Ken Roczen Advances in Standings at SMX World Championship Playoff Round 1
Playoff 1 of the SMX World Championship kicked off the 2025 post-season with a high-speed, hybrid Supercross/motocross track built inside zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s 4-lane dragway. Post-season events determine results based on a two-moto race format, but lightning and heavy rains created a rare cancellation of the second motos in both 450SMX and 250SMX classes.
Race Highlights:
Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki
450 Class
Ken Roczen advanced three positions in the SMX World Championship standings.
Twisted Tea Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance
450 Class
Kyle Chisholm returned to racing and missed qualifying by only one position.
Ken Roczen (94) fought into a top-three position in the early laps of the sole 450SMX Class moto at zMAX Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Ken Roczen (94) grabbed a top-five qualifying spot in the opening session, and posted a fastest sector time in each of the two qualifying sessions. Roczen’s top-five overall qualifying position gave him a good gate pick for the first moto. On a unique split start, Roczen put his Suzuki RM-Z450 inside top-five when the 22-rider pack crossed the holeshot stripe. Roczen moved into the top three in the very next corner, then held the spot for the first quarter of the 20-minute plus one lap moto. Roczen rode smart under brutal track conditions, including strong winds that preceded lightning and rain. Roczen crossed the checkered flag with a sixth-place result. During an extended weather delay, the riders were told there would be no second moto; Roczen’s first moto score held as his result for Playoff 1.
“Overall, I had a so-so weekend just getting back in the swing of things,” said Roczen. “These tracks are always a little bit unique, and we definitely got challenged; the dirt was soft, the jumps were kind of big, and it got really rutty, so it was very, very gnarly. I ended up sixth in the first moto after a good start. I know I can do better, but I’m also trying to just be better at every single race that I go to. And especially since the points are being doubled and tripled now, the races coming up are more important than this one. They cancelled the second race due to lightning and too much rain, so we’ll leave here with a sixth place, and I hope to improve going into these next couple of rounds.”
Kyle Chisholm (11) in his first professional race since the Supercross final in May, showed excellent speed on the hybrid SM/MX track in Charlotte.
Kyle Chisholm (11) showed no signs that he’d taken a nearly four-month break from racing when he posted a fastest sector time in the first unseeded qualifying session. Chisholm, after forgoing the outdoor motocross season, was seeded into the post-season in 27th position. This means he will have to race the Wildcard race at each round to earn a spot into the motos. In the Charlotte Wildcard race, Chisholm got a mid-pack start. Over the 5-minute plus one lap race Chisholm was not able to secure a qualifying spot, and unfortunately missed a spot in the points-paying moto by a single position.
“The day didn’t go how I wanted it to, but to be honest I only had about six or seven days of riding leading up to this since Salt Lake City, so not a lot of prep time like I normally would have,” stated Chisholm. “I didn’t have really high of expectations coming in, but I felt pretty good riding, and my lap times were good. I rode better than I thought I would. I was happy about that, and I just need to qualify better and make it happen in the race. We’ll get a little bit more work done this week and then try again in St. Louis.”
“It was a bit challenging this weekend,” said Larry Brooks, Team Manager for the Twisted Tea/H.E.P. Motorsports/Suzuki presented by Progressive Insurance team. “We had rain on Thursday night and the track was pretty muddy on Friday when we rode press day. They did a lot of track work and made the track quite a bit better, but if you got out of the main line it was real soupy; they used a lot of mulch and sand on the track and it was very difficult to get around it without making a mistake. [As for Saturday], we did pretty good this weekend. Kyle Chisholm had to race the Wildcard race and he missed [qualifying] by one spot, so he was the alternate. Ken Roczen qualified fifth; this was his second race back after his ankle surgery. In the first moto he got into third place and rode at the front of the pack for a long time, then dropped back to sixth by the end of the race. The track was just really difficult, and he’s just been back on a bike for three or four weeks now, so I thought he rode really good. Then a big rainstorm came after the first 450 moto and completely destroyed the track. We had lightning and thunder, and the AMA has a rule that if lightning strikes in your vicinity, then it’s a 30-minute delay, and that kept happening. So, it was 30-minute delay, 30-minute delay, 30-minute delay, and then it started pouring. The rain was just torrential rain and ended up just destroying the track so that they couldn’t even race. They called the second motos, so the overall on the day was only the first moto score, which was sixth for Ken. We’re happy and we’re going to load up and head to St. Louis for next weekend.”
The three-event post-season drops the gate for Playoff 2 on Saturday, September 13th inside The Dome at America’s Center. The venue has hosted Supercross events, but this will be the first post-season race and first hybrid SX/MX track inside the dome. The points will double at the St. Louis round, then triple at the Final on September 20th at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Suzuki riders and team members are looking to deliver more strong performances at the final two races of the 31-round SMX World Championship.
Please visit SuzukiCycles.com/Racing/Motocross and HEPMotorsports.com for more team news.
