Insight: Suzuki Changes (Roczen, Nichols, and McElrath)

There are a few changes going on with Suzuki in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship at the moment. First, Ken Roczen is making his 2024 Pro Motocross debut this weekend at the Unadilla National. Roczen, a member of the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki team, was not expected to race the entire Pro Motocross season this summer anyway, but injuries at the Nashville Supercross in April kept him sidelined until this weekend. Roczen is racing his typical Suzuki RM-Z450 this weekend in New York but is racing a Suzuki RM-Z250 at the Ironman National final in two weeks’ time. Yes, 250cc bike! The German native as also announced as the MXGP rider for his home country at the upcoming Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations in early October. He has done well at Unadilla MX in the past (three 1-1 450 overall wins in his last five 450 races there) and it will be fun to see where the #94 fits into the mix with the rest of the field.

In Late June, Beta Motorcycles announced the Liqui Moly Beta Racing Team and Colt Nichols parted ways, effective immediately. On X (formerly “Twitter”) Steve Matthes stated Nichols would be joining the HEP Motorsports Suzuki team. In mid-July, HEP officially announced Nichols had joined the HEP team. Nichols is sitting in 29th in the 450SMX standings with three rounds remaining for qualifying into the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) playoffs. Nichols will jump at least a handful of riders (Adam Cianciarulo, Vince Friese, Benny Bloss, and Justin Hill) but it might be tough for him to get into the top 20 as Grant Harlan (20th, 118 points) and Marshal Weltin (21st, 118 points) and most of the riders above him are racing the remainder of the three Pro Motocross races and the racers who might not race are too far away in points for Nichols to pass them. A top 30 in SMX standings would get him into the LCQ at each of the three playoff rounds, but as we learned from Phil Nicoletti last year, it's way better to make it into the top 20 and not have to rely on the LCQ each week. 

Also, on Monday, August 5, Matthes tweeted that Shane McElrath and the HEP team had parted ways, and that McElrath would be on a Madd Parts Kawasaki KX450 starting this weekend. Matthes reported the #12 has signed a deal with Bubba Pauli’s team for 2025 and is getting a head start with his new team. McElrath currently sits 13th in the 450SMX standings, well within the qualifying cutoff to get into the top 20.

Related: Shane McElrath Joins MaddParts.com Kawasaki Race Team for Remainder of 2024 SMX

With injured riders returning and riders switching teams (Nichols and McElrath in the premier class, Garrett Marchbanks in the 250 Class), the SuperMotocross playoffs have made these final three Pro Motocross rounds more important and interesting than previous years. Check out the top 35 450SMX qualifying standings below.