CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
K
en Roczen certainly
etched his name in the
AMA Pro Motocross record
books with his outstanding
2016 championship sea-
son. His 584 points was
the fourth-highest point
total a rider has achieved
in the premier division in
Pro Motocross history and
is the most since 2008
when James Stewart
earned 600 points during
an undefeated season.
It marked Roczen's
second 450 Motocross
National Championship
in three years and the
German ace more than
doubled his career 450 MX
win total going from six national
wins coming into 2016 and
ending the summer adding nine
more to bring his total tally to
15-career 450 MX victories.
His dominant year in the Lucas
Oil AMA Pro Motocross Cham-
pionship leapfrogged Roczen
up from 20th on the all-time
450MX wins list to a tie for
eighth with Motorcycle Hall of
Famer Jeremy McGrath. With
another decent season in 2017
Roczen could easily break into
the top-five all-time. If he does
so it will be one of the most
rapid ascensions ever on the
all-time wins list.
Roczen was nearly unbeat-
able this season. The one stat,
beside the points he scored,
that really stands out is his
20 wins in 24 motos (he also
finished on the podium in 23 of
24 motos). Eli Tomac was the
only rider able to beat Roczen
straight up this year. If you recall,
the one moto Roczen lost to
Ryan Dungey at Glen Helen was
due to a collapsed front fork.
The banner season was
historic for the RCH Soaring
Eagle/Jimmy John's/Suzuki
Factory Racing effort as well,
with the Carey Hart and Ricky
Carmichael led effort becoming
the first privately owned team to
win a 450-class title.
It would have been interest-
ing to see what might have
happened had Dungey stayed
healthy, but based on the early
rounds it looked as if Roczen
was going to be very tough
to beat even for KTM's 2015
champ. Eli Tomac, who was
clearly on another level from
the rest of the field at the start
of the 2015 MX season before
he suffered injury, never quite
regained that dominant speed
this summer, even though he
showed flashes of brilliance
en route to scoring two overall
victories on the season with his
new Kawasaki squad.
Three riders winning in the
450 class in 2016 (Roczen
MOTOCROSS 2016 BY THE NUMBERS
P120
It was a year to remember for
Ken Roczen in the 2016 outdoor
motocross nationals.
