By most standards, 5-3-1-2 finishes to start the season and three points out of the points lead would be a terrific start to the season. But when the bar is set as high as it is for Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan, those results are underwhelming. Fans, media, and even Haiden himself, expected dominance in this 250 West division and through four rounds that had not been the case at all.
Fast forward to Round five of the series this weekend inside of Arlington’s AT&T Stadium and Haiden Deegan finally put in a performance reminiscent of what we saw last year in the Pro Motocross Championship and the SMX playoffs. Deegan was the class of the field. He won the second triple crown of the season with 1-1-2 scores with two impressive come from behind victories in the first two races. He has taken hold of the series lead by six marks over Red Bull KTM’s Julien Beaumer, who had a trying day. Beaumer dislocated his shoulder in a practice crash, and it showed, as he was only able to muster up a sixth overall on the night. Also, Triumph’s Jordon Smith crashed hard in the whoops in race one and ended his night early. Deegan seems in prime position to take control of this championship.
Haiden broke some big news on press day on Friday that he had stopped working with one on one with Christian Craig over the two-week break and had rejoined the rest of the team working along side team trainer Gareth Swanepoel.
“I just needed to get back to the Danger Zone pretty much,” Deegan joked at the post-race press conference. “Just get back to, I feel like I used to have a lot of intensity. That’s kind of what I am known for is that grit and that intensity and just that dog in me, and that is what I had to get back. Working towards it during the week and I feel like it’s back a little bit. Obviously, got the dub, so it worked a little bit.”
He talked about his split with Craig, explaining, “Yeah Christian is still a big part of the Star program. He’s still helping mentor all of us and he is still in my corner deeply as a friend and he still helps us out. Swanny was kind of already helping us in the first place, like sending the program to Christian and stuff. He [Craig] was just kind of there to apply it, and I was trying my own one-on-one thing, you know? I was trying to see if I could get better in a way. It is none of Christian’s fault, it’s my decision in the end. I just went back to training with the team and Swanny and get that intensity back. I feel like riding by myself, maybe I lost a little of that. I just had to get back in that Swanny [group] and train with those guys and battling it out and having those little rivals during the week. That’s really the only reason.”
Deegan talked about how finding the balance between working hard and having fun during the week has been helping him come into the weekend with a winning mindset. “I want to win so bad, so it’s just trying to stay locked in now during these weeks. Also during the weeks, trying to make it fun for me. I thrive off that. I’m still young, I’m still a teenager so I want to go have fun during the week and it helps me perform on the weekends, so kind of go back to that kid lifestyle during the week and when I come to the race it’s just go out there and lock in and have some fun.”
When asked about what he meant by “kid lifestyle,” he laughed, saying, “I don’t know just hanging out with chicks and stuff.”
This was the first week we saw Deegan have a clear advantage over the field. He was able to come through the pack, catching and passing his championship rivals multiple times throughout the night. Most notably, in the first main Deegan had worked his way up to fifth early before a crash in the sand on lap four put him back to eighth. He then put on a clinic coming through the pack. He momentarily passed race leader Jordon Smith on lap twelve, but Smith was able to get him back before he went down huge a lap later ending his night. Deegan put on similar performances in the next two races, although his teammate Cole Davies was able to hold on to the win in race three.
Deegan reflected on his charges through the pack saying, “I mean it’s honestly fun. I was laughing through some of those motos, like bumping some people, that was pretty funny. I don’t know, I enjoyed some of those few races. But yeah, I don’t know. I’ve got to really study this and get to work with the team and figure out my starts because clearly the east coast boys got their starts figured out. It could be me, it could be the bike, we just have to figure it out and we have plenty of time to do that. Come out swinging in the East/West [Showdown, the next race in the schedule].”
