Image: Octopi Media.

Levi Kitchen put together a 3-3 day at Hangtown for third overall after some struggles in qualifying left him way down in 13^th place on the timetables. Admitting that he was a bit off on the day, Kitchen still was satisfied to leave Hangtown with solid points to keep the championship close.

The biggest turnaround for Kitchen came with a P2 start in the first moto where he hung on the rear fender of race leader Chance Hymas for a while. But while a starts kicked him into gear from his qualifying woes, Kitchen still knew it wasn’t his day at the races.

“It started off a little slow in qualifying for me,” said Kitchen. “But I felt like I got a little bit better of a flow in the motos. I was happy with my starts. You just have to be up there. Overall, I was a little bit off the pace, but as far as points go, it wasn’t a bad day for me.”

Kitchen did have a small fall in qualifying during one of his hot laps and was perhaps hindered on some of his other laps, but his name never really made it on the board throughout qualifying. With questions surrounding him coming into the motos, he simply said it was just him feeling off and some small bike changes made the difference.

“Honestly just myself on the track,” said Kitchen of his struggles in qualifying. “The bike was fairly good. We made some changes in between practice and the races and even went more that direction before the start of the second moto. I just need to get a little better at hanging it out. The tracks have been really fast last round and this round. I need to open it up a little bit more and use some more of those outsides. Probably going to work a lot on that this week.”

This week brings the third round of the series in Colorado where elevation will hinder performance of the motorcycle and starts are key. Fortunately for Kitchen, his starts seem to be the one constant in his pocket at the moment and he remains just 13 points behind championship leader Haiden Deegan.