The 2023 Oakland Supercross featured many up and down nights for riders in the 250SX class. Three such riders were Monster Energy Yamaha/Star Racing’s Levi Kitchen, Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas’ Pierce Brown, and Red Bull KTM’s Maximus Vohland.

For Kitchen, he nearly crashed in the first turn of his heat race and came from way back to finish fourth and then got another rough start in the main event but was able to pull out the same result. Brown looked great all day and even caught the lead group in the main event but was helped to the ground by Cameron McAdoo in a battle for third and crashed by himself again on the last lap. Vohland was at his hometown race being from Northern California and led his heat race for a while before finishing second, but the flow was a little off in the main event as he eventually finished up in seventh place.

We spoke to all three riders after the main event to hear what they had to say.

Levi Kitchen | 4th

Racer X: Starts tonight, right? You wish you could redo those?
Levi Kitchen: Yeah, both of them. Exactly. The first one, buried. Hit neutral. I rode really well in the heat actually but only got up to fourth. Had eighth gate pick and then I was all the way inside. I couldn’t do much with it. I didn’t get a very good jump, and then came around in probably 12th or so, and then just tried to work my way up. By the time those guys, Jett [Lawrence], RJ [Hampshire], Pierce, and Cameron, if they start up front like that, by the time I get to fifth or whatever, they’re so far gone. So, fourth. I’m honestly not too bummed with it, but with a start it could have been I feel like a nice podium. But I’m happy and healthy so ready to move on and take a nice five-week break.

When you start back there, you probably focus on making one pass at a time at the start, but is there a time that you look up and you think, “Oh, I could get to that spot,” and try to go for that?
There definitely is. It’s pretty hard when a track is like this. You don’t really take your eyes off the track. It’s so damn rutted out there. It was tough. I just tried to take them one by one and just try to move forward the whole time. Also adapting. I was skimming the whoops early and then I got [Enzo] Lopes skimming, and then I heard his bike and I’m like, “He’s catching me back bad.” So then, I found out it was the whoops. He was jumping them.

We knew the track would be pretty gnarly by the end of the night. Was it as gnarly as you expected, or did it actually kind of race alright?
It was definitely technical and rutted. For me, this is all still a lot of learning. This is definitely a different track. I’ve never been here. But nothing is going to top how bad A1 was. For me, it was a good racetrack. It was gnarly but it was good.

You get a win obviously back at A2. Is it disappointing to not always be up there in the mix now? You’re still pretty new to it, like you said. Are you still kind of staying measured with the approach?
I’m trying to stay measured. For me, it’s just putting myself in the right position. I did at Anaheim. Still didn’t really feel like a win if I’m being honest. There’s no doubt that I’m maybe a touch off of a couple of the guys, so I’m just trying to work to close that gap on them. I know that if I can just execute a start every weekend and be up there, you can see what happens.

Pierce Brown | 5th

Racer X: P5 on the night in the end but could have been a little bit better. I’m sure you’re kicking yourself a little bit but take me through it and how you’re feeling about your riding.
Pierce Brown: P5, could have been better. Could have been a lot better. I’m pretty upset about that performance. I shouldn’t say about the performance, just about the outcome. I felt like I was riding really good. My speed was there. I had some really good laps going and I made a pass where I should have known something was going to come back, so I can’t blame it all on 48. He definitely didn’t do me any favors, but that’s racing. He better expect one back. But all in all, just got to fix up some race craft and get a better start. We’re almost there. We’re going to keep on fighting. Best believe it. Hopefully it pays off one of these days.

Early in the main event, you passed into fourth and there was already a little bit of a gap. Were you kind of surprised how quickly you sucked back up to get up to that lead group again?
Honestly no because I was feeling really good. I knew I should have made the pass earlier. I got to halfway and I was falling into their pace. I was like, “Man, I need to go, just get past them.” Then I rushed some passes and it didn’t pay off. It’s a bummer but at the same time, that’s the first time I’ve been in the fight all year, so that feels really good. Something to learn from. Take positives from. Like I said, I’m not stoked on the night.

