Hammaker wins Rd. 1 after Kitchen crashes out
SMX Insider recaps the 250 action from Round 1 of the Pro Motocross Championship, where Levi Kitchen's win in Moto 1 was undone by a crash in Moto 2, opening the door for Seth Hammaker's first Pro Motocross win at Pala.
Video Transcript
250 highlights from the opening round of Pro Motocross and Monster Energy SMX.
So the class now wide open because the two-time champion is out, that is Hayden Deegan, because he's moved to the 450 class.
So a lot of contenders who could take over.
Levi Kitchen on the 47, the fast qualifier.
He's one of the few in this class that has already at least won races in this division, and he's gonna quickly carry that qualifying speed into the Motos.
Yeah, Levi looked great.
so does his teammate, Seth Hammaker.
Actually, the whole squad at, Monster Energy Pro Circuit.
But Levi didn't get the best of start, but he's almost two seconds faster than everybody else.
He has some speed to, to work with, and you'll watch him march his way through this field.
But early in this race, it was his teammate, Seth Hammaker, out front trying to get away.
Then Ryder Dieth, his crash is gonna be costly for him, and I'm sure he'll be bummed 'cause that was his own mistake.
Loses that front, you know, front end, goes back, finished 19th that first Moto.
And then there was The Kitchen, The Chef, doing what he did so far all day long.
Made it look like Hunter Lawrence in that 450 class, pretty easy, as he's gonna go around the outside of his teammate, then he's gonna close that gap on his other teammate, Seth Hammaker, out front.
And once he does that, you can see Seth makes a quick mistake.
This pass was gonna happen anyway.
Levi was able to close, but made it a little bit easier and he just walked away from it.
It was great.
Our Supercross champion, Cole Davies, didn't get the best of start, but he was able to make his way and he ends up towards the end of the race, getting past Nick Murano, for third place.
Joe Shimoda, one of our title favorites, a lot of questions coming in.
Struggled a little bit during practice, but Joe looked like Joe to me.
Didn't get the best of starts, but he was able to charge up, but nobody was close to Levi Kitchen this first Moto.
Yeah, speed to burn in qualifying, speed to burn in Moto one, so making a bit of a statement of he could be the man to beat, but you don't see him up front off the start in Moto two.
It's Julian Bonhomme up front with the rookie, Caden Dundy, another good gate.
Michael Mosiman there as well, and Mosiman's gonna play a huge factor here.
Yeah, this is the opening lap.
There, these lines are gonna cross and, Michael gets the worse end of the stick.
And then, look, you're gonna see that number 47, Levi Kitchen, go down.
That's gonna cost him any shot at this overall as his teammate was out front.
But the interesting part is when they after that first Moto, Levi talked about not trying to worry about getting the holeshot, but really just being up there to try to avoid these situations.
And unfortunately for him, he's gotten caught out.
Then it was Seth Hammaker, really good, solid first Moto.
Probably felt better this second Moto.
Julian rode great, was out front.
These two were gone, but Seth was able to get by him and, and start pulling away.
And then as I've mentioned earlier, that mistake by Ryder Dieth that first Moto ends up 19th.
He's gonna make his way, passing Caden Dundy, who rode great this Moto, ends up third.
But the real costly guy is, Levi Kitchen.
Had a lot of speed today, but he's gonna end up missing the podium.
So he's got some, some good things going for him, but at the same time, it's just another tough day at the office for The Chef.
But not this guy.
First ever, best, best finish in the first Moto.
Better finish that second Moto.
Yeah.
Best finish of his career.
First overall, Seth Hammaker with the blurry number 10 on the back of it.
Good job, Seth.
Yeah, it's hard, it's hard to see, man.
He was getting away from everybody.
There's mom.
She's happy.
Seth is now a winner in Pro Motocross and remains the only rider this year to win a 250 race not on the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing Team.
And Dundy, how about this?
The rookie who just jumped in late last year with a couple of pro races, tried Supercross this year, didn't go well.
Second overall today over Cole Davies, who had a so-so day.
Dropped back a little bit in the second Moto, but still enough to barely hold Kitchen off of the podium.
Look at that.
They actually tied three ways.
Yeah, but then when you watch the points, the I know the overall points, oh, it's gonna be a little bit tricky.
Because of, Levi winning that first Moto, he actually gets the tiebreaker, so he ends up second.
So they're still tied, but you know, a win always carries a lot more weight in this sport, and Levi is in that second place, so it's still good.
Pretty big gap.
You know, Seth Hammaker, you could like, "Look, I'm gonna come out of this with the red plate, man."
Yeah.
"13 points" That's- That's a pretty good day at the office but I think that guy, number, that four position, you're probably gonna start to see him up front more often.
If he can have another backup weekend, I think he's gonna be good, for the, for the rest of the s- year.
Yep, another contender.
Young Caden Dundy, originally out of Iowa, making a name for himself here in his first full season of racing.
The combined SMX points, Supercross and Motocross together, Davies is on top.
Deegan is ranked second, but he's gonna be at a 450 for the rest of his career, so that's rather incidental.
Hammaker, Kitchen, and the rest are gonna continue to move up as they make more points in the Pro Motocross leg of the championship.
Got the press conference going on right now in the media tent.
Right next door is a very happy Seth Hammaker.
You know, he revealed last year, he'd always said he had a physical problem that made it tough in Motocross, and he said it's actually colitis or IBS, and he's really had to work on his diet and medication to get that under control, especially to feel good in the second Motos.
That's where he rode best today, so that's a big step for him.
Yeah, I didn't know that.
And you know, when you think of him, he's so, you know, determined and had some gnarly crashes during Supercross.
This guy never gives up, so really cool to see him kind of overcome that.
Hopefully he keeps c- trending.
But it's a great feeling to be where he's at, especially his first time sitting in that press conference knowing that you're gonna be the last one up there in the middle with that trophy.
Congratulations to him and his, race team.
It's been a while since Pro Circuit has, won one of these things.
Yeah.
P- first time the team has had the point lead in this championship since 2019
