Levi Kitchen looked exhausted. Mentally spent. He had not even raced yet. We was just tired from an all-day deluge of well-wishers at his home race. He was signing so many autographs, catching up with so many old fans, posing for so many selfies. When the Kawasaki autograph session finally ended, I saw him retreat into the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki lounge just to get a moment to collect himself. He needed to refocus on racing, because the fans were absolutely jamming up against the fences of his pit, trying to get one more signature, one more photo.
That focus worked, because he nailed the holeshot in his heat race, and the stands erupted. For the rest of the night, he was in control, and the faithful knew it. In NFL circles, Lumen Field is famously loud, as it was actually designed, acoustically, to amplify crowd noise. The Seattle Seahawks call it the 12th man, with the crowd being so loud as to actually feel like there’s an additional player on the gridiron. Well, those stands resonated for Kitchen when he pulled the holeshot in the heat and the main.
“It was definitely big for me,” Kitchen said. “It was a little nerve wracking when I came around the first lap and it was like super loud. Bu yeah, it kind of feels like my first one because I've only won Triple Crowns. So, to do that in front of all the fans and stuff was pretty awesome and the noise, you could hear that. You could feel it.”
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"The Chef" during opening ceremonies. Align Media ![Heat race win: check.]()
Heat race win: check. Align Media ![]()
Align Media ![Main event win: check.]()
Main event win: check. Align Media
He also felt a little bit of that famous “Neck Burn” as James Stewart would call it, because this was a real main event win and not a calculated Triple Crown overall.
“I was telling my girlfriend, I got the flames finally for the first time,” he said. “I mean, that was the only way I could put it, I needed the flames to go up for once. I don't know, it just feels better to lead 15 minutes rather than putting three motos together.”
Kitchen was on another level all night. RJ Hampshire, one of his chief championship rivals and one of the hardest-chargers in the sport, knew he had no shot at this one. Kitchen's margin of victory, 21 seconds, is the largest in any race in either class this season.
“I mean, just the reality was, I did not have the speed to win,” said Hampshire. “Levi clearly had me covered all day. After the heat race, like, 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. So, our suspension guy made a really good call. I went back on everything that we tested for the six-week break and went back to the same bike I raced at Phoenix for the main event. Once I got into third, I was like, okay, hey, I'll take that tonight. Like, it's been a rough day. And yeah, once I've saw Smitty [Jordon Smith] go down, it was like, okay. I'm pretty sure I started doubling that rhythm. Just really a tough night. I did not have what Levi had.”
Seattle - 250SX West Main Event
March 23, 2024| Rider | Time | Interval | Best Lap | Hometown | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Levi Kitchen | 18 Laps | 52.027 | Washougal, WA  | Kawasaki KX250 | |
| 2 |  R.J. Hampshire | +21.051 | 52.829 | Hudson, FL | Husqvarna FC 250 | |
| 3 |  Jo Shimoda | +25.969 | 53.343 | Suzuka, Japan  | Honda CRF250R | |
| 4 |  Garrett Marchbanks | +30.128 | 53.694 | Coalville, UT | Yamaha YZ250F | |
| 5 |  Carson Mumford | +37.666 | 54.202 | Simi Valley, CA | Honda CRF250R |
The question Hampshire must now ask is if this was just a one-night only home-crowd performance from Kitchen, or if this is perhaps a new level of speed he will have to chase. Kitchen is actually into just his second full supercross season, and Seattle was only his 17th career SX race. There’s room for improvement. Was this just a Seattle thing, or did he get this much better over the break? Perhaps the question gets answered this weekend in St. Louis, which is another Triple Crown. Kitchen knows the work is far from done, so he didn’t spend too much time celebrating the Seattle win.
“I'm just gonna go over across the street actually and see some family and friends and then go back to Florida and get ready for next weekend,” he said. “But yeah, it's huge for me. Just the confidence, but it's also one of those things, you just have to take every race as it comes and tonight I really gelled with the track. Next week one of these guys could really gel with the track. So, we're all pretty close right now and, and we all have our really good days and sometimes we're a little bit off, so I've been in the position RJ is in plenty of times.”
Regardless of next week or this season as a whole, he’ll always be able to look back at this Seattle win as a special one. As a relatively late bloomer in the amateur ranks, the Kitchen family never took this level of success for granted. Our Mitch Kendra asked Kitchen about this in the post-race press conference.
“I definitely wouldn't have thought I'd be in this position,” he said. “Probably not until 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. I'm just stoked and pretty grateful to be in this spot.”
He’s also refined his process, taking the risky path by leaving the powerful Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team. This wasn’t just about a different motorcycle with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki, it was about the freedom to build his own training and practice program instead of following a team model at Star.
“I'm living a life that I've always wanted to and yeah, it's so far paying off and I'm really, really happy.”
