Everyone had the Nashville Supercross circled on their schedule. The Music City was not only back on the schedule for a round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross in the spring, but it would bring an East/West Showdown, bringing both 250cc divisions together for the first time all season. All the top 250SX riders in the same race, plus throw in a tight 450SX Championship battle. Sign us up! Now, a little over 12 hours after the race has ended, the circle remains on this race—but for a different reason. We all anticipated great racing and championship battles here in the final stretch of the season, but no one could have predicted the chaos that would ensue when the gates dropped! But this wild night will be remembered for a long time—especially when you consider what happened in the 450SX main event as well.
Entering the day, Cameron McAdoo had a four-point lead over Tom Vialle and a 13-point lead over Haiden Deegan in the 250SX East Region Championship, and Levi Kitchen had a 15-point lead over RJ Hampshire and a 26-point lead over Jordon Smith in the 250SX West Region Championship. While anything can happen in racing—and eventually it all happened—things were looking good for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team. But that was not the case come about 8:15 p.m. local time.
![Levi Kitchen's race bike.]()
Levi Kitchen's race bike. Align Media ![Cameron McAdoo's race bike.]()
Cameron McAdoo's race bike. Align Media
It all started for McAdoo in the second qualifying session, when a run-in, that seemed avoidable but accidental, with Logan Leitzel resulted in the #63 on the ground (Leitzel apologized on Instagram for the collision). Clearly banged up from the incident, McAdoo scooped up his mechanic Derek Dwyer and rode off through the tunnel a few minutes before the session had ended. Little did we know then, but McAdoo and Dwyer would leave the main event early in similar fashion…
A ninth-place finish from McAdoo in the 250SX East Region heat race, and a sixth from Kitchen in the 250SX West Region heat probably had the crew sweating some, but they both transferred through to the main event.
Off the start of the East/West Showdown points-paying main event, things went even more south quickly. Hampshire got the holeshot ahead of Smith, Jo Shimoda, and Tom Vialle with the two Kawasaki championship teammates about seventh and eighth. But on the double into the second turn, the two collided. McAdoo drifted from the middle over to the left into Kitchen, who slammed down face first and then got ran over by Max Anstie who had nowhere to go. McAdoo’s landing was thrown off, his right foot catching him from falling meant it was not on the rear brake, which sent him high in the berm and into a Tuff Block at the top. He dropped his bike down into the exit of the turn as he fell right in front of Nate Thrasher. Thrasher slammed into McAdoo’s left shoulder he had banged up a few hours prior in qualifying.
In an instant, the entire field was blasting off into the race as Kitchen and McAdoo were both down on the ground. Their red-plated Kawasakis laid in the dirt as everyone watching was thinking the same thing: “What the hell just happened?!”
Somehow, both McAdoo and Kitchen (in that order) got up under their own power and remounted their machines and stayed on course. The two got up and got going but were clearly banged up—and dead last. Hampshire’s white Husqvarna glowed with the bright green leader lights on his fork, almost as it was reflecting the green from the duo in dead last as the #24 was only a few sections away from lapping them. Kitchen did a slow lap or so then managed to pick up speed. He got around McAdoo and started gaining on 20th place. The #47 actually never got lapped by Hampshire in a damn impressive charge up to 14th place. He lost the championship lead by the end of the race, but somehow his salvage ride lands him only two points down from Hampshire. Yes, going from up 15 to down two points and banged up absolutely blows, but he could have been down 10 points had he finished 22nd and scored zero points.
| 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 |
Team owner Mitch Payton said “not yet” when as asked if he had any injury updates on his riders. Remember, Maximus Vohland, Austin Forkner, and Seth Hammaker all were sidelined for this race.
Just a few hours after the race, the #47 posted an Instagram photo of him in a hospital bed captioned:
“Man how quickly things can change. Feels like some broken ribs but we will see. Glad to salvage some points. Ain’t over yet💪🏼”
Kitchen said the following in the team’s post-race press release this afternoon:
“This is racing. There are some things you can control and some that you can’t. I was banged up when I got back going, but I kept my focus on the job at hand, getting by as many guys as possible. We’ll just have to see what happens.”
McAdoo did five laps before pulling off, as again we saw him stop, Dwyer swing his leg over the back of the machine, and them ride up through the tunnel. Receiving zero points on the night, the #63’s championship hopes are much different now. His plus four turned into minus 16 and now he sits third behind both Vialle and Haiden Deegan. Deegan was buried off the start, literally almost last on the very inside, then snuck up the inside and made some passes until the McAdoo/Thrasher pileup stopped the #38 in his tracks. Deegan came through sixth and now sits P2 in the standings, 13 points down to Vialle.
McAdoo said the following in Kawasaki’s release:
“I had high hopes coming into Nashville, but it seems that this sport is once again reminding us how quickly things can change. I am going to have to see what we’re up against this week when we get back home, but I’ve faced adversity before, and we’ll face it again. We have to keep our heads up.”
This afternoon, McAdoo posted the following on Instagram:
Unfortunately yesterday during qualifying while on a roll lap another rider and I came together damaging my shoulder. I did everything in my power to race the main last night but it just wasn’t possible to finish safely. I will be further evaluated this week to find out the extent of it and will update everyone accordingly. It’s very easy to resort to “why me?” but I’ve learned that way of thinking never encourages progress to get where I want to be. Thank you to all of my partners and fans for the continued support. P.S. I’m glad that @_levikitchen is okay after our crash in the main. 📸: @align.with.us
Only two races remain for both 250SX divisions: the East Region has the Philadelphia SX next weekend, the West Region has the Denver SX the following round then the Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Showdown finale for both regions. But once again, we are reminded anything can happen on any given night.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tom Vialle | Avignon, France  | 172 |
| 2 |  Haiden Deegan | Temecula, CA | 168 |
| 3 |  Coty Schock | Dover, DE | 132 |
| 4 |  Pierce Brown | Sandy, UT | 131 |
| 5 |  Max Anstie | Newbury, England, United Kingdom  | 125 |
