After over a month off for the 250SX East Region Championship to kick off, the 250SX West Region resumed on Saturday night. We entered the sixth round of the 250SX West Region division with a three-horse title fight between Levi Kitchen, Jordon Smith, and RJ Hampshire as only five points separated the trio leaving Arizona. But now leaving Washington, costly mistakes from Smith have the #31 on the outside looking in.
In his home race, Washington’s own Kitchen holeshot and ran away with both the heat race win and, more importantly, the 250SX points-paying main event win. From the start of the night show, “The Chef” was clicking on all cylinders. He got out front off the main event start and it became a battle for second place behind the #47 Kawasaki KX250.
While running in second in the later stages of the main event, Smith got cross rutted in the rhythm section next to the whoops, came up short, and slammed down hard on the handlebars before going over the front of hisYZ250F and getting tossed into some Tuff Blox in between the two sections of the track. He looked to be shaken up—a member of the Alpinestars medical ran over to check on him—but he eventually got up, got back on his bike and picked up speed again. It was a costly mistake as he was in about 12th. Then the following lap he ran into more trouble—in the same section.
Getting lapped by Kitchen, Smith got cross rutted to the opposite (left) side of that very same section. Seconds later he rejoined the track right in the challenging part that bit him twice, without looking back. Directly in front of Talon Hawkins. Hawkins had nowhere to go so the two made contact. Hawkins stayed up, but Smith’s YZ250F was dropped to the ground one final time.
Watch Smith’s crash, and following miscues, starting around the 1:13 mark in the 250SX highlights below.
Kitchen cruised to by far the biggest gaps at the checkered flag we have seen all year—21.051 seconds—as the crowd cheered loudly for the hometown kid all the way around his final lap.
Smith came through the checkered flag 14th, only earning eight points on the night compared to Kitchen’s 25 and Hampshire’s 22. Now, after six rounds completed and only four to go, Kitchen (131 points) has an eight-point lead on Hampshire (123 points) and a 21-point lead on Smith (110 points).
![Levi Kitchen]()
Levi Kitchen Align Media ![Levi Kitchen]()
Levi Kitchen Align Media
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  R.J. Hampshire | Hudson, FL  | 208 |
| 2 |  Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA | 203 |
| 3 |  Jordon Smith | Belmont, NC | 185 |
| 4 |  Jo Shimoda | Suzuka, Japan  | 181 |
| 5 |  Nate Thrasher | Livingston, TN | 123 |
For Kitchen to get a win in his home state and leave still in the points lead? He dreamed of it. But now he actually did it.
“I definitely wouldn't have thought I'd be in this position,” Kitchen said on telling a teenage him about his night tonight. “Probably not until, you know, things started clicking when I was like 20. But I don't know, it feels really good, and I knew that this is always what I wanted to do.”
“It's nice,” he later added. “I'm living a life that I've always wanted to.”
Hampshire inherited second from Smith’s miscues but was too far back to make a push for the win. Plus, he said in the post-race press conference he knew he did not have the speed Kitchen had all day long. So, the #24 rode home a relatively clean and smart P2.
“The reality is I did not have the speed to win,” Hampshire said in the press conference. “Levi clearly had me covered all day. And honestly, after the heat race, I haven't had that feeling where I'm like, ‘Man, I can't go that fast.’ Like, that's literally where I was at. He was going ridiculously fast, and I just didn't feel comfortable doing that.”
Hampshire said he even doubled through the entire long rhythm section because he knew the track was getting rough and it could easily bite him at any point.
With four rounds remaining, this title is not Kitchen’s yet. But at this rate this are going, Hampshire might be the only championship threat left.
