One of the longest-running streaks in this sport’s history remains intact. Barely. Kawasaki had not gone a full season without a win in either class since 1981. Yet as the 2023 calendar flipped to its last event, the brand had yet to win anything in AMA racing. We, in fact, already had a magazine story in the works about Kawasaki’s season from hell, which included a tough season for perennial race winner Jason Anderson, a rebuilding year for Adam Cianciarulo, and a slew of injuries for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki 250 team. At the Ironman National, though, Jo Shimoda delivered the overall victory, and thus Kawasaki kept the streak intact.
Read: Green Daze feature in November 2023 issue of Racer X Illustrated
By then it was known that Shimoda was leaving for Honda. The lack of wins before Ironman just underscored what a tough year it had been for the boys in green, which only underscored how few tough years that group usually has. Plus, Shimoda was leaving. For all factory teams, the highs in this sport are very high, but that’s usually accompanied by low spots. Kawasaki’s specialty is avoiding those. From the Jeff Ward/Ron Lechien days in the 1980s through Mike Kiedrowski and LaRocco, through Jeff Emig, Ricky Carmichael, Ryan Villopoto and Eli Tomac, plus all of that success for Mitch Payton and his Pro Circuit team in the small-bore class, Kawasaki doesn’t have lean times. Even in 2015, when the team was caught on the back foot because Villopoto didn’t want to race Monster Energy Supercross anymore, and Davi Millsaps’ run as his replacement fizzled completely, Chad Reed delivered a 450SX win with his TwoTwo Motorsports KX450F in Atlanta. Usually, something good happens. In 2023, not so much.
Last week, we saw the gang gathered at Angel Stadium for Media Days, when the folks at Feld Motor Sports produce TV content, photos, promotional material and more to get ready for the new year. We got to meet with the Monster Energy /Pro Circuit Kawasaki crew and get the latest, which did unfortunately include a little injury news. Cameron McAdoo had gone down that week and hurt his shoulder a bit. We hear he’s avoided the worst and should just have to take a few weeks off. He should be okay. Others are looking very, very forward to a fresh start.
That begins with the two new recruits, Levi Kitchen and Maximus Vohland. Kitchen was a prized free agent, with the obvious talent and speed to be the next big thing. Surprisingly, Levi wanted out of the powerful Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing outfit, but he’s stated that he didn’t really feel the team riding concept is the best way to maximize his performance. Specifically, he explained that because the team has to essentially race each other every day on the stopwatch, it doesn’t leave time to work on other things. When he was younger, Levi would sometimes log endless laps on turn track over and over to work on technique. He feels some of his skills actually took a step back because the team concept left him chasing nothing but the stopwatch on the big track. Still, he figured out how to go fast and log a hot lap time, and on many days, he was fastest rider on the team, so he would often start the team motos first.
“I think you guys saw what happened when I was out front,” he explained. “I was fine.”
Kitchen feels he needs more time chasing to get better at coming through the pack. He’s hooked up with a new training group, with Chase Sexton and Tom Vialle at Moto Sandbox, plus Ken Roczen will be around as well. He would like to mix it up more, do things differently. He asked Star if he could make such a move, but the team requested he stay with his teammates at The GOAT Farm, which the team owns. Meanwhile, other teams saw an opening.
“That was one of the quote “sales” features for us, was to give Levi a little more freedom where he wasn’t locked in on riding the same track every day, with the same guys every single day,” says Mitch Payton. “He wanted a little more freedom. If I wanted him, I had to do that.”
Funny enough, Kitchen made contact with Vialle and Sexton partially because he was considering signing with KTM. Kitchen didn’t like the bike, so he didn’t sign to ride orange, but he kept in touch with Sexton and Vialle. He’s also picked up some work with Sexton’s trainer, Peter Park, and he’s gotten stronger while working on posture and durability, saying he’s put on nearly 10 pounds. The arrangement is looser than what he had at Star, though. Levi will also spend some time in California with the other Kawasaki riders. He won’t be on the watch against Sexton and Vialle every day.
There are plenty of fast guys to learn from at the Kawasaki test track. “Jason [Anderson] is phenomenal at the practice track,” Kitchen says. “I’ve never seen someone so good at a practice track. Everyone kinda helps each other. Jason and even [Kawasaki test rider, Broc] Tickle.”
The other new Pro Circuit addition is Max Vohland. This is more Payton’s deal, because Kawasaki was content with four riders, but Mitch really wanted to add Vohland, which required a fifth spot. For Max, this all led to a long, stressful season of not knowing where he would end up, or if he would get a ride at all.
“It was very stressful all year not knowing if you were gonna have a deal,” said Vohland.
Vohland’s 2023 season was still empty of that elusive podium. His three-year stint with KTM was over, but there was so much more to that story. Vohland got drafted onto the factory pro team for 2021, but that was a year earlier than he had expected. In 2020, he planned to cut some teeth grinding in Europe on a 125 in the EMX series, but COVID cancelled those races and those plans. Then KTM moved the TLD squad over to GasGas and needed a 250 rider for ‘21. Vohland moved up, going from learning on a 125 to trying to learn a 250F on supercross, and quickly. Somewhat predictably, he got hurt, and supercross results have not come easy since. That’s surprising, because many insiders marvel at Max’s bike skills. He developed those by racing BMX when he was younger, and still hits the pump tracks whenever he can. Payton feels that someday those skills are going to align with results. Plus, he knows Max will put in the work. One time, when Max found himself out of more supercross races with an injury, he rebuilt his base by taking a “David Goggins Challenge.” For 48 hours, he ran four miles every four hours. Actually, Max got so pushed to do another four miles at 50 hours. Think about that!
As the fifth man on the team, Vohland could hit and make Payton look like a genius. Max is happy with the bike, because it’s a proven chassis with a few years of development. Over at KTM, he and the other 250 riders were chasing things on a new platform the last two years. He’s made few changes to the KX250 since getting on it and feels a little more at home with the team because his dad, Tallon, rode for the squad twenty years ago.
Kawi is often about having that family feel. Austin Forkner and Seth Hammaker have been around since the Team Green days, and Cianciarulo recently posted that he’s been riding for Kawasaki longer than Jett Lawrence has been alive! The only long-time Team Green rider that got cut loose was Ryder DiFrancesco. Kawasaki let him walk to Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull GasGas. We’ll see if that move comes back to haunt them. Shimoda left, also, but Kawasaki simply wasn’t as aggressive in the bidding as others. We’ll see if adding Kitchen and Vohland ends up making up for those departures.
Unfortunately, much of this gang has been injured too much. When we checked in last week, Forkner was only just getting back into supercross. He his injured knee required a second surgery after the season. But he’s trying to change his mental outlook. Forkner recently got married, and he says his entire wedding party was made up of buddies he grew up riding with. Forkner is the only one of them still making a living as a pro. It made him realize that, while injuries are frustrating, maybe life isn’t so bad. He still has a factory motorcycle and a chance to win again. He doesn’t have to do this, he gets to do this. It’s a position most people would love to be in, and that’s an important distinction.
Hammaker is all healed up after a big crash at the SMX finale in Los Angeles. Expect him to be back to his usual good starts and speed. Really, for this squad, speed and starts, which are the hardest thing to find, are rarely in question. Due to injury, that wasn’t translating into wins, let alone titles, in 2023. Will this year be different? As always in December, optimism is in the air. If this squad just makes it to the races healthy, that win streak should have no problems continuing.