For once, Haiden Deegan didn’t pour any extra spice into his weekend via a post-race podium interview. After what could be classified, on paper, as a slump, he busted out with a 2-1 score for an AMA Pro Motocross win at Washougal. He even accomplished this with a key straight-up win over rival Tom Vialle, plus other would-be rivals this season like Levi Kitchen, Chance Hymas and Ty Masterpool had tough days. Deegan didn’t twist the knife this time. He just twisted the throttle.
It felt good to win, but he didn’t need to really use this race as a “told you so” moment. In fact, he was just as pumped about things like a points lead and enjoying an upcoming break as he was the moto win.
“It definitely sucks not winning a moto for a little bit, but, I mean, where I'm at now, I know eventually if you just keep doing what you're doing, it'll come again,” he said.
“It was nice to get another moto win and yeah, it'd be nice to take a two weekends off, especially,” he said. “I mean, this series racing every week and stuff, a lot on your body and you mentally too, it's draining. So when you get a little break, it's awesome.”
Perhaps the wildest part of the weekend for Deegan, and many others in the paddock, was Friday's travel nightmare, with airports around the country temporarily off-line due to a software issue. Deegan and many other Florida-based riders were stranded in Atlanta, a long way from the Pacific Northwest.
"All the flights got canceled and I was kind of screwed. Honestly, I didn't have any option and if you're trying to get to west coast race on the east coast, it's like a 35 hour drive and even if you did leave right away, you wouldn't make it. So it was kind of like a stressful moment. My parents obviously know jet companies and stuff. So we ended up finding one [private jet] left since the flights are all canceled. Like everyone was trying to get the jets. So there wasn't any left, there was only one and they doubled the price! So my parents agreed to split it with me. We ended up paying for it and then yeah, Jalek [Swoll] and Ricky [Carmichael] came with us. They also paid a little bit. So that was cool. And we all flew over here and made it work. So it was a little stressful."
As for the race, Deegan tipped over while running second to Vialle in moto one. He put in a charge to try to get back to the Red Bull KTM rider but wasn’t quite able to get there. It was solid for Vialle to hold Deegan back, but Deegan spoke about making bike changes for the second moto. He was even better there, and Vialle couldn’t stop him.
“The first moto was solid, and then in the second moto, I put the hammer down and built a big gap,” said Deegan. “That was awesome. I’m happy to keep the Washougal streak going and to get back up on top of the board. We have a 54-point lead heading into a nice two-week break.”
The points lead is the real story now, and Deegan, with six motos to go, can leave the personal statements and mind games on the shelf. Even the Washougal win was framed more under the umbrella of maintaining that points gap until the number-one plate is his.
“I would say where I'm at personally with such a big points lead, it's just putting together like smart consistent weekends,” Deegan said. “Nothing crazy, nothing like super stand out. I mean, and just go out there and do the best I can each weekend. I mean, mistakes happen. So just make them little if you do have a mistake, make sure it's just a tip over something small, you know, minimize the, the big ones and yeah, just keep on slowly adding to that points lead.”
