Each time you think Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan is about to revert back to “wait until next year” rookie status, he powers through and remerges as a title contender. After four-straight motos off the podium, he roared back at Washougal to holeshot and win the first moto, and then pulled off an impressive second-moto charge to run down teammate Justin Cooper late to win moto two. The standout was Deegan running a 2:15 lap time, on lap thirteen of sixteen, when the race pace had been hovering around the 2:18-2:19 range.
Deegan now sits three points behind Hunter Lawrence going into the stretch run of the final six motos. He spoke about the weekend in the post-race press conference.
Haiden, pretty amazing weekend for you and Yamaha, obviously. The 50th anniversary celebration of the YZ and to go 1-1. You’re the first 250 rider this season to go 1-1. How does that feel? Also, how does it feel running the old iconic colors from the ‘90s?
Haiden Deegan: Yeah, definitely. It’s a good 1-1. It feels good. It’s nice being a rookie, no pressure on you. You just go have fun every weekend, and that’s kind of paying off. We had fun. Got some good starts. The second moto wasn’t the greatest start. Top five still though, so I knew I could do some work and we got to the lead. I’m excited.
I saw the 2:15 lap time pop up on the board. It wasn’t like Justin slowed down. You just went after it. You popped 1.9-second quicker lap time than anybody did all day in the 250 class. You were actually the quickest lap time by anybody in a race in the motos. So where did that come from?
Yeah, when I was catching the guys I knew I had a good pace. I was like, 'Shoot, I have the speed. Might as well try to break these guys right now.' So, I just sent it hard. Got to the lead and laid down those fast times.
Haiden, yourself, are you going to be called down to Loretta Lynn’s or anything for the next couple weeks or what’s your plans?
I don't know exactly what they want me to do, but just get back to work. It’s close now. The nerves are running, so we got to go.
Last week Hunter [Lawrence] made a statement with the 1-2 overall win. Came close to doing a 1-1. You’ve got the first 1-1 of the season. Do you feel like your statement might have been just a little bit louder?
I mean, yeah. Going 1-1, you’ve got to overcome pressure. I was able to do that and ride smooth the whole race, and that’s a big key to win. Definitely going 1-1 was good.
Haiden, going 1-1, I was kind of expecting you to ghost ride it off the finish line there. Were you thinking about that at all?
[Laughs] No, I’m saving that one for supercross. We got to manifest on that one and wait until we get a supercross win. Hopefully that comes soon in the supercross season. When it comes time, we’ll decide that in supercross.
Haiden, you ran a 2:15 with two laps to go. The pace was kind 2:18, 2:19 at that point in the race. What was going on there?
Yeah, I got that kid energy. Two 35’s and you spend some time recovering now, so two 35’s are easy to me now. So at the end of that 35 I was like, 'I got energy, why not? Let’s lay down some heaters.' We did that. Just really trying to show that I can lay down those fast laps.
Do you feel you were actually saving something at one point? Were you not quite at the limit and then you realized you had more to give? Is that how it turned out?
Yeah, on the start, Hunter was right behind me. He was about fifth. He was right there with me. So I was like, 'I got to get going.' It took a little bit laps, just finding lines. Then about halfway is when I really set off. Just tried to prove my point and lay down those fast laps.
Your team, you guys share a trainer there with Gareth Swanepoel. He’s done great work through the years. But your fitness has been really good this year, which normally for rookies, it’s tough to do 30’s for the first time. Are you doing extra? Are you doing more? Do you feel like you just adapted to it quickly? How were you able to learn this pro thing? Really the fitness has been asset for you.
Yeah. Swanny is an awesome trainer. He’s proven that his stuff works with the championships Star has won. There could be extra stuff that I do. I’ll keep that one to myself. You’ve just got to work hard. This sport, it’s rare to find some guys that never want to give up and I feel like I have that in me, so that’s kind of what I feed off.
At any point, did you feel you were wearing down? You’re racing week to week, really, for the first time ever. Did you feel that at all the last couple weeks or at any point?
Yeah. Rookie season, you got to learn this type of stuff. After Southwick was my first like, 'Yo, I got to spend a lot more time recovering.' So, that’s what we did these last two weeks. Just keep building myself back up. This weekend we were really able to fire off.
