Today, Suzuki officially announced that Ken Roczen had signed a new deal to remain with the Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki squad for 2026. The brand hopes to keep him around longer than that, also, but for now, this is just a one-year extension.

Roczen re-upping with his current team seems like a simple plan, but it was actually a little more complex than that. We heard many rumors this season about Roczen's status, as his deal was up and he'd certainly raised his own stock over these last three seasons back on Suzukis. Remember the Ken Roczen of late 2022, who was such a free agent that he literally went around trying different bikes in public? There wasn't a ton of interest in Ken by factory teams at that time, as he was coming off a tough season where he couldn't even finish all 17 Monster Energy Supercross races, physically. At one point, it looked like Ken might have to build his own program, until he started racing well again with Yarrive Konsky's Australian-based Honda team (known as QuadLock Honda in America) in the inaugural season of FIM WSX. But just when it seemed like Ken might join Konsky's U.S. operation, he test rode the HEP Suzuki in California. He liked it, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ken became the feel-good story of 2023. He was back on a familiar brand he'd raced with multiple times earlier in his career, but also one that had struggled to win races...honestly since Roczen's last season on yellow in 2016! Roczen's 2023 victory at the Indianapolis Supercross, complete with a kickstarter in hand on the podium, renewed everyone's love for the popular German rider. He followed that with a great performance in the first season of the SMX World Championship, more success in WSX, and Monster Energy AMA Supercross wins in 2024 and 2025, as well. Roczen also forged a great relationship with Team Manager Larry Brooks.

With all that, Roczen was well back on the radar as a race-winning 450 guy, and there aren't many of those. That led to rumors of other teams interested in his services again, like Roczen joining Ducati's new team with Troy Lee Designs. Heck, recently, there were even rumors that Monster Energy Kawasaki could add Roczen to replace Jorge Prado for a 450 slot. Crazy stuff.

Meanwhile, HEP Suzuki owner Dustin Pipes never acted worried when he heard the Roczen rumors brought up. In the end, his team will remain the home of Ken Roczen for 2026, and Pipes hopes for more.

“We've achieved great success together and look forward to continuing to build upon it," said Pipes in today's press release. "We want to see Ken on a yellow Suzuki motorcycle for the rest of his career."