In my observation, from the finish until the whoops, you were gaining time on everybody. You were into the rhythm line really clean. Then that first set of whoops kind of caught you out a few times. What was it about it that you just couldn’t click with? About halfway through that main event you made a couple mistakes.
Yeah. About halfway through, I changed up my line because I started the main event skimming, and I made a lot of passes. I was actually hitting them pretty good, but had a couple moments so I was like, I need to switch to the jump line. Everybody was going jump line. But I couldn’t figure out the timing. They were tricky. You had to go two, three, three and then four out of them. If you didn’t get that four out, then you would lose a second or two. So, like I said, I fell into their pace too. I was trying to make do for what I had, but it was hard. There wasn’t really much real estate to work with. So, that was also definitely a bummer. Didn’t help me out any, but no excuses. It's racing.

This is your first round where you’re fully healthy, based on the crash at Anaheim. So, is it rewarding to see that your pace is where it’s at when you’re 100%?
Yeah, definitely rewarding. I hope people saw that I was one of the better guys out there tonight. But, at the same time, I didn’t put it all together, and that’s on me. So, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and then figure that out for next round.

We have kind of a big break, six rounds until you guys race again. What are you going to do for the next month and a half in terms of testing and training?
I’m not too sure. We’re going to make a plan tonight and see. We might hop on outdoors early and then just get that prep going just to switch it up a little bit and have some fun for a couple weeks before we hop back on Supercross. I think we have a couple weeks off. I’m not sure how many. I know we have some stuff that we want to address and try before the next round, but we’re going to have plenty of time to try it, so I’m excited.

Maximus Vohland | 7th

Racer X: P7 on the night. Just take me through your whole day, heat race and into the main event and what you thought of it all.
Maximus Vohland: Practice started off pretty good, right where I usually am. Then going into the heat race, hometown crowd, I wanted to do something for them. I envisioned me getting the start, and of course executed perfectly and got a holeshot. Rode hard and busted out a quad after the finish, so that was kind of cool. I felt like I rode good, good intensity. I was kind of showing what I was capable of. Then the main, I started around top four and just wasn’t really gelling with the track too much. I couldn’t really figure out the whoops and just didn’t feel comfortable. So, I did the best I could. Gave it my all and ended up seventh.

With the whoops changing the way that they did, how long did it take you to go into the jumping line? What were some of the options that you felt like you figured out by the end of the main event that you wish you knew earlier on?
Honestly, in the beginning, I wasn’t very comfortable skimming. So, it only took a lap or two for me to start jumping. I’m generally long legs, so you’d think I’d be better skimming but I’m pretty good at jumping myself. So, I felt comfortable with that and that’s what I felt safe with and what I felt like could be good, but in the beginning I needed to skim longer. That was really my weakest point was just not skimming the whoops enough today. At least that’s one easy thing to work on for the next one.

Talk about that quad after the finish. When did you realize you could pull that one out?
Actually, second qualifying practice I did it twice. It really wasn’t that much faster, pretty much even so it wasn’t really worth it. But where the track fresh, it was kind of slick on that inside in the heat race, so I was like, “I’m just going to quad to the outside for a couple laps.” Once that inside got broken, it was better.

This is a bit of a hometown race for you. When you come to a venue like this, how much is it actually familiar and you feel like it is a real home race to you?
I haven’t been here in a while. I’ve been here a lot when I was a little kid, but it’s been a long time since I’ve came back. Finally refreshing the memory, a little bit, but just mainly seeing all the people I usually see. Growing up up north, there’s a lot of people here from Nor Cal, a lot of familiar faces. So, that’s the kind of energy and vibe you get when you’re here at a home race. You just see a lot of familiar people and you just feel at home.

I know we have kind of a long break after this in the series. What’s your plans for the next month and a half or so?
Not really sure. We’re kind of playing it by, at the moment. For sure I’ll dab in a little bit of outdoors this first week, but with my experience in supercross, I feel like I need to focus on supercross and getting better. I’ve definitely missed a lot of races in my career, so I need to catch up for that. I feel like I’ve got some stuff to work on, especially after today. We’ll see. We’ll just see how it goes. A little bit of outdoors, but I need to focus on supercross.