As we all know, on Saturday night, May 11th, 2024, at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, Levi Kitchen missed out on winning the 2024 AMA 250SX West Region Supercross Championship by four seconds and five points to rival RJ Hampshire. Kitchen spoke about his emotions afterward.
“Yeah, I guess I can say that it's tough to lose now that it's all over,” Kitchen sighed, “but to be honest, after a few days it wasn't so bad. I turned the page and am now just concentrating on outdoors. I couldn't believe it came to me so quickly. I don't want to say I forgot about it, but there are more races coming up so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.”
In recent interviews and opinion pieces for Motocross Media, Kitchen talks about confidence and world-class motocross racing. “Once you win, you learn how to do it. And I think I've finally learned that part.” Kitchen recently mentioned legendary champions Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Villopoto. “It's helped me. I feel a lot more confident now when I step on the line.”
Do you feel more confident in your kitchen?
“Yeah, for sure. I think the mindset is totally different this year. Especially in Supercross, I've led from start to finish and won some races, so I know I can win. I also felt like I was in a good position overall speed-wise. In Supercross, I don't have a lot of time, but outdoors, if I can start in the top five and let the race go to me, I think I can fit some things in and win.”
If you win once, do you know you can win again?
“Yeah, for sure,” Kitchen replied. “To be honest with you, once you win, you have to win again before you're satisfied. It changes your mindset. Last year, if I'd made it to the podium, I would've been jumping for joy. I'm still grateful that I had that result and that I was able to do it, but now I can't really be excited or happy unless I win. My motivation has changed a little bit.”
