In great conversation with Lewis Phillips, Haiden Deegan gave his view on Star and himself not racing the event and robustly denied rumours he would only go if he got start money!
Deegan told Lewis: “I think it’s kind of more playing into the team now standing up and making a stand that the team wants to be able to not go so out of pocket to this event. It’s obviously super cool racing for your country, but I feel like at some point the teams need to make a stand and be like, hey, our equipment, our team, guys, they ain’t going to drop 100 grand, 50 to 100 grand to go to a race.
“You race for Team USA, that’s super sweet. But again, it’s a lot of money out of pocket for a race team to get their stuff there. So I feel like it’s good that the team stood up and they took it on their back like that. Like, hey, this needs to be a change somewhere, so you can kind of find the fix in that.
Deegan then denied the start money rumour stating emphatically: “No, I don’t need start money. The problem is I want to go to a race where the team isn’t losing money, right? We’re not going to go to a race where you lose a bunch of money. Unfortunately, where we’re at in racing and where we’re at in this generation, that’s not what it needs to be anymore. The team needs to stand up, and they did. So I’m happy about that, but I don’t need to start money.”
Deegan also talks about his outdoor season in the 450, getting the bike set-up and a scary plane journey home from Budds Creek that had Deegan wondering if he would make it home alive!
Watch the full interview below:
