Ken Roczen: "You guys might try to get me to change my mentality, but I'm not"

TL;DR

Ken Roczen secured his fourth win of the season in Cleveland, Ohio, after finishing second in the first two features of the Triple Crown. His performance included a celebratory wheelie, while Hunter Lawrence struggled with another poor finish.

Key points

Ken Roczen won his fourth race of the season
He finished second in the first two features of the Triple Crown
Roczen celebrated with a wheelie during the race
Hunter Lawrence finished one lap down
Lawrence had his second poor finish of 2026

Mentioned in this story

Cleveland, Ohio

Ken RoczenHunter LawrenceTriple Crown

Ken Roczen won his fourth race of the season in Cleveland, Ohio, last week after finishing second in the first two features of the Triple Crown at Huntington Bank Field and winning the finale.

On his way down the final straightaway, he pulled a wheelie and saluted the fans, creating the only moment of anxiety for team owner, Dustin Pipes. Well behind him on the track and scored one lap down, Hunter Lawrence had his second poor finish of 2026.

SX 2026 Rd 14 Cleveland 450 Ken Roczen wheelie.jpg

Cleveland Reset Expectations

Until the past few weeks, Roczen was rarely the primary focus of the 2026 SuperMotocross World Championship. Other than a victory in Glendale, Arizona, in Round 5, Roczen had been considered the third man in a two-man battle for the title until three rounds ago.

It was not as if he struggled; Roczen finished in the top five in all but two races. But Lawrence and Eli Tomac were almost perfect during that span of races, and Roczen slowly lost contact with the leaders.

Questions arose as to whether Roczen needed to modify his approach. Even after his disappointing Seattle effort, week in and week out, the answer has been an emphatic 'no.'

"I don't know if it's frustrating or not, but we see things, and we're like, maybe we can be a little bit better there and whatnot," Pipes said following Roczen's Cleveland victory. "And he's like, ‘Nope, just keep it,’ and it's working, so we're not going to change it until he tells us."

The saving grace for Lawrence in Cleveland was his Race 1 win, which minimized the damage associated with a 14th-place finish in Race 3. Lawrence finished sixth overall to Roczen's victory, but that was enough to allow him to hang onto the red plate. It created a virtual tie at the top of the championship leaderboard between the Australian-born Lawrence and German-born Roczen.