The full extent of Levi Kitchen and Cameron McAdoo’s injuries are yet to be revealed following a bruising night in Nashville, the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki duo still in 250SX title contention if they manage to race-on across the final rounds.

Kitchen and McAdoo entered the first 250SX East/West Showdown of the year wearing the regional red plates, but contact on the opening lap of the main event saw the pair’s Monster Energy Supercross Championship prospects turned upside down almost immediately.

While new recruit Kitchen managed to remount and eventually carded eight points for 14th position, it was indicated post-race that he had potentially broken multiple ribs in the impact. The result means he enters Denver in two weeks time just two points outside of new points leader RJ Hampshire (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna), who took a third win of the year on Saturday.

“It is crazy how quickly things can change in this sport,” said Kitchen. “The night quickly changed for me when Cameron and I got together in the rhythm section in the main, causing me to go down very hard on my side and then I was run over by a competitor.

“I slowly got up and managed to salvage some points, but had to get checked out to make sure I was good. A huge thank you to the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team for keeping my bike dialed all weekend – this championship fight is not over yet!”

McAdoo, meanwhile, had already been managing a shoulder injury sustained in the second qualifying session of the afternoon at Nissan Stadium. He was able to line up for the night program and transferred directly with P9 in the 250SX East heat race, before being forced out of the main following the early mishap with Kitchen.

As a result, he’s dropped to third in the points, a full 16 behind Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM) heading into Philadelphia’s penultimate round for the eastern region. It’s unclear if he will be able to make the gates this weekend, pending further evaluations this week.

“Gutted is an understatement,” McAdoo recalled. “The first qualifying session and the beginning of the second qualifying session were going to plan. My KX250 was feeling good all day, but a crash in the second qualifying session caused me to pull off and get my shoulder checked on before the night show.

“I made the call to line up for my heat race and see how it felt on the track. I managed to make it into the main after battling my shoulder pain and, unfortunately, Levi and I got together, causing us both to go down. When I got back up, I tried to continue, but the pain was unbearable. We are going to get everything checked out and stay hopeful that I can continue the last few rounds.”