MX2 Motocross World Championship leader Ken Roczen made a stunning return to the West Coast Lites AMA Supercross series on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, racing to second despite focusing on outdoors in Europe over the past few weeks.

After missing the Seattle round, the result marked the Red Bull KTM rookie’s best ever in supercross, the perfect way for the German rising star to celebrate his 17th birthday, which was on Friday.

Roczen started the day well turning lap times within the top five in practice which led to a great gate pick in his heat.

From that point Roczen finished second in his heat race and then worked his way from fifth to second in the main event.

“I made a few mistakes in the heat race. I was still trying to adjust to the track and was glad to take away second,” Roczen explained. “I am very excited to top my best finish in my first race back.

“The time change is always difficult for me when I come back from Europe and I felt a little tired tonight and was glad to put a decent race together with such short time back in the U.S.”

Roczen will contest this weekend’s season finale in Vegas before turning his attention to the U.S. Grand Prix at Glen Helen on 15 May just one weekend later.