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Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki 250SX West hopeful Levi Kitchen says he is ‘all for’ aggressive racing following his first podium of the year in second overall at the Houston Triple Crown, finally managing to rebound after a troubled start to the new year.

After qualifying P2 in a continuation of his outright speed, Kitchen recorded a 2-2-3 scorecard, but it was the taunts from Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rival Haiden Deegan throughout the night that drew the most attention post-race.

With no love lost between the pair – amplified in part by Kitchen’s takeout on Deegan at last year’s SMX Playoff round in St. Louis – the 24-year-old suggested that aggression on-track is something that he has come to expect in his career.

“I know Haiden is going to race me hard and I’m going to do the same to him, obviously,” Kitchen said. “So I don’t really know how you approach it – I need to get more racing under my belt in that situation, but it’s fun. I really like it. Even the last moto with Cameron [McAdoo], we kind of went at it too, like that was pretty fun, so I don’t know. I’m all for aggressive racing and, yeah, I expect it.”

After a night of antagonism from Deegan, Kitchen attempted his own firm move in the third and final race on the number one, only for it to be quickly countered by the defending champion. He later admitted that work needs to be done to improve that area of his tactics.

“I mean, I just wanted to run it in there and then push him wide, and I thought I did, but he checked up super-quick and got back underneath me. And then pushed me wide,” he reflected. “So I don’t really know what I could have done differently. It’s kind of tough… You don’t really have eyes over there, but I don’t know. I guess the more I do it, the better I’ll get at it.”

Kitchen’s runner-up finish in Houston elevates him to seventh in the western divisional standings of 250SX, finally overcoming problems with his starting device that have caused him to go down early in previous races.

“Honestly, I didn’t really work on anything or change anything,” he added. “I mean, I did some starts, but we worked on the holeshot device because it was getting stuck down. So, [we] still need to work on it [because] it was still stuck down in those mains. But yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t really change anything.

“I knew eventually that I had to make it around the first turn, so it was nice to do that and get a couple of good races, but I’m not really sure what the problem is. I thought it was because I run a really stiff fork, but I actually don’t run the stiffest fork on the team, so I don’t know. I need to learn how to maybe undo it myself as I come down the line – we’ve got to keep trying.”