CARSON, California: With results of second in both motos last week in Columbus, Ohio, and the overall win to start the SuperMotocross Playoffs, Levi Kitchen shot to the top of the championship standings.
“That was the lamest win I’ve probably ever had,” Kitchen said with a slight laugh before heading out for the first Free Practice session of Round 2 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. “Just the feeling after, it was pretty weird.”
The SuperMotocross League scores its three rounds progressively, with standard moto scoring in Round 1, double points in Round 2, and triple in Round 3.
That increases the important of momentum, because while ground can be gained all the way through the final moto, no rider wants to be in a position of being forced to make up ground in that last round.
“Definitely got to keep the momentum going, but I don’t know; I mean, I feel like even the momentum in outdoors was going fine too,” Kitchen said. “Just had some weekends that the momentum would stop.
“Carry on; Keep trying. The main goal obviously is the championship, but just take it race by race. I think it’s too early to even think about that stuff. There’s a lot of racing to go down, and with the point situation too.”
Kitchen swept the top five in Pro Motocross until the final round. The red plate swapped hands so many times during those 10 rounds, however, that it was difficult to say who had the upper hand on any given weekend.
In the final three rounds, Kitchen finished behind the eventual champion, Cole Davies, each weekend. Davies won four of the six motos and two overalls in that span.
Kitchen was not mathematically eliminated entering Ironman, but he definitely had an uphill battle, and when he crashed in the first moto and finished last, Kitchen’s fate was sealed.
The week off between Motocross and SuperMotocross allowed all of the riders to rest and reset. Kitchen may have needed that more than anyone else.
“Just [put in] some solid days at the track, really just normal days,” Kitchen said. “I was working on some shorter stuff and we all have done so many motos now this year with outdoors. ... I feel like it’s more just getting that quick speed back that some of these other guys have, everybody’s going fast and that’s just kind of what I worked on this week. The bike felt fine.”
Kitchen is 10 points ahead of Davies and seven ahead of Ryder DiFrancesco as Round 2 gets underway. He controls his future, so long as he executes the fundamentals.
"[I have to] make it through the first turn clean and put myself in good position to battle,” Kitchen said. I feel like that’s going to be important these next few rounds and especially with the double and triple points, it can kind of get out of hand.”
