Another test just like the ones he has not passed before. Levi Kitchen had to be clutch to win this Monster Energy SMX World Championship, and he knew the start would control everything. Bad starts when it matters most have killed his title hopes in the past, as recently as the Ironman National finale of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship in August. Knowing that, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team and Red Bull KTM team lined title hopes Ryder DiFrancesco and Julien Beaumer up near Levi on the starting gate. Beaumer was directly outside of him, DiFrancesco one more gate inside.

This time Levi was the one who got the jump.

“I was pumped on that second one [start],” said Kitchen. “Everyone lined up next to me, everyone that wanted to beat me, and I knew their plan, but I got ‘em first.”

“It was on the tip of my fingertips there,” said Difrancesco. “I kinda played the game of lining up around Levi, and he got the better of me there.”

That marked two good starts to Kitchen, who holeshotted from the very inside of the first moto. “I saw a six-inch little gap that wasn’t tilled, and it wasn’t outside the track this time,” he joked.

“I’ve been practicing [starts] a lot and I knew they were getting better but I think tonight was about 90 percent mental," he added. "That second moto all of my main competitors, they lined up next to me and I was just like, ‘You boys ain’t getting me this time. It ain’t gonna happen.’ Cuz I knew I had to do it. So, yeah, I ripped it.”

It’s that type of talk from the normally laid-back Kitchen that can get real conversations going. For years, his speed and talent have been obvious, but he has not been able to find the consistency, especially in high-pressure scenarios.  A few titles have slipped away before. In fact, that’s where DiFrancesco’s start strategy came from, because his teammate RJ Hampshire got the better of Kitchen in a 250SX title battle at the final round a few years ago.

This Levi Kitchen was different. He might be different going forward, too.

“The money is obviously awesome, but I am going to invest my money I am going to try not to buy anything stupid,” said Kitchen of the nearly $700,000 he netted from this year’s playoff run. “The big thing is just the feeling, it's the pride. The trophy or any of that stuff, it's not really that, it's knowing that I got it done. And this is going to really help me in my future. I want to win bad. It's just great, carrying this moment, not only to represent the USA [for Motocross of Nations], I am excited to go send it over there but mainly for the series coming up in January. I just think it's going to help me and hopefully it will show some people that I can get it done in a situation like this, with that much pressure…it was hard but we were able to do it.”

With it comes the end of the much-talked-of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki title dry spell, as the squad has won just two championships since 2017, and none since 2019. The team has taken its lumps, and so did Kitchen this year, symbolically.

“I was worried when he picked that inside gate, but he picked it because it wasn’t ripped, it was dry, and he came out pretty well,” said team owner Mitch Payton, proud of his man for pulling through. “Even this year, in outdoors, he limped through some races. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t getting better, and he kept racing. Then he took some time off and it kept getting better.”

Pro Circuit slapped Kitchen’s #1 plate on the door at the end of the night. It had been a long time coming.

“The emotions hit me, like a freight train,” said Kitchen on the SMX Insider post-race show. “I only had one choice, and that’s to keep going. The feeling is surreal. For Mitch and for the whole team. They work their butts off, and I wanted to get this done for them. It gives me so much motivation going into the next year, too.”

What was different this time? Kitchen spoke much of staying present and trying to focus on each lap.

“I think the biggest thing is truly blocking out everything around you,” he said. “The thing for me tonight was just being present. Like ‘Don’t even think about this thing, don’t think about winning.' It's hard to do, obviously, but it's just another race and I actually feel like I did a good job of that. I didn’t do anything special tonight, and I didn’t do anything stupid, I didn’t override. The whole day was perfect. I didn’t take any massive risks, and I just knew that first 100 feet or whatever was basically make or break. Executed that and from there it was pretty easy.”

Seemed that way on the outside, but rain coming down before the second motos only made the track more slick. He handled it.

“It was pretty unreal,” said Kitchen. “You know with the rain coming down things got a little bit dicey, but I put myself in a good position and it was pretty mellow from there. But nothing really hit me until right before the finish line. I actually saw my teammate, he was screaming for me and it kind of hit me then and I was like, ‘Man, finally.’ What a feeling.”