- 5 weeks ago
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00:00Best here at A1. Let's do it.
00:04Oh, Kitchen did not get a good start.
00:07Chance Hymus has.
00:09Hard on the front brakes.
00:10He drifts a little wide.
00:11And lost four positions just like that.
00:14Yeah, that was a great recovery by Levi.
00:16He was way back off the start, but was able to make his way up.
00:20Looked like his fork was stuck down.
00:21Now running that third position.
00:22So good recovery by him.
00:25Yeah, indeed.
00:26I mean, he was way back, but a lot of those guys faded to the outside.
00:30And that's what allowed the 47 to sneak up the inside.
00:37Look at this great battle.
00:39Max Anstey comes up on Hunter Yoda.
00:42And Hunter returns to favor.
00:43Switches back pretty swiftly.
00:45Here comes Kitchen on the 47.
00:46Look to the left.
00:48Yeah, right now, hopefully, Levi might be able to get two for one.
00:51You see how loose it was.
00:52Levi did a good job at slowing down, but Max is stuck behind you.
00:55Hunter, see if Levi could go outside, square these guys up.
01:01Love the different lines that Kitchen's taking right now.
01:05Not following.
01:06Right behind Max.
01:08Searching on the track.
01:10He looked very comfortable earlier today in qualifying practice.
01:13Hence the number one position.
01:17Let's take you back and show you what happened to the Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider.
01:21Levi and Kitchen.
01:22Yeah, if you watch, watch his front end pop up right there.
01:24As the front end started to pop up, he had to double clutch it, pull the clutch in.
01:28And as soon as you do that, James, you know you just lose all of that track position.
01:32But he sneaks back up in the inside.
01:34And a lot of those guys got jammed up.
01:36Yeah, Chance actually got there first.
01:38But Levi did a good job.
01:39Once you don't get that jump, you start going to that second position.
01:42Like, you're almost defensive and trying to get around it.
01:45Like, Max is still working on Hunter.
01:47Hunter's doing a great job at holding him off.
01:49Well, James, he did a great job at the start.
01:51Did you see him?
01:51He was very poised as Anstey goes into the lead.
01:54Yoda was just calm, stayed on that inside line, let everybody else drift off.
01:58Anstey has a look.
02:00He knew that Hunter was coming, but he's able to hold him off for the time being.
02:03Yeah.
02:04James, you talk about business decision.
02:07That was definitely 100 let him off the hook right there.
02:09But overall, Max has got the pace.
02:12Let's see how aggressive Levi is.
02:14He's been the fastest guy all day long.
02:16He seemed really relaxed.
02:17He was opening a couple of laps.
02:18But we'll see what happens here.
02:20Start trying to press it.
02:23Well, let's hear the thoughts of this man who leads this race,
02:26going up against his teammate, Hayden Deegan, for the title.
02:32He's got the number one plate and got to go and perform.
02:35I mean, that's why we ride on this team and what we show up to do.
02:38I'm here to do my job and perform the best way that I can.
02:41But as far as pressure goes, I think there's, you know,
02:44if you've got the number one plate, I think there's a bit more on you than that.
02:48Again, I talked about it already before the gate dropped.
02:52I love the age comparison and how he's a bit older than these guys.
02:57It plays into his hand and a little more calm,
03:01probably doesn't let the nerves bother him.
03:02And, again, go about how well he was riding last year.
03:06And, look, he's able to get some clean air, and he's just pulling away.
03:10That's something to say because the 47 was moving earlier today.
03:14Tell you who else is moving.
03:15Look at the Honda of Chance Heimers.
03:17He tried to put on a big move on Michael Moseman.
03:19Moseman's held him off for the time being.
03:22Yeah, that's a great racing right here.
03:23I like how these lines switch up outside, puts these guys on in.
03:26But, yeah, Levi's starting to see Max slip off.
03:29He's getting the pressure from, you know, Max's teammate along with Chance Heimers coming up.
03:35So it was time to make the move.
03:36It's going to be interesting right here, James,
03:38to see what Kitchens is going to be able to do now that he is in second place.
03:43See if he can close that gap, Will.
03:46Oh!
03:47Down goes Michael Moseman.
03:51I don't know if he came up short or a loss in front end.
03:54I was just about to mention after Will goes in there how slippery his track is.
03:58We saw a lot of guys crash earlier today in that 90-degree left-hand corner.
