Levi Kitchen Captures First-Ever SMX 250 World Championship for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki

Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki racer Levi Kitchen’s up and down 2026 supercross and motocross seasons ended on an absolute high note on Saturday in Ridgedale, Mo., as the 250 class veteran finally captured the well-deserved championship he’s been chasing – the 2026 250 class Monster Energy SMX World Championship.

Kitchen, who’s been the runner-up twice in Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250 class WSX regional championship battles (2024, ’26) and in 3^rd position on the overall 250 class podium in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship (2024, ’26), went 2-2 at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena and placed 2^nd to Monster Energy’s Cole Davies (Star Racing/Yamaha). This gave Kitchen 153 points over the three race Monster Energy SMX Playoff series, which topped SMX 250 series runner-up Ryder DiFrancesco (Husqvarna) by 24 points for the championship and $500,000 in prize money.

“It kind of hit me then and I was like ‘Finally. What a feeling,’” said Kitchen on his first major pro racing championship. “With the rain coming down it was pretty dicey. But put myself in a good position and it was pretty mellow from there.”

With the triple points at Round 3 of Monster Energy SMX Playoffs, Davies, who went 1-1 on the evening, was able to launch himself up the 250 class leader board from 7^th position (following Round 2) all the way up to a podium 3^rd place finish, and just one point (129-128) back of DiFrancesco for 2^nd place in the championship.

“I had a really good day today and I’m happy with it,” said Davies, who was pumped with his 1-1 finish at Ridgedale, but disappointed with the tough luck he ran into during the previous two SMX Playoff rounds. “It stings a little bit, but it wasn’t like it was out of my control. It was my fault I crashed.”

Rounding out the dominant night for Monster Energy 250 class racers at Ridgedale were Star Racing/Yamaha’s Landen Gordon (3^rd) Nate Thrasher (4^th) and Pierce Brown (5^th) to complete the 1^st through 5^th M-claw sweep. Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Cameron McAdoo (9^th) and Star Racing/Yamaha’s Caden Dudney (10^th) would round out the top ten 250 scoring.

In the 450 class Monster Energy SMX Playoff showdown between Haiden Deegan (Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha) and KTM’s Jorge Prado it’d come down to the final moto at Ridgedale, with Deegan taking the overall event win with a strong 1-2 finish, and settling for 2^nd overall in the SMX World Championship.

“Unfortunately, we ended up 2^nd. But fortunately, with this SMX series you can still make some good money,” said Deegan of his $500,000 payday for winning two of the three Monster Energy SMX Playoff rounds.

Scoring another top five SMX round finish was Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb, who placed 5^th with a 4-4 effort. And a few spots back in 7^th position was Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks, who placed 7^th, going 10-7 on the night. Overall on the SMX Championship season Webb would finish his final race on American soil on the Yamaha marque in 5^th place overall (123 points), while Marchbanks was a click back in 6^th position with 1-3 points.

Finally, the women of WMX were turned loose on the Ridgedale SMX course and Monster Energy’s Lachlan “LaLa” Turner (Altus Blu Cru/Yamaha) would again reign victorious on the season as the Outdoor National MX champ went 1-2 in qualifying, then stepped up and won the single moto main event over Honda’s Charlie Cannon. Monster Energy’s Jordan Jarvis (Yamaha) and Mikayla Nielsen (SLR/Honda) would round out the top five in 4^th and 5^th positions, respectively.

Notes & Quotes

• “I knew Cole (Davies) was going to be fast, but I knew I could use him as a pick all night, honestly.” – Kitchen on race strategy to preserve the SMX title.
• “I knew that was going to be the decider.” – Kitchen on his two front-of-pack starts in 250 Moto 1 and Moto 2 on the night, holeshot in Moto 1 and 2^nd place (behind Davies) start in Moto 2.
• Good to see Brown (5^th) and McAdoo (9^th) back in the 250 class top ten as they recover from injuries that had them sidelined for much of the 2026 race season.
• Massive jump for Gordon in the 250 class overall points with that podium 3^rd place finish at Ridgedale. Gordon was outside the top ten in points following SMX Round 2 (Los Angeles) and wound up in the top five overall with 104 points – and a nice payday!
• “Hahaha… that’s cool. I don’t really care what he says.” – Deegan on 450 SMX champ Jorge Prado’s (KTM) press conference statement saying, ‘Deegan races for money and I (Prado) race for passion.’
• “(My) progression’s going well. I’m stoked on it.” – Deegan, summing up his first 450 race season.
• Deegan’s Moto 1 win over Suzuki’s Ken Roczen, the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450 class champ, was definitely a race to hang the ‘progression’ label on, considering Deegan has only competed for half a season (outdoors) in the 450 class.

Big year for Turner in the WMX division as she three-peated as the Outdoor Nationals champ, won the Australian MX champ and the WMX SMX Playoff Invitational winner. “I checked everything off my Vision Board and it’s a dream come true to look at that thing every day and just say that I completed everything.”

Monster Energy Mo. SMX results

Overall SMX Playoff points (after 3 of 3 rounds)

Up next: This concludes the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, AMA Pro Motocross Championship and Monster Energy SMX World Championship race seasons. 2027 Monster Energy AMA Supercross begins the first Saturday in January at Anaheim’s (Calif.) Angels Stadium.