Ken Roczen speaks to WSX writer, Adam Wheeler about his desire to race in the World Supercross Championship, thinking outside the box and leaving a legacy.

The yellow bike, the Red Bull helmet, the Fox gear, the #94. Is there a more recognisable figure in international supercross than Ken Roczen? We asked the German for his thoughts on what made him so good, his willingness to travel and race, and the first feelings of a legacy.

All the pieces of the puzzle were in place at an early age for Roczen: the flowing blond hair, youthful outgoing flamboyance, the poster-boy looks, excellent English for a teenage German, and, wow, could he ride a dirtbike.

In 2025, Roczen reached his 31st birthday, but it feels like he’s been part of the motocross and supercross establishment for so long. His origins story is almost legend. Towards the end of the ‘00s, he didn’t shine at the famous annual Loretta Lynn’s amateur gathering in the U.S. because of injury but caught the eye in European Championship races where he forged a spiritual relationship with Suzuki.

Roczen had to wait until round five of the 2009 FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship and his 15th birthday before he could make his Grand Prix debut in Portugal and surprised many with a 7th position overall. One race later, he grabbed his first top three classification. Another three rounds on came a momentous maiden home victory at Teutschenthal: Germany had a new hero, and motocross had an adolescent ‘wunderkind’.

That Sunday, 10th May 2009, was the ignition switch on the Roczen career rocket. Championship contention, 2010 Motocross of Nations glory, a 2011 MX2 title with Red Bull KTM and then the United States followed.

A 250cc Supercross crown arrived in 2013 and then straight into premier class glory with the 2014 450MX gold medal. Roczen rubbed shoulders with pop stars, fronted advertising and multimillion marketing campaigns, took bold decisions with his team and bike swaps and then captured the hearts and imagination of fans worldwide with his recovery from potential career-ending injury and sickness.

Roczen had the image and the profile, but he also had the ability. He made miles and hundreds of laps in thick Belgian sand to round out his skill set and became accomplished in every condition and on every terrain. Part of his brilliance was the capacity to adapt and improvise.

Roczen was, and still is, a formidable opponent with barely a chink in his armour. He would hone his supercross art and his openness to World Supercross helped him rise to the position of world champion again in 2022 and 2023.

“For whatever reason I’m not a moto guy anymore!” he smiles. “For well over three quarters of the year I ride supercross and even though I’ve done it for many years you have to stack up against the best and carry that standard. I get the supercross ‘eyes’; it’s a lot slower [than motocross] and it’s a different type of racing and of thinking about the race. I’ve transitioned! And that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to ride motocross but with my knee injury last year and the ankle this season there were a lot of months in the summer where I missed that side.”

Asked about making a difference and being able to thrive to claim at least one premier class supercross win every season since 2019, Roczen believes his ‘game face’ and mentality is the separator.

“Every sport; I think you can be creative,” he states. “It’s about thinking outside the box. There are a lot of tracks that are very one-line, and you can’t just jump across the track to another one. Once you’re in the rut, then you’re stuck in it, so having a vision for the race is what you need.

“You need a start and then just make the magic happen. For some of that stuff, you either ‘have it’ or you don’t. There is no way to really prepare for it because when you practice, you are not in a racing environment…and I was always a racer: when the gate dropped, the BS stopped. I’ve never been a good practiser.”

From testing electric bikes to having an open mentality to his agenda, he has routinely embraced the internationalism of racing. “Man, the last few years have opened up a whole other door for me,” he says. “I was domesticated in the U.S. because we were so busy, but being able to race World Supercross and go to these other countries I’ve never been to is really cool.

“I grew up in the world championship and travelling to Sweden or Brazil or the U.S. to race, and that just stopped because of the schedule there. In World Supercross, we’re racing the best in the world, and it has truly been a fun ride. I’ve been able to see many new things late in my career and adapt to a new schedule and format: it’s super-cool.”

For an athlete and father of two that has already made such an imprint on the sport of supercross, Roczen is only partly aware of his status. He’s still in the ‘bubble’ of training, competing, and focus but that doesn’t stop him feeling the love from fans across the world.

“The feedback I get from all over the world is nothing short of amazing,” he says. “I was thinking about it the other day; I saw a video of myself from behind with the #94 on the jersey, and I thought ‘man, I’ve kinda made this like an iconic symbol’ and luckily a bike with a 94 is known around the world. It’s a really good feeling.”

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