In the first 250 moto at the Thunder Valley National, it seemed fans were set up for a battle. Honda HRC Progressive’s Chance Hymas was leading but championship leader Haiden Deegan—of Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing—was closing in on the #10 bike, setting up the potential for a great battle for the race win.
These two are rivals, going back to their on the bike battles and off the bike trash talk last summer. They would surely love to beat one another for their own reasons. Deegan had a four-race moto streak to start the season and you know damn well Hymas wanted to be the guy to end it.
Hymas’ five-second gap was cut to under two seconds as Deegan was on the charge. Suddenly, the gap was just about half a second. But then it looked like Deegan’s bike was smoking a little and then came messages from his mechanic, "SHIFT DOWNHILL" and later “OFF CLUTCH SAVE BIKE.”
Deegan is known for his Eli Tomac/Justin Barcia like abusive throttle use but the 2024 250 Pro Motocross Champion got the message, swallowed his pride and backed it down, as Hymas pulled away. Since Deegan went into survival mode, Hymas would go on to take the checkered flag uncontested, winning by over 45 seconds—easily the largest gap of any SMX race this season. The big question was could Deegan hang on for second place? Garrett Marchbanks was on the charge, and he closed up the gap to Deegan significantly once the #1 started doubling the big triples and playing the long game. Deegan managed to get his bike to the finish and still in second place.
![Chance Hymas]()
Chance Hymas Align Media ![Haiden Deegan]()
Haiden Deegan Align Media
| Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Chance Hymas | Pocatello, ID  | 1 - 1 | Honda CRF250R Works Edition |
| 2 |  Haiden Deegan | Temecula, CA | 2 - 2 | Yamaha YZ250F |
| 3 |  Levi Kitchen | Washougal, WA | 8 - 3 | Kawasaki KX250 |
| 4 |  Garrett Marchbanks | Coalville, UT | 3 - 8 | Kawasaki KX250 |
| 5 |  Tom Vialle | Avignon, France  | 6 - 5 | KTM 250 SX-F |
As expected, the team did a full engine swap in order to get Deegan back out for moto two, and mechanic Brent Duffe told us they had the entire swap done in 15 minutes! Even a routine clutch service without an engine swap takes 13 minutes, so this was impressive.
Deegan was not the only one with bike problems as a bunch of riders in both classes ran into trouble. Engines, especially in the 250 class, are being pushed extra hard in the elevation of Colorado. We've also heard that Star Yamaha has a specific "elevation" spec engine, and you can see Kris Keefer's Bike Breakdown video with Duffe below to learn more about that.
There weren't any bike issues in the second moto, though. Hymas was out front again with a gap and Deegan made a mistake, tipping over in the first turn with a few laps to go, giving Hymas breathing room to take that moto win as well. This time Hymas earned it, no excuses.
Still, for Deegan a 2-2 day could have been way worse.
Deegan entered the third round with a 12-point gap on Jo Shimoda, but Shimoda had his worst day of the season so far, finishing 9-4 (sixth overall). This allowed Deegan to open his championship gap up to 25 points by the end of the day.
“I’m not sure,” he said in the post-race press conference on what happened to his bike. “They [team] said at first, ‘It’s on you,’ then they’re like, ‘It’s not on you.’ So, I don’t know what happened, I just lost all my power. Is what it is. And that second moto, I ended up tipping it over. But whatever, 2-2 on the day, so not bad. And we doubled the points.”
Again, we know Deegan has the raw speed and talent, but this shows his maturity in playing the long game.
“Today was pretty good for what it could have been in that first moto with my bike almost blowing up,” he added. “Honestly, it’s a consistent day and I doubled my points gap. A lot of these guys threw away their first rounds, and that’s where I’m good: I’m just consistent. And that’s why I win these championships. So, yeah, I just want to stay consistent throughout the year and if it’s a 2-2 then we’ll take it, but we want to be winning. We’ll go back to work this week and hopefully come out on top next week.”
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Haiden Deegan | Temecula, CA | 194 |
| 2 |  Jo Shimoda | Suzuka, Japan  | 152 |
| 3 | Chance Hymas | Pocatello, ID | 132 |
| 4 | Garrett Marchbanks | Coalville, UT | 132 |
| 5 | Tom Vialle | Avignon, France | 125 |
