoops.
“I caught onto it when Kenny did it in the first one,” said the Honda HRC rider. “Then once Kenny did it, I felt like I just got comfortable and got into a rhythm of doing that. I kept with it throughout the whole night, really. I just felt more comfortable coming in and had a better run to the whoops. I even tried, in the second one [race], I was on the right side of the whoops. And I was jumping even further and it worked out still pretty good. Got few oopsies a couple of times but I just ended up finding the flow jumping in after I saw Kenny do it in the first one.”
As the track got worse, Roczen stopped doing that big leap into the whoops. NBC reporter Jason Thomas later walked that section after the third race and said that, after a blind leap, Lawrence had to land precisely into about a six-inch landing spot in those rutted whoops, right next to a Tuff Block.
Roczen knew how tough that was to do.
“I wasn't comfortable jumping into the whoops anymore just because there were a lot of ruts and it was a blind takeoff,” said Roczen. “I ended up switching over to the left side again because that was definitely faster. Wish I would have done that a bit earlier. I just tried to adjust with what the track's giving me.”
After Lawrence logged the wins in the first two races, he didn’t have to beat Roczen in the final race, as a second-place finish would have been enough to take the Triple Crown overall. But Chase Sexton, closing fast from third, kept the pressure on, which required another change in strategy.
“Yeah, that was the original plan when on the start. [Take] Second,” said Lawrence. “I was following Kenny for a bit and I was okay with that. Yeah. Chase started breathing down my neck in that one rhythm section. So I'm like, ‘Oh gosh, we gotta step it up,' and I had to pick up the pace a bit and end up getting pretty close to Kenny. I'm like, ‘Well, if there's a pass that I can take, I'll take it and try and keep the same pace going on.’ I don't wanna try and push over my head with this track. A pass end up coming up and I had to work for it for a good few turns! But, yeah, I ended up getting it and a just felt good going on at my same pace.”
Sexton, showing good form, then put some heat on Roczen and made a pass. Cooper Webb was lurking next.
“I knew that, if Cooper passed me, that second place [overall] would be gone," Roczen said. "I actually thought we had another lap to go. But luckily, checkered flag came out. So that was a pleasant surprise. But yeah, I did know that if Cooper passed me, I was gonna get third.”
Indianapolis (Indy) - 450SX
March 16, 2024| Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 1 - 1 - 1 | Honda CRF450R |
| 2 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 2 - 2 - 3 | Suzuki RM-Z450 |
| 3 |  Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL  | 3 - 3 - 2 | KTM 450 SX-F |
| 4 |  Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 5 - 6 - 5 | Kawasaki KX450SR |
| 5 |  Cooper Webb | Newport, NC | 8 - 5 - 4 | Yamaha YZ450F |
With three-straight wins, a growing points lead and now a sweep in the Triple Crown format where he has struggled in the past, Lawrence is tightening his grip on the 450SX Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Today’s tracks are so hammered, though, his edge is coming through smart riding, not just pure speed bursts. Roczen couldn’t quite stick to that jump-into-the-whoops line all night, and also struggled with one rhythm section.
“In the past, I always stuck to like whatever rhythm I was doing,” said Roczen. “[Now] I try to be smart about it because like the back rhythm, after the table tops, for example, I just didn't really like going double and table over single. That rhythm, I knew that it was a little bit faster, but I kind of just stuck to what I knew. Then in other areas like the whoops, I was playing with the whoops a little bit and, yeah, try to definitely move around.”
Lawrence himself wasn’t immune to mistakes, and that kept Roczen close.
“I could just tell them, once he made a couple of little mistakes, I did get closer again,” said Roczen. “So it's a cat and mouse game and that's what's so fun about racing, you know? I'm learning every single day and every single weekend as well. It's decisions that you kind of make on the fly.”
