Both Levi Kitchen and Justin Cooper had great rides at RedBud. Kitchen stomped the field to dominate the second moto, going 7-1 for second overall, while Cooper bounced back from a bad crash that knocked him out of High Point during qualifying to go 4-4 for third overall. Afterward the duo spoke to the media about it in the post-race press conference.
That was awesome. Levi, the hairdo. I watched you walk in from the rental car paddock today with the red, white, and blue hair. Independence Day weekend so you had to go full send here. Second moto was quite impressive. Tell us about the hair and what your thought was on the second moto getting that win.
Kitchen: Yeah. After the first one, I was pretty disappointed because I was like, "Damn, I didn’t do my hair for nothing." So I got off to a good start and got a good moto win in the second one. I was stoked. I just wanted to do something different, bring some personality into the sport and just have some fun.
Justin, on the podium. Had a tough crash, obviously. We all know about the one at High Point. Had the week off to kind of recover. What did you do to get back? I know you said you were a little bit sore before today, but to rebound and still be up on the podium you have to be a little pleased with that?
Cooper: For sure. Honestly, I don't think I would have raced if we didn’t have the weekend off. So, that did me wonders. Just got back on the bike Tuesday and kind of felt everything out and everything felt okay. Still dealing with some soreness, but I think we all are. I’m just glad to be okay and glad to be back racing. I only missed one round, but it’s not fun watching from the hospital bed, that’s for sure. Just glad to be back in the mix and hopefully we can build on this.
Levi, how is Southwick for you on that track?
Kitchen: I love that place. Last year was pretty good, so I like it.
Justin, anything special you’re going to do this week? Are you going to ride a little less or just try to get your body to heal so you’re complete? Obviously you have a lot of base to draw off of. You don’t have to train your brains out this week. Are you planning on taking it a little bit easier this week getting ready for Southwick?
Cooper: Yeah. I’m pretty happy with how I held up. I felt like I fought hard today and I didn't really get tired until late in the second moto and I hit a wall pretty bad. I think the fitness is okay. I just got to get the body to recover a little bit more, but we can now start getting back into a normal program. I think we’ll be fine from here on out. Hopefully we’ll keep it on two wheels from now on.
Levi, it’s the best finish of the season and your second podium in the last three rounds. You ended the supercross season with three podiums in the last four. Does it feel like you’re reclaiming the momentum that you had at the end of the indoor season?
Kitchen: Yeah. I don’t really compare the two too much. They’re pretty different for me. I just got to work on the starts a little bit more and I think I should be up here more. I’m looking forward to the rest of them. The tracks we’re going to soon, I really enjoy. So, I definitely think I’ll do my best to keep the momentum going and be up here every weekend.
Justin, you missed one round but this was still your third straight podium. You made up some ground on RJ [Hampshire] today. Does it feel like you’re closing the competitive gap on the points leaders?
Cooper: Losing 50 points last weekend, no! [laughs] I’m quite a bit out of it, but the goal for me is to just do the best I can, and that’s winning. We’re going to have to start clicking off moto wins. I think we can be there, just had a tough few weeks and just trying to build myself back from that.
Levi, you’ve mentioned the last two years pretty much if you can get a start, you can run up front. You’ve kind of shown that. Obviously you’ve mentioned the starts are a little inconsistent. Do the grates have anything to play with that? Is there anything you can point out that you specifically need to work on with the starts? Is it your approach with blocks or anything like that? Just talk a little bit about that and maybe how the metal grates have impacted your starts. Is that part of it as well?
Kitchen: Yeah, I’ve never been the greatest starter, but supercross they were coming around pretty good. The hardest thing now with the grates is it’s really all come down to reaction time now, because if somebody gets an elbow on you you’re kind of screwed. Where before it was more technique with the dirt and how the dirt would change. So really my starts aren’t bad, just today I got pinched off right off the gate, so you can’t really do anything. But definitely starting up in the top five, even top ten, I don't know what I was the first one, but it helps so much, just that track position. You can’t give it away.
Justin, with losing points last weekend not being able to race the motos, thinking big picture for SuperMotocross Championship maybe? Is that still in the back of your mind? Maybe the motocross championship isn’t there, but at the end of the season you still want to be competitive through the end of the year. Talk a bit about that approach.
Cooper: We don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just going to try to start doing the best I can, and I want to go out and win. I haven’t done that in quite some time now, and I feel like it’s there. Just got to keep doing my best. I felt like I was close before I crashed. That was kind of a little bump in the road, but I want to put that behind me. Starting off with a podium is good. I want to be consistent. I want to be up front. I want to be battling for these wins. For now, just taking it race by race. I think once we get further down the road we’ll know more. But for now, just doing the best that I can at each race.
For all three of you guys, this is maybe a little bit far ahead but we’re at RedBud. This is where Motocross of Nations was last year. Hypothetically speaking, say you guys would get selected individually, what would that mean to you?
Cooper: I’m out. I’m getting married that day.
Kitchen: Yeah, I would definitely be interested in doing it. It seems cool. I don’t really think about it too much.
