Yahoo Autos Haiden Deegan Wins First Supercross Race and 'Ghost Rides' His Bike
Under the lights of the Los Angeles Coliseum last September, Haiden Deegan won the inaugural SuperMotocross Championship.
Deegan rode toward the podium respectively and unexpectedly. The rookie rider finished 5-2 in the two-feature showdown and had no idea he won the 250 Championship and the $500,000 that came with it. If he had known there would've been greater fan service.
This weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas he won and he fulfilled the prophecy.
A Little Bit of Supercross History
Notoriously Brian Deegan, Haiden’s father, ‘Ghost Rode’ his bike after winning his first and only Supercross race at the Los Angeles Coliseum on January 18th, 1997. The action racer and founder of the Metal Mulisha's win was written in the record books and was a huge reason why fans were excited about the Supercross’ return to the Coliseum this year.
Fans and critics have been awaiting the moment that Deegan reenacts his father’s ghost ride and many thought if he won the SuperMotocross World Championship he would do it. He did win the championship. He did not ghost ride. After the race when asked why he didn’t throw his bike through the air, the answer was simple, he did not know that he won.
Back to the Present
The young SX rider has said in private and public spaces that he wants to honor his father’s notorious win at the Coliseum by ‘Ghost Riding’ after a victory and while he feels like he missed out on the viral possibility of it happening at the Coliseum, it’s poetic that it happened in his first Supercross victory. While the SMX playoffs mirror aspects of both the Supercross and Motocross seasons it’s important that they contain their own stats and lore.
“I got to do it,” Deegan answered R&T in the post-race press conference, “I’ve been telling a lot of people that I’m going to ghost-ride it eventually. I’ve been pushing it off, I look back at it and I should’ve done it at LA Coliseum… it would’ve been more historic. I just didn’t know I’d won until Duff came up to me. I’m going to blame that one on Duff.”
Three weekends ago at Ford Field in Detroit Mich., Deegan crashed out early in the opening night feature for 250 East. This was a big disappointment after how strong Deegan was riding throughout qualifying and heats.
Many questioned if the 18-year-old rider would be competitive early this season; since little was disclosed about an off-season injury during winter break. The rider came out to loud fanfare and his involvement in a first-lap crash meant that he had to settle for 16th, a feat pulled off while racing with a severely bent set of handlebars. This week at Arlington in front of a record crowd of 67,319 fans he bounced back with the victory.
“It was my fault, I didn’t get a good start and it bit me,” Deegan said on Detroit and his difference in Arlington, “I went and worked on starts. I nearly hole-shotted the main and came in second so I’d say we have the starts fairly dialed in.”
After his early crash at Detroit, the focus for Deegan and Star Yamaha for the rest of the season was on starts. The work put in over the last two weeks placed Deegan in the right position. After running in second behind Austin Forkner for the first two-thirds of the race, Deegan inherited the win when Forkner made a mistake and crashed out.
It's reported that Forkner is okay and standing on his own after a gnarly send off the track.
There is a reason that the Deegan name stays synonymous with motorsports.
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