Slaw
The crowd at Lumen Field never really let up, and neither did the racing. What unfolded in the 250SX West Division main event Saturday night in Seattle, WA, between Haiden Deegan and Levi Kitchen was the kind of race that reminds everyone why Monster Energy AMA Supercross works at its best… two riders pushing each other to the edge, trading momentum, and forcing split-second decisions lap after lap. For Kitchen, it was equal parts chaos and control, trying to balance aggression with survival as the race evolved into a tactical battle.
“I mean it was definitely tough,” Kitchen said afterward. “The difference between riding offensive and riding defensive is hard and that’s where I got caught up. Once I got the lead I felt like I put in a couple of good laps and got a gap, but when we got into lappers and started doing the cat and mouse thing, we weren’t really racing forward anymore. We were both going similar speeds tonight, so it was fun — but yeah, I would’ve liked to get that win.”
Despite the intensity and the history between the riders, the fight never crossed the line. Kitchen described the back-and-forth as competitive but respectful, the kind of racing that pushes both riders forward while giving fans something to remember. “We both shook hands after that one because it was fun,” he said. “There was nothing too bad. We put on a show for the fans — that’s what they pay for — and I respect that he’s pushing me to another limit.”
In the end, Kitchen came up just short in front of his hometown crowd, but the Washington native walked away with something: “Definitely confidence,” he said. “I feel like we’re pretty close right now. I think we can give the fans plenty more races like that.”
Check out the full interview with Kitchen after Seattle below:
Race of the year. Thank you for that. Between the crowd being so loud, I know you talked about maybe not knowing what gear you were in because they were so loud, and everything that was going on on track, how did you manage to stay locked in for pretty much the entirety of that one?
Levi Kitchen: I mean it was definitely tough. I’ll probably watch the race back and be mad at myself for some stuff, but yeah, the difference between riding offensive and riding defensive is hard and that’s where I got caught up. I’d say once I got the lead I felt like I put in a couple of good laps and got a gap and then started riding defensive when I hit some lappers and then he was there. So once we started doing the cat and mouse thing, it was like we weren’t really racing forward, but we had to do that obviously. We were both going similar speeds tonight, so it was fun. But yeah, I would’ve liked to got that win.
Levi, I heard you right after you got off the track and you admitted that you still thought that battle was a blast and I’m sure fans will watch that. Some will be for it, some will not be for it. Take me through your perspective, like I said, Some people might think it’s dirty or not, but you’re ultimately the guy in the battle.
Yeah, I haven’t spoke to him since it’s been a long time and we both shook hands after that one because it was fun. We were pretty clean, there was nothing too bad and we were doing some cat and mouse things, which was kind of fun. But yeah, I had a blast tonight, I’m sure he did too. So yeah, I mean overall it was fine. It was good.
Was there any singular moment that the blood boiled at all or did it every single pass was still enjoyable?
No, I don’t think there was. Luckily it was a track slow enough that we were going slow, so if he would’ve got in my front and I would’ve fell, I’d have been like, “Good job,” and if I would’ve got his, there was nothing that was dirty was going to happen. I did almost land on him on accident, on the double-double after where you went by the mechanics, that would’ve not been good. But other than that, yeah, everything was fine.
At the end of the race, there was a fun interaction between you two, he stopped to make sure to, he greeted you at the end. Tell us what it means to you to know that there is that competitiveness but also that sportsmanship that is very evident in the magnitude of today.
Yeah, I mean obviously everybody knows there’s been some history, but for me sportsmanship is more important than anything and whether off the track, however things go, when we’re with the helmets on and we have a race like that and everything stays remotely clean and we put on a show for the fans, I mean that’s what they pay for so I’m going to respect him, he’s pushing me to another limit and I’m trying to keep him on his toes and I think I did that tonight.
When I was watching the race, I feel like there was two big difference makers on the track and that was that one, the three on and then after, right as you come out of the sand, you had such a good line right there, but it just seemed lap after lap, it was almost like I was trying to tell you, “Don’t hit that line because it was getting blown out.” Is there any particular point in the race where you’re like, “Damn, I wish I would’ve changed that?”
Yeah, and it was that three on and it wasn’t that I needed to change it, I just needed to sack up and hit it every lap, but man, when you feel your foot pegs scrape on the face like that onto a three on, like I’ve crashed a few times in my racing career and I don’t know, it’s just risk over reward and I started missing that and he probably only did it two more times than me in the race, but that was enough to, it was a lot of time that three on was a lot of time after the whoops and yeah, I did feel like I was better on that back spot of the track. I could reel him in, but he nailed that three on every time and that was costly for me.
At a certain point you got Deegan a bit and were kind of going away from him and I thought you were going to bring it in. Did you get tight at the end or do you think he turned it up a bit at the end?
No, I don’t think any of us really changed much. I missed that whole rhythm that I was just talking about after the sand section, a lapper kind of went from the right and I’m assuming nobody really expected the line I was doing doubling across like that, so I had to back out. I went double, double, double, lost like eight tenths or whatever it was and there goes my whole gap that I had just pushed so hard to get. We were so close that. I knew if I could get it up to where I could just ride offensive like I was talking about, then I could be okay. But as soon as you go into defense, you don’t know where they’re at, you don’t know if you’re going to get cleaned out in the next turn, so it’s hard to race forward.
Do you think you got them too quick? Could there have been more strategy if you waited because you were going faster and two, was it a relief to make with no more holes in you today?
I do think I could have waited. I didn’t think I could wait though because he’s been really strong lately. But yeah, I do think I had a couple of areas where I was really good and it’s hard when you’re out there in the moment though. I was bummed at myself just for not executing the first lap, because I actually, I can’t even remember now, but I’m pretty sure I was in third around the first turn or something and then I got hung up. He got by or I don’t even know how it worked, but I just felt like I should have been further up earlier, and man if I could have just got up there quicker, I feel like I could have maybe broke away, but he got up around Max I think first before any of us and then I just tried to catch him after that.
Levi, you did talk a lot about that three on, but something I found really impressive was the double over the star straight, honestly that’s something, that entire rhythm lane is given, not just your guys’s class but the premier class issues all night. Did you know you had that in the bag before the main? I mean I felt like you did that so consistently, I was kind of really surprised.
Yeah, I actually before the main event, I just kind of tried to plan out my race and I knew that if I could nail that it would be a lot of time just because the other line was getting so rutted out and I was think one of the first ones to do it in practice, and I was like, “You know what?” The team was telling me like, “Hey, I don’t think that’s the line,” but I knew that by the main event it was going to be the most consistent way for me to 3-3 through that rhythm and so I just stuck with it.
I think at the end of that race I was most excited about how well you rode and I was just thinking about how much confidence you gained from this race in particular. There was so much back and forth, we talked about it all night. What did you learn within yourself and what are you taking from this event?
Yeah, definitely confidence and it kind of just builds off last weekend and then this one we delivered the show I think people have been waiting for. So I do feel like we’re close right now. I feel like we’re pretty close in speed and I think we can give the fans plenty more races like that. So my goal now is just going every weekend knowing that I feel like we broke away from the rest of the guys pretty far and obviously he has a massive points lead, but I want to have more races like that and put it on the top step for Mitch for sure.
Photos: octopi.media
