after being so close to the
championship, but I left ev-
erything I had out there on the
track,"
said Kitchen. "The start
was tricky, and I wasn't in a
good spot headed into the first
turn. It came down to the start.
I'm so thankful to the team for
pulled us both down. It was a
bummer, [I'm] not very pumped
about how that went down, but
we live to fight another day.
Happy to be back on the box."
Jo Shimoda crossed the line
fourth ahead of Kitchen in fifth.
"It's easy to be disappointed
"That was sick," Deegan said.
"That was my first East-West
Shootout win. I came into this
race, I'm like, 'You know what,
I've got nothing to lose. I'm
just going to go out there and
execute what I do,' and that's
what I did today. I was on top of
the board all day long, so that
was perfect. I kind of feel like
I've come around now. At the
beginning of the season, obvi
-
ously [there were] a few things
[an injury], no excuses
though,
congrats to Tom, congrats to RJ,
that's dope. And yeah, got the
'W', that's awesome."
Jordon Smith finished third
despite a fall in the main event.
The Star Racing Yamaha rider
towed his teammate Deegan
in the early stages of the race
and was clearly gaining time in
the whoop section. A clean run
put Smith right into the back of
Deegan, with Smith getting the
short end of the deal. A quick
remount saw him fight back for
the final spot on the box.
"It was a bummer how it went
down [with the crash]," Smith
said. "I felt good all night, felt
like I had the speed to win, and
yeah, we [Deegan and I] started
playing games there about
halfway through. I was just try
-
ing to be smart. I kind of backed
off
for a couple of laps. I knew
I was faster in the whoops and
kind of catching him a little bit
everywhere, so I was just trying
to be smart and got a run on
him in the whoops. [I was] just
trying to stay low [in the follow
-
ing corner], and he came across,
and
I think my fork guard got
caught on his bike. It almost
ROUND 17 / MAY 11, 2024
RICE-ECCLES STADIUM / SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
SUPERCROSS I MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP / SMX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P90
Jordon Smith
finished third
after crashing out
of second place.
