Roczen Rallies to Fourth in Final Standings, Chisholm Goes Down in Wild Card Race
Progressive/Ecstar Suzuki's Ken Roczen was not up to 100 percent when the SMX Playoffs began this year, unlike his run in 2023 where he nearly grabbed the World Championship. Despite coming in following ankle surgery that ended his Monster Energy Supercross campaign, and prevented him from even finishing both motos when he showed up for the Unadilla National last month, Roczen rallied in the final two races, with a moto runner-up ride last week in St. Louis, and a fourth overall in the Triple Points finale. The result? Roczen, who started the playoffs as the 11th seed, ended up in fourth, which pays $200,000. Roczen went 6-4-4 in the three playoff races.
“We had a pretty awesome day,” said Roczen in a Suzuki press release. “We [earned] five and four [moto finishes] for fourth overall [tonight] and fourth in the championship as well; that was pretty much the best-case scenario we could have come out of here with, and that’s what we did. So, I’m pretty pumped. You know, you’ve got to put in some consistent rides before thinking about the next step, and I’m really happy and I think the team is happy. We’ve been tinkering with the bike all weekend just trying to improve [the settings] in little areas, and I’m really happy to finish [the season] off in fourth.”
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Qualifying Points | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jett Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 580 | 166 |
| 2 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia | 516 | 151 |
| 3 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO  | 475 | 135 |
| 4 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 288 | 117 |
| 5 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 670 | 115 |
Kyle Chisholm is winding down his full-time racing career but showed up for the playoffs. Unfortunately Chiz did not Chiz as he usually does in these races, failing to make the cut in the Las Vegas Wild Card race.
“The bike felt awesome, I felt good about it, and just needed to get into the main event,” stated Chisholm. “Unfortunately, another rider, just a racing incident, nothing on purpose, moved over a little bit in a rhythm… We came together. I didn’t have a bad crash, but I landed right on top of his bike and hurt my shoulder and my arm pretty good. The good news is that nothing’s broken, just bruised and beat up a little bit. I’ll be okay, it’s just a bummer to end the season that way and not be out there in the mains where I want to be… We’ll move on and try to get ready for World Supercross.”
“We had a really good day, a good weekend,” said Larry Brooks, Twisted Tea/H.E.P. Motorsports/Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance Team Manager. “The only downfall was the Kyle Chisholm crash in the Wildcard race... But Ken Roczen was a stud today. He rode really good. He pushed all the way through both motos, finishing fourth overall for the night and fourth overall in the championship. The whole team has worked our butts off this season, and actually pretty hard this weekend, and from the top to the bottom everyone did their job. So, we’re really excited; we’re going to work on a few things in the off-season, we know the direction we need to go to improve, and we’re going to come out guns ‘a blazin’ next year in the Supercross Championship.”
