It was one of the best races of the year as Levi Kitchen and Haiden Deegan finally went at it as Kitchen gave Deegan one of the toughest battles of his career but Deegan still came out on top at Kitchen’s home race. The race was so good that both riders who are heated rivals even fist pumped after the race.
Deegan said: It was fun because I was in the semi for the race and I was telling the guys, I was like, I want to battle.I haven’t battled anyone all season. It’s nice to win, but a good battle makes each of us get better, you know? And I feel like I needed that too if I want to keep excelling at my racecraft as well, going back and forth like that. I mean, I figured eventually someone was going to put up a challenge, so it was good. I kind of made a little mistake there in the middle. That red cross, I was so scared to jump, I didn’t know whether I was good or not, and I was losing time, and Levi got me. I just played it by lap, played it smart, and obviously I have such a huge points lead, so I’m not going to be stupid.
It was getting a little rowdy, but we were going so slow on that track because it’s so rutted that our running into each other, whenever I’d run into him, it was so minor. We were hitting each other so slow. There’s not too much that could go bad, and I don’t know.I just wanted to win. I was like, I don’t want to keep my streak going. I’m not just going to lose like this, but we made it work.
THE BATTLE IS ON 🤯 #SupercrossLIVE #SMX pic.twitter.com/Eyri48Y7Sl
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) February 15, 2026
Kitchen said: I’ll probably watch the race back and be mad at myself for some stuff. But yeah, you know, the difference between riding offensive and riding defensive is hard. And that’s where I got caught up. I’d say once I got the lead, I felt like I put in a couple of good laps and got a gap and then started riding defensive when I hit some lappers. And then he was there. So once we started doing the cat and mouse thing, it was like, you know, we weren’t really racing forward, but we had to do that, obviously, like we were we were both going similar speeds tonight. So it was fun. But yeah, I would have liked to get that win.Â
I haven’t spoke to him since….it’s been a long time. And, you know, we both shook hands after that one because it was it was fun.You know, we were pretty clean. You know, there was nothing too bad. And we were doing some cat and mouse things, you know, which was kind of fun. But yeah, I had a blast tonight. I’m sure he did, too.Â
I mean, you know, obviously, everybody knows there’s been some history. But for me, sportsmanship is more important than anything and whether off the track, you know, however things go, you know, when we’re with the helmets on and we have a race like that and everything stays remotely clean and we put on a show for the fans. I mean, that’s what they pay for so I’m going to respect him. You know, he’s pushing me to another limit and I’m trying to keep him on his toes, you know, and I think I did that tonight.
We delivered the show that I think people have been waiting for. So I do feel like we’re close right now. You know, I feel like we’re pretty close in speed and I think we can give the fans plenty more races like that. So my goal now is just going every weekend, knowing that, you know, I feel like we broke away from the rest of the guys pretty far. And, you know, obviously has a massive points lead. I want to have more races like that and put it on the top step for Mitch, for sure
Watch the battle below:
