set a blistering pace as he took
the white flag. Kitchen checked
out on the final lap en route to
the win but followed that up with
a crash in the first turn of the
second moto. He used that raw
speed from race one to claw his
way back to an eventual eighth-
place finish, which proved
enough to land him second on
the day. More importantly, he
now sits tied with his teammate,
Seth Hammaker, who finished
off the podium, for the series
lead. Both riders will hold the
red plate at round four.
"If I want to be in it for the title,
those are the kinds of rides I need
to keep putting in, where I keep
the year. This marks his seventh
career 250 class victory and
sees him jump to third in the
championship points.
"I just needed to start up front,"
Shimoda said. "I wasted too
much energy in the first moto, so I
didn't have as much in the second
moto. We still have a lot to work
on, but we still got a win. Coming
back from my [off-season] neck
injury, this win means a lot."
Levi Kitchen had another up-
and-down day, reminiscent of
his performance at the open
-
ing round at Fox Raceway. The
number
47 rider put on a clinic
in race one as he stole the lead
away with two laps to go and
250MX
Unpredictability continued to
be the theme of this year's 250
division, as consistency seems
to be hard to come by for the
small-bore class. This time
around it was Jo Shimoda who
clinched his first win of the 2026
SuperMotocross campaign
with 3-2 moto scores. Shimoda
added to Honda's delight even
with a crash on the first lap of
the opening race. A hard-fought
third-place result set him up
nicely for a podium, but with
MXGP newcomer Sacha Coenen
leading the way in race two, the
reigning 250 SMX World Cham
-
pion locked down his first win of
ROUND 3 / JUNE 13, 2026
THUNDER VALLEY MOTOCROSS / LAKEWOOD, COLORADO
MOTOCROSS I AMA PRO MOTOCROSS / SUPERMOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P68
(Left) Jo Shimoda earned his first win
of the 2026 SMX season. (Above) Levi
Kitchen battled his way through the
field in both motos. He and teammate
Seth Hammaker (10) now share the
points lead going into round four.
