This 250 class in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship has almost everything fans could ask for. Great battles, once in a lifetime rides (think Sacha Coenen second moto at Southwick where he won with a broken collarbone), and the feeling every time riders line up that anyone could come away with the win. With six different overall winners in eight rounds, the only thing this class does not have is consistency. But bad luck? Yeah, there’s a lot of it. Two race winners have broken their collarbones, and another is out with a shoulder injury. The red plate has swapped hands so many times it's hard to keep track.
A few rounds back Cole Davies took control of the points lead when Jo Shimoda went out with injury. At the very next round at Spring Creek, Davies went down in the first turn and another rider hit his bike and put a hole in his gas tank. Davies was unable to finish the moto when his bike ran out of gas. From there Levi Kitchen retook the points lead heading into his home race of Washougal. A place he historically does not do well at.
Moto one at Washougal saw the points leader Kitchen laying on the ground in the first turn once again (thanks to another big pileup off the start). From almost last he was able to work his way up to sixth, with an incredible ride. Unfortunately for Levi, Cole Davies was out front, doing exactly what he needed to do to recover from a terrible day at Spring Creek the weekend before.
In the second moto, Levi did not go down, but he once again got a lack luster start. The problem was he put in so much effort in the first moto to come from the back it robbed most of his energy for the second moto.
Levi spoke on this in the post-race press conference, saying: “Yeah, a lot of first turn crashes for me this year. It's just, I’m getting kind of tired of picking my bike up like that. But I did what I could and then second moto I just didn’t have much in me, I put a lot out there that first moto to try to get up there. I felt unreal. And then in the second moto I was trying to go where I was going in the first one and it just wasn’t working. So, I kinda got stuck in a not so great pace. But it's okay, I’m pretty healthy and we get a little bit of a break so that will be nice.”
Kitchen expanded on the effort it takes to come from the back versus riding out front: “The days that I have won motos, you don’t use half of the energy, in my opinion. I think others would agree. Those motos from the back, it's just like what Haiden [Deegan] did today, it's tough, you just can’t relax but it's part of it.”
Moto two, relaxing out front it was Cole Davies once again, though Ryder DiFrancesco kept him honest the entire moto. With his 1-1 moto scores Davies was able to erase 18 points out of Kitchen's lead (Kitchen went 6-6 on the day). Kitchen went in with a 25-point lead on Davies (who sat third in the standings, one point behind Julien Beaumer) and left just seven points down from Kitchen.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA  | 293 |
| 2 |  Cole Davies | Waitoki, New Zealand  | 286 |
| 3 |  Julien Beaumer | Lake Havasu City, AZ | 268 |
| 4 |  Ryder DiFrancesco | Bakersfield, CA | 238 |
| 5 |  Chance Hymas | Pocatello, ID | 230 |
Cole did what he had to do when the pressure was on: “I kind of said last weekend, ‘It was a terrible weekend and I’m gonna bounce back.’ And that what I did, this is what I expect from myself. Good weekend felt good. Felt good all day so I am stoked. Ready to get on a roll and fight until the end… I had my back against the wall, I had to make up points and that’s exactly what I did. We are pretty close to where I need to be now and just ready to fight until the end.”
Even though inconsistency has plagued this class, Cole Davies has multiple fastest qualifiers this season as well as three 1-1 days. Compared to Levi Kitchen’s two moto wins. But blaming bad luck is only half the story here. The real difference between these two riders, who are both capable of putting in incredible rides, has been the starts. Kitchen has had zero holeshots this year, in fact he says he is happy if he gets a top five start. Realistically most motos, even when he doesn’t go down, he is outside of the top ten.
Kitchen blames his weight, at 6’1” he is much taller than the average rider, and with height comes weight. It’s not necessarily that his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki is down on power as his teammates have been able to get good starts this year (he's out now but look at what Nick Romano was doing each moto!). Not to mention Levi gets around the track with plenty of speed. But the problem is Cole Davies has his holeshots dialed. And in a class that is so evenly matched, starting out front is more than half of the battle.
The series has two weekends off now. Two weekends for Cole and Levi to think about those seven points. But the real question is, can Levi and Pro Circuit figure out his starts before Unadilla? After a wild season so far, fans would love to see these two go head-to-head out front and fight for this championship.
