“Cameron [McAdoo] was messing with me after the race because I ran it in on him," said Levi Kitchen. "He didn't really know I was there and he comes off, he's like, 'You're the dirtiest rider ever!' And he got me for a second! He was all serious. I felt so bad. And he's like, 'I'm just messing with you too. I would've done the same thing.'"
Yes, another race where Levi had to come from the back to fight for spots, this time not from a first-turn crash but just a bad start. Kitchen charged from 19th to second, a great ride, although he’s quick to point out that Haiden Deegan will still be a tough problem to solve if he wants race wins.
“I know I was the fastest guy on the track the second half, but I also know the position Haiden was in. When you control the race from the front like that, I mean, it's pretty easy,” he says. “I've been there, you can kind of just manage it. And he probably feels pretty safe when he looks back and he sees the other guys are ways back and I'm 10 seconds back on the first lap. So, I can't keep doing that, but I'm just going to keep trying. Hopefully I can get up there and just give the fans what they want, hopefully a good battle and that's what I look forward to.”
Kitchen’s next stop is Seattle, the home race for the native of Washougal, Washington, and a race he dominated two years ago. He grabbed a huge holeshot that night, by the way. Since then, starts have been an issue. What has changed? Well, Kawasaki introduced a new KX250 engine last year that was very fast on top-end, but the team found it lacked a little bit of the bottom end they wanted for starts. They played with engine packages and gearing during the season last year and made gains, but the off-season really let them go to work. They emerged with so much grunt that it was throwing off Kitchen’s starting technique. What’s the issue? Kitchen is used to sitting way forward on the tank off the line, and when the bike launches hard, he’d get shoved back a bit. Because he’s so tall, every move is exaggerated, so falling backwards even slightly makes a huge change in leverage on the bike.
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That’s tough to fix, short term, but long term he was going to need to make some changes anyway for 450s, so now comes some help from his friends.
“Yeah, I have been doing a lot of work with Ken [Roczen] and Joey [Savatgy] and just all the guys at the [Moto] Sandbox been trying to help me,” said Kitchen of his riding mates in Florida. “But yeah, I mean, I completely, I've been starting the same way since I was 16 years old and that's way up on the tank and kind of making the bike almost where I can dump the clutch and the bikes are getting so fast I can't dump the clutch anymore. I'm pissed, dude! So, like I'm trying to learn how to just release the clutch and kind of slip it and I'm horrible at it. So, like we've changed kind of where I'm sitting [Kitchen is now moving more toward the center of the bike] and Ken's been trying to help me out. But yeah, I'm going to trust in it because I mean, that's how the best starters start. He's a good starter and even [Justin] Brayton was texting him, helping me out. And so, I'm trying to look at photos of guys that are good, Vince [Friese] and those guys and just trying to take it all in. And you'd think at my level I would know how to do a start, but it's not great. So, I’ve got to figure it out.”
He didn’t nail it in Glendale, that’s for sure, but changing everything isn’t going to work perfectly in a week.
“This was completely on me,” he said. “I came out of the gate horrible and then I mean, it wasn't like as terrible, I guess you could say, but I lined up pretty far inside and [Max] Anstie and [Carson] Mumford came out like a rocket. So, once they came out good, they pinched me off. The guys on the right pinched me off so I couldn't really go anywhere. And I've been trying to learn how to cut down and get out of a situation like that, but I had nowhere to go. I couldn't even cut down and try to make some spots up. So, I was just like rolling around the first turn in like 16th or something. So, it was a bummer.”
Staying out west for the week before Seattle, Kitchen will have a chance to work with his team some more.
“I'm going to stay out in California this week and then going to Seattle and hopefully get off the line a little better.”
