Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Levi Kitchen had a solid debut in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX West Championship, finishing seventh last night in challenging conditions at Anaheim 1. His teammate Stilez Robertson joined him in the top 10, charging back to cross the line ninth.
Heavy rainfall in Southern California before the season opener made for challenging track conditions at the Angels Stadium of Anaheim. Despite those challenges, Kitchen had a solid qualifying effort in sixth and in his heat race, he finished just off of the podium in fourth. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the start he was looking for in the main event and was outside of the top 10. Undeterred, he put his head down and advanced to seventh.
Robertson showed speed straight away but, unfortunately, had a big crash in the first practice session and ultimately qualified ninth. The Californian was making his way forward in his heat race until a tip-over in the challenging conditions shuffled him back to eighth. He made his way back to sixth but still had a less-than-ideal gate pick for the main event and found himself 14th after the first lap. Robertson kept pushing to make his way through to ninth.
Next weekend, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team heads north to the RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, California, for Round 2 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship on Saturday, January 14.
Solid Start for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s 250SX West Team
Solid Start for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s 250SX West Team
Levi Kitchen and Stilez Robertson finish seventh and ninth, respectively, in challenging conditions at Anaheim 1.
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 250 Team Manager
It wasn’t the start to the season we were looking for, but we know what we need to work on. The track was really rough tonight, and both Levi and Stilez were struggling with it, but we’ll continue to work this week and come back stronger in Oakland.
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
It was a tough day. The track was like nothing I’d ever ridden, so it was all new to me. I went into the night, qualifying sixth, which wasn’t too bad. I ended up fourth in my heat race, and I was feeling pretty good, much better than I did in the main. I got a really bad start and worked my way up to seventh, but I plan to do better next weekend. I’m happy to be healthy, though. The track was pretty tough. We’ll just move on from this one.
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
Today was not really what we were looking for, for sure. It started off with a little crash in free practice and I ended up qualifying ninth. In the heat race, I ended up sixth after tipping over, which didn’t give me an ideal starting position for the main. I got a bad start there and ended up ninth, which, as I said, is not what we are looking for. The conditions were tough tonight, but everyone had to ride it. It wasn’t just me, so no excuses. We’ve got work to do, and we’re going to go back to The Farm and put in the work this week.
