After finishing second place in Denver, Levi Kitchen has now stood on every step of the podium in only his first full season of Monster Energy AMA Supercross (he was injured at the second round in Arlington, Texas, in 2022). Proving to be a quick learner and with another year under his belt, Kitchen should be a title contender in 2024. Our Aaron Hansel caught up with the Washington native after the race to see how his night went.
Racer X: Pretty good day for you. Walk us through it.
Levi Kitchen: It was pretty uneventful. Then in qualifying two I had something going on with my knee, so I pulled off and went and got it worked on. It felt a lot better for the night show so that was good. Then I executed in my heat race, won that, so that was great. In the main I got off to a pretty good start and got to the lead fairly early. I knew RJ [Hampshire] was going to be good. He caught me and we had a little battle, and he ended up framing the double before the whoops, which gave me some time. I got up to those lappers, and I haven’t been in that position very many times. I didn’t execute and I’m a little bit upset over that. Taking the positives though, I mean, second, I can’t be too mad about that. We were close and I look forward to building off that.
Take us through that second-to-last lap. It looked like you had a little something for Hampshire in that rhythm lane. It looked like you were going to get him back.
I really should have tripled to the inside there and tried to push him out. It didn’t even go through my head for some reason because I was so used to going 2-1 to the inside right there. Looking back now, I’m going to lose some sleep over that race for a few nights. But overall, it was a great day. Looking forward to next weekend.
When you get a good lead on a guy like that, on Hampshire, what’s it like when you see him coming back again? Is it like, “Man, this guy again”!? Is it frustrating?
Yeah, it’s frustrating and really, I shouldn’t have let it happen. I’m better than that. And obviously he was riding great, but I dropped two seconds a lap. It was just getting in those lappers, and I stopped hitting my marks. I missed a few rhythms several times. RJ is always going to be there at the end, and I should have known better.
Well, nerves are involved too, right? Leading a race is no joke.
Yeah, and like I said, I haven’t been there very many times. All the thoughts go through your head. You’re like, ‘Oh, I got this.’ Then, ‘Shoot, he’s catching me!’ It’s easy to lose focus. I got a little too content probably.
How’d the track hold up today? For a while it looked like it was going to get super hard and slick, but it seemed like it ended up a little better than it could have.
Yeah, it was decent. I liked the track quite a bit. I wish the whoops were bigger, they were pretty small, but other than that, I think they did a great job. Looking at years past, I think it held up better than it has. It’s my first time here, but it looked great.
