By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
SEATTLE — In front of 58,000 passionate Supercross fans at Lumen Field in Washington, Washougal’s Levi Kitchen put on a class performance in the 250SX West main event where he was at a different zip code.
It was a superb effort by Kitchen that podium finishers RJ Hampshire and Jo Shimoda had nothing for the hometown racer during the main event as Kitchen beat Hampshire by 21.051 seconds.
Saturday’s wire-to-wire triumph also marked Kitchen’s third AMA Monster Energy Supercross Championship win and the first outside of the triple crown events.
“It’s definitely big for me,” said Kitchen. “It was a little nerve wracking when I came around the first lap and it was like super loud. For me it kind of feels like my first win because I’ve only won triple crowns, so to do that in front of all the fans and stuff was pretty awesome.”
While the 23-year-old now resides in Florida, Kitchen explained that his plan after the race was spending time with friends and family in the Evergreen State before shifting his focus to the next round in St. Louis.
Additionally, Kitchen explained scoring a main event win where he’s able to partake in the madness which includes the fireballs between the track once the gate drops.
“It’s huge for me just the confidence in, but it’s also one of those things you just have to take every race as it comes,” said Kitchen. “I really gelled with the track and next week one of these guys could really gel with the track. We’re all pretty close right now and we all have our really good days and sometimes we’re a little bit off. I’ve been in the position RJ’s in plenty of times.”
Seattle marked the first 250SX West race since State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona in early February. For Kitchen, extending his points lead to eight points over Hampshire meant he’ll keep the red plate on his No. 47 Kawasaki.
Kitchen admitted of running after a long break felt like it’s the start of the season all over again, knowing he had to be on his peas and cues to maintain the red plate for next Saturday’s race.
“It was definitely weird showing up here. It kind of felt like the first race again because it really did feel like quite a while,” said Kitchen. “The break was nice and obviously having the red plate, there’s a little bit of pressure. That was a little bit weird and I just mean that like during the break.
“Every practice day I’m…
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