What We Noticed: Seattle
March 26, 2024
Back on the west coast… here’s What We Noticed from Seattle:
- Kitchen is Dominant
Kitchen was almost half a lap ahead of Hampshire in 2nd… it has been a long time since we’ve seen such a dominant ride in the 250 class. Smith was closer, but crashed trying to keep up with him. It seems the break served Kitchen well… he has been training in Florida and entered Seattle looking better than ever. Hampshire appears to be his only title threat at this point, but Hampshire himself said he had nothing for him. At this point, it’s Kitchen’s title to lose right?
- Open Air Stadiums
Lumen Field in Seattle is one of the nicest venues on the tour. It has a beautiful backdrop of downtown Seattle, large indoor pit setup that connects directly to the stadium, and the PNW crowd amps up the entire vibe. However, it’s open air in a rainy city! As Hampshire mentioned in the press conference, there is a closed stadium right next door. Logistically though, that stadium isn’t available at this time of year… MLB season is about to start, it has a real grass field, and nowhere great for a pit setup. We have a lot of open air stadiums on the schedule this year, and the rain seems to be wearing on riders and teams. Perhaps Feld will re-evaluate in the future, but I’m sure a lot more than just weather goes into planning the schedule.
- Mud Means Good Racing?
On the bright side, some of the less favorable conditions this year have led to the best races! Both San Diego and Seattle were rainy and wet, but made for exciting racing nonetheless. The Dirt Wurx track crew does an amazing job at readying the track, and challenging conditions leads to close racing it seems. A lot of talk going into the weekends about rain and how a mud race is going to suck, but so far only SF has been really bad. Other than that, the racing has been great!
- What’s up With Eli?
It seemed like he had turned things around after going 2-2 in Arlington and Daytona right? Since then, he hasn’t even cracked the top 5. I hope I’m wrong, but at this pace it would appear he won’t win this year. That leaves you wondering, are his winning days gone? With Jett so dominant, it’s going to take a special moment for Eli to get another win before he inevitably retires. I know he hasn’t mentioned anything, so he could have multiple seasons left of racing… but the end feels near right? Just enjoying having him still out there for now.
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Best City on Tour?
Seattle is such a great city to visit. Get out of the downtown area and explore Fremont/Ballard or SeaTac breweries. Go hiking, go to the beach, soak it all up! It’s a proper metropolis with amazing food options: sushi, Chinese, Thai, Italian, etc. After touring around the south and midwest, it’s definitely a nice change of pace to be in the PNW.
