What Really Happened in Anaheim 2?
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Ken Roczen has yet to win a race, lead a lap, win qualifying or even pull a hoelshot, but he owns the red plate because he’s winning the battle within the first 60 feet of the race.
Ken Roczen is ‘winning’ the start position race
Roczen hasn’t yet pulled a holeshot this season but his average start position (where he is at the white line) is 5th, two spots better than the rest of the championship contenders.
Then he converts those strong starts into even better finishes, improving by +2 positions and averaging 3rd place.
Just as critical, Roczen is finding the speed he needs when it counts with a fastest lap rank in the main events of 3rd. Among the field, only Chase Sexton (2nd) has a better overall pace this year.
Positions & Speed, First Three Rounds
The above is a complete contrast of qualifying, where Roczen has the worst average amongst the championship contenders (+1.7). When points are on the line, he’s simply delivered in the first three rounds.

First Lap Focus
I can even show you exactly where Roczen has made such an improvement this year. It all comes down to the first lap.
While his start positions are identical to last year, Roczen has avoided the first lap mistakes that plagued his early 2024 season. His 2025 average first lap position (where he is at the end of lap 1) is +7 positions better this season after 3 rounds than it was in 2024 after 3 rounds.
Ken Roczen 2024 vs. 2025 – First Three Rounds
The final key to Roczen’s success is his consistency. He’s been mistake-free this season and is the only rider to finish in the top five in all three rounds, including two podiums.
Unlike other championship contenders, he’s had no crashes or tip overs. He hasn’t even needed the kickstarter on his RM-Z.

Of the five keys to winning a Supercross championship, Roczen has been flawless in four of them and now Suzuki has their first championship lead in over a decade.
As you can see in the list below, there is only one ‘key’ left to turn (while maintaining the other four). No rider in the history of the sport has ever won the championship without winning at least one race.
The 5 keys to a championship
- Starts
- Passing
- Mistake Free
- Speed
- Wins
Deegan Dominated
Haiden Deegan came close to a flawless weekend. Aside from an uncharacteristic 3rd place finish in qualifying, he dominated every other metric for the rest of the night. He won his heat race and outpaced championship rival Julien Beaumer’s best lap time by +0.7 seconds.
In the main event, Deegan took the holeshot, led every lap, and once again topped Beaumer’s best lap time—this time by +0.4 seconds. Deegan ultimately won the race by +4.5 seconds with this superior speed.

Deegan Destroyed the Whoops
The whoops continue to play a critical role this season. At A2, they were even more significant as it was the first track this year to feature two back-to-back sets and Deegan used that to gain +0.27 seconds a lap on Beaumer!
Speed Advantage by Segment

- Beaumer was only faster than Deegan in three segments: S1, S6, and S8, gaining a +0.23 second advantage.
- Deegan erased that gap entirely in the whoops (S2 & S3), where he held a +0.27 second advantage.
- Deegan was also faster across all other segments, adding an additional +0.17 seconds to his lead.

If Beaumer could’ve matched Deegan’s pace in the whoops, the race outcome could’ve been entirely different. Eliminating the whoops, Beaumer was +0.06 seconds faster than Deegan.
But there were whoops, two sets of them, and Haiden Deegan used a +0.27 second advantage to win his first race of the season and cut the lead to 7 points heading into the final west region round before a two round break while the east region races in Tampa and Detroit.