04:04It was dry and slick.
04:07Guy's washing the front right here.
04:09Goes up the inside.
04:10He's going to probably come up short.
04:12And that's right.
04:14Actually, the wheel goes to left and cuts right back to the right.
04:18Yeah, the mistake was made on the triple previous.
04:20He overjumped it.
04:23Here comes Chance Heimers.
04:25It's his time now to work on Hunter Yoder.
04:27Props to Hunter Yoder.
04:29He's riding extremely well, running the pace of these frontrunners on that new team this year.
04:36If you believe, he's three repeating.
04:38He finished third here last year in the opening heat of the year.
04:43So we'll see if he can repeat that.
04:44Chance Heimers got away to a really good start, but then drifted wide at the first turn, if you remember.
04:49So he's been playing catch-up right since the opening corner.
04:51Yeah, it almost looks like these guys want to make the pass, but how slippery the track and all that loose stuff, you're going to end up making contact with these guys.
04:59So it feels like maybe they're throwing off a little bit more than they were earlier.
05:03It was really dry.
05:04But now it's loose.
05:06And so they can't really challenge it for these guys to make these passes.
05:09And it's almost like unpredictable.
05:10When the track is unpredictable like this, it gives you false senses of security, and you don't know what it's like.
05:16Like earlier today when it was super dry, and the track was, oh, nice pass right up the inside.
05:23Blocks Hunter Yoder.
05:24Now you just got to make sure he guards, takes the inside on this 180 before the whoops.
05:30Nice.
05:30That worked out well to Chance Hymas.
05:33Meanwhile, fellow Honda rider on the Western Honda, Hunter Schlosser holds on to the ninth and final transfer position.
05:41Dylan Schwartz doing well.
05:42Josh Farris, Long, and Rodbell also in the top nine.
05:46Yeah, but you can look what happened with Chance.
05:48You know, those couple laps they took him to get around Hunter.
05:50You know, he's got four seconds to Levi.
05:53Levi's still almost three seconds behind Max, so really difficult to pass.
05:57And when you don't, you lose a lot of time on there.
05:59All right, we go back to Levi Kitchen.
06:02He sits just under three seconds, well, behind race leader Max Anstey.
06:06And as you guys have been saying in the booth there, Lee, kind of where we expected him to be.
06:10But honestly, there's reason to think that this is going to be a better version of Levi Kitchen here in 2026.
06:16And so says the team that's behind him.
06:19They said he's strong.
06:20He's been building a really good base that just makes him more solid on the motorcycle.
06:24They said mentally in this a good place.
06:26His dad told me, yeah, I concur, the best version of Levi that I have ever seen.
06:31So reasonably that this is a strong start to the season that he can carry.
06:34Yeah, I agree with that 100%.
06:36And the way he was looking at practice, a lot of body movement.
06:39Levi's one of those guys that likes to move around the bike a lot.
06:42So when you see his bike hanging, his body hanging off, he's really comfortable.
06:45That's how he looked at earlier today.
06:47Right now he looks a little bit more timid, but I think that's more in a racetrack.
06:52Meanwhile, we take you here to Hunter Schlosser and Parker Ross because this is for nine.
06:59And Parker has it at the moment.
07:01Yeah, Hunter squared up that corner and trying to go down the inside of those whoops.
07:06And right now with all the loose stuff on the track, it's going to be difficult on these 250s
07:10because they don't have enough horsepower.
07:11The bike wants to spin.
07:13The tire gets deeper in that whoops.
07:14And you saw him at the time he was losing.
07:16Part of a very strong Toyota Redlands Bar X Yamaha team
07:21for this 2026 Monster Energy SMX World Championship season.
07:27Max Anstey comfortably out in front and on his way home.
07:32And remember, he won his opening race last year as well in the East Division Championship.
07:39So a couple of Monster Energy star Yamahas getting this new season, Ricky, off to the best possible start.
07:45I mean, I like what I'm seeing.
07:46And James and I were talking earlier today about who we thought would be favorites.
07:51And we both picked this guy right here.
07:54What a start.
07:55And there it is.
07:55Max Anstey wins.
07:57Heat 2 of 250 West here in A1 over Levi Kitchen.
08:01Comfortably so.
08:02It's a bit of a bigger gap back to Chance Hymus.
08:05But that was a nice comeback from that first turner where he swept wide.
08:11So Deegan, he...
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