Haiden Deegan’s 250 career is almost over, but he’s going out with a bang. He just took his second-straight 250SX West Championship, and it felt like a foregone conclusion since he has several races left in the series. It’s his sixth 250 title if you count SX, MX, and the SMX Playoffs. Also, this is essentially his seventh-straight win this season, although the record books won’t show it since an AMA ruling took away his previous win in Birmingham when he crossed over track markers in a split-lane section of the track. No matter, Deegan still considers this seven in a row, as you’ll read below.
Now, we could make the penalty and Deegan's response the main point of this story, but what Deegan says is far too often the main point of every story. The Deegans aren't afraid to trade in controversy, because attention and headlines are good for them. But let's not let that obscure something that matters much more. We're talking lap times, race wins, and titles. Really, though, this goes way beyond the numbers there, too. The quality of his riding even outstrips the quantity. He is ripping! He is dominating! He’s crushing. Cole Davies is obviously riding well with his own win-streak in 250SX East, and he went from around 10th to first last week in Detroit. But Davies was powerless, again, to stop Deegan from running him down. In fact, Davies had already surrendered as early as the heat race, when he stated he wasn’t here to do anything but try to gain points on his East rivals, basically telling everyone he wasn’t here expecting to beat Deegan. And he couldn’t. Nor could anyone else. It’s not even close right now. Deegan is just as dominant on a supercross track now as he already has been on motocross tracks or the playoff hybrid layouts. Dominating supercross was the last piece of Deegan’s 250 arc. He’s there.
“I'm stoked to win it and especially win it three rounds early, do some history book stuff right there, even though they're trying to take it away from me [the win streak due to a penalty a few weeks ago] but we got it done,” Deegan said. “I'm really grateful that it kind of took me a little longer to win a supercross title because it let me learn. It kept me in the class long enough to keep learning, and I feel like this year I finally ticked off a lot of the boxes that I needed, where I feel like if I would have went 450 last year I didn't have everything I needed. So, I really think this was a good thing. We won a title last year but we were able to race this year as well, keep building. I feel like one thing that was hindering me was just the whoops. Really just a lot of early mornings trying to get those dialed. It switched the path for me. I feel like if you can hit whoops you can win races, so. I mean it takes a little more than that obviously too, but that does help it a lot. I feel like it's just a lot more consistent in them and it's really helped overall.”
Look, we all know Deegan’s attitude and image often garner as much attention as his riding, and discussing him only for on-track accomplishments is tough. Deegan leans into the trash talking and love/hate feelings with the fans. There’s no one left to vanquish in the 250s, but don’t worry, more headlines are coming soon once he jumps on the 450 full time on May 30 at Fox Raceway at Pala. For now, though, we have a brief moment to discuss Deegan only as a racer.
Okay, now back to your regularly-scheduled headline grabbers. Haiden was asked what the highlight of this year has been.
“I’d say it’s the seven in a row,” he said, nodding to his personal seven-race win streak. Which, again, doesn’t show in the rulebook due to the AMA penalty. Haiden’s answers always draw a perfect line combining actual reality with what gets the most attention. Same idea behind selling a T-shirt last week saying “six-for-six” or having six Fox heads (denoting wins) on the back of his jersey, with one marked out with an X. Then he was asked if, having wrapped this title up so early, is there any chance he will race a 450 at a supercross this year?
“Nah, I’m actually in talks with Bobby [team owner] he’s gonna pay me $2 million to race outdoors on a 250,” he said. “Just kidding.”
Okay that was something...but again just focus on the riding alone and…wow.
“Just the consistency," he says. “Being able to come through the pack and win these races.”
That’s really it. He’s going incredibly fast right now and he’s been incredibly successful in every phase of his career. From the 50 class through the 250 class. Any other rider with this success gets talked about for speed and wins. Deegan gets talked about as a headline maker first. You need to remind yourself that as a racer, few in this class have ever done it better. He belongs in any all-time small bore conversation, straight up.
It’s been so good that for a brief moment he was able to remove himself from the headline creation and reflect on his 250 success as it really sits.
“What’s funny is on our YouTube channel, The Deegans, it shows us five years ago or something like that saying it would be a dream come true to just win one title," he said. "Just win one. Now we’ve won six so that’s awesome.”
Whoa, something humble? Deep, deep down is a young man who is a fan of the sport and wants to win like his heroes. He understands the power of these accomplishments. He does not take the humble route on the surface, but he knows how hard this is and how fortunate he is for it to have gone so well so far. What you think of Haiden Deegan? The opinions on his personality are all over the map. His performances on the track, though, are without debate.
