We got to catch up briefly with Haiden Deegan’s dad, Brian, to get his perspective on why Haiden stayed on a 250 for one more Supercross season before moving to the 450 outdoors.
Watch or read below.
Brian, here we are, another Anaheim 1. You’ve raced these yourselves, but what are your memories of your career in these big pressure situations?
Yeah, I don’t think there’s pressure here. This is what you sign up to do, man. Haiden worked his ass off all off-season. He’d come here and just needs to do his job and enjoy it, have fun, apply what he’s done in the off-season, and the level’s gotten so high nowadays.
It’s a long season. You’re not going to win the championship in the first race. You’ve just got to be smart. Play your cards right. My job is as father to be here and just try to make sure no stones left unturned. I think it’ll be a good season.
How close was he to be even, or at least in a couple of races, 450 and Anaheim 1 to the West Coast?
Yeah, our plan’s always been to race white supercross and then race outdoor at 450 where he’s comfortable. I think he needed another season in the lights bike to get a little bit better in a few things, and it’s always been our plan. We’ve never had another plan besides that.
Did his 450 World Supercross performance surprise you? Was it where you thought he would be?
Yeah, 450 World Supercross is about where I thought he’d be. It showed us what we need to work on. I’m glad he did it. He’s got some stuff to work on like we knew he would. Outdoors, I think he’ll be a more polished outdoor season. You can twist the throttle and go faster outdoors. That’s what’s cool. Indoors, that doesn’t quite work.
Looking back on your career, I remember the win in LA Outdoors, I think you were a little bit underrated watching a lot of old videos. You were kind of in around top 10 outdoors and not on a factory bike. What was that last piece as a racer that you just didn’t have to get to that factory level?
Yeah, I just didn’t have the equipment. I was in shape. I had the mental game. I just didn’t have the equipment when I was racing. I was about a fifth place guy. Back then, a fifth place guy was a privateer. Nowadays, a fifth place guy is a factory rider or at least factory support.I just wasn’t the right, wrong time for where I was headed. But fortunately, it all worked out for me. I got to go to freestyle motocross, create a whole thing of action sports and make a great career out of it.And it was all meant to be. I thought it was God’s plan and it worked out for me. And look, we’re back to racing, back on a factory team, back to winning championships.It all worked out now, didn’t it?
How is it during your racing your career to watching Haiden? More nerve-wrecking or less? I
It’s way more nerve-wracking watching my kids race. As a father, man, it is so nerve-wracking. But it’s all good, man. At the end of the day, this is what we want to do. Kids are kicking ass right now.
And what did you learn from the freestyle marketing wise to put into what you’ve done with your kids here?
You got to be careful. Racing is different than freestyle. So you got to play the game with the racing and be smart. The teams pay the bills, so you got to play the game. It’s just the game. Freestyle is the Wild West.
