Rookie Report: Handing Out Grades After Houston

I loathe judging any rider on one race. It’s dumb. But hey, hot clicks and pageviews, right?

Honestly, though, with such a stacked rookie class (side note: When is the last time we had a rookie class this deep? Discuss amongst yourselves) I felt it was only not-fair to hand out some grades from the East Region opener.

Enjoy and as always, please send complaints to Jason Weigandt.

Haiden Deegan
Team: Monster Energy/Yamaha Star Racing
Result: 4th overall
Grade: A+

The most anticipated debut since… Jett? AC? Haiden has built a massive following on social media and with that comes lots of love and lots of haters. Like him, loathe him, love him, you can’t deny the kids ability on a dirbike. My pal Wade described it perfectly here. A fourth from Deegan is rock solid in his debut with the amount of attention and pressure that was on him.

“It was a good day,” Deegan said. “We started off with some solid times and we were first in Group B practice and qualifying. Then for the heat race, I was fourth, so I was happy with that. I got into a good pace and was able to lay down some good laps, and see the track well. Then in the main event, I was pretty nervous on the line, but I got a decent start and then just fought and never gave up. I kept pushing through the pack. I had a lot of people to prove wrong and I ended up fourth in my first pro supercross race. It was a crazy night! I am so happy with how it went.”

Tom Vialle
Team: Red Bull KTM
Result: 7th overall
Grade: A-

Wow! I missed the boat on this one. I wrote in the most-popular motocross blog in the world last week that I had no idea what to expect from the two-time World Champion. There just wasn’t much noise about his debut. Well, hot damn, he was fantastic. He led laps, was in contention for a podium and was dang impressive. Yeah, he made some rookie mistakes which cost him, but overall Vialle was solid.

“I was a little nervous in the first practice, but I felt more comfortable as the day went on,” he said. “In my Heat I was again a bit nervous as it was my first-ever Supercross in a stadium at night, but I had a good start and finished P3, so I was happy with that. In the Main Event, I had a great start again and got to lead for two laps. Then with five laps to go, while in third, I had a small crash when I missed the rear brake and went over the corner. I’m disappointed as we could’ve finished on the podium, but I learned a lot and it was a good day overall.”

Chance Hymas
Team: Honda HRC
Result: 8th overall
Grade: A-

Honda is going to have a hard time NOT letting Hymas run the entire 250SX East Region after Houston. Hymas showed he had the skills in SX last year during his run to the Supercross Futures title and he backed that up in Houston. Like Vialle he made some mistakes, but his speed was there.

“That was quite the experience,” Hymas said. “Me and Hunter were 1-2 off the start, and for the first four laps, I was like, ‘I need to go!’ Then around the fifth or sixth lap, I ran out of breath. I got to about halfway and kind of regrouped, and then salvaged what I could. I qualified eighth, finished eighth, third in the heat race—I want to be better, but it could’ve been a lot worst. I’ll take it.”

Talon Hawkins
Team: Rockstar Energy Husqvarna
Result: 11th overall
Grade: B+

Maybe I should give him a higher grade? Did Hawkins even know he was racing Houston before Swoll got hurt? Honestly, this was to me, one of the most impressive performances. Hawkins was GOOD! But, hey, I also kind of predicted this.

“There’s not much downtime, so it’s very different from anything I’ve ever done before,” Talon said.“At all the amateur races you have so much time in between each race. So it was definitely a change of pace to be out there. It’s crazy, the intensity is just so high, right off the gate. So now I know what to work on, I’m ready to get back out there next weekend.”

Gage Linville
Team: Fire Power Honda
Result: DNQ (10th in LCQ)
Grade: C+

I thought Linville was only going to race Futures this year, but there he was in Houston. He nearly qualified out of his heat finishing 11th, but then struggled in the LCQ.

Caden Braswell
Team: Phoenix Honda Racing
Result: DNQ (15th in LCQ)
Grade: C+

The Horizon Award winner made mistakes in his heat and the LCQ and did not make the main.

Larry “JR” Reyes
Team: Privateer
Result: DNQ (Qualified 31st)
Grade: C+

Reyes suffered a concussion in qualifying and was unable to race the night show.