Slaw
Haiden Deegan entered the fifth round of the 250SX West Region Championship in Arlington, TX, on Saturday trailing Julien Beaumer by three points. He left six points ahead of Beaumer. It was the statement ride Deegan needed to put his grip on the title chase and it was done with two emphatic come-from-behind wins and a second in the third and final race of the night.
“I mean it’s honestly fun,” he said post-race of his two come from behind wins. “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].”
It’s not that Deegan had started the season bad. In fact, it was the opposite. He’d gone 5-3-1-2 to begin the year, but as he explained post-race, he needed to reclaim that “intensity” that he’s been known for.
“I just needed to get back to the Danger Zone pretty much,” he joked. “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.”
At press day on Friday prior to Arlington, Deegan dropped the news that he was no longer working one-on-one with the Christian Craig, who is serving as both a member of the 450 team (he hopes to make his 2025 debut in Indianapolis) and helps the team with the development of their 250 riders, and had rejoined the rest of the 250 squad in training alongside Gareth Swanepoel.
“Christian is still a big part of the Star program,” he explained. “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.”
With Jordon Smith out of the championship picture following his crash in the first race and Beaumer nursing a dislocated shoulder sustained in qualifying in Arlington, Deegan is right where we all thought he would be at the start of the year: the title favorite.
Images: @octopi.media
