Haiden Deegan looking forward, taking lessons from first professional motocross race
Haiden Deegan wasn’t nervous Saturday as he prepared to make his professional motocross debut. He was happy to be competing against some of the best racers in the field because most of the 16-year-old’s life had led to that point. He learned racing from his father, Brian Deegan, a longtime competitive motorcycle rider, and first climbed on a bike at age 3.
At the Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, he was where he was meant to be.
The end result wasn’t what Deegan was looking for. An early bump with another rider cost him his rear brake, and he crashed hard in his first race, finishing 34th. He was No. 24 in his second run after another brief crash, resulting in a final placement of 31st out of 42 racers. Deegan is fine with it. He wants to be among the best and knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. The next step is building on what he learned Sunday — and the lessons of a lifetime in motorsports.
“Everyone’s a lot more aggressive on the first few laps,” Deegan said of his first professional competition. “Amateur racing, everyone’s more laid back on the first laps. These guys are just hammering, running into each other, and I think that’s why my brake got broke. Someone ran into me. But yeah, first few laps, it’s just everyone running into each other. It’s a lot higher pace and intensity, but it was super fun.”
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While Deegan has been on a bike almost his entire life, his older sister, Hailie, gravitated toward cars and trucks and has been competing in the NASCAR truck series since 2020. Deegan briefly dipped his toe into truck racing as a kid. He crashed in his third race and his Junior 1 truck flipped “seven times.”
“After that," he said, "I was like, ‘Yep, sticking to my dirt bike.’”
The siblings have never raced each other in a formal capacity, neither then nor during Hailie’s brief foray into motocross, but the similar nature of their sports has led to a cheerfully competitive relationship. They’ve had a friendly back-and-forth since they were younger, each trying to finish higher than the other, even in different competitions. Even now, Deegan watches his sister’s NASCAR races and sometimes texts her “to let her know she needs to pick it up.”
Back in his own race, Deegan leaned on the advice of his dad as he navigated a field of racers more aggressive than he was used to facing. Brian Deegan began his motorcycle career as a teenager, but the wisdom that came to his son’s mind was more mental and motivational than technical.
A flat start left Deegan in the back of the crowd when he thought of Brian’s advice to keep pushing through and maintain his focus.
“My dad’s really pushed me to stay in it and really just work very hard to get to where I am,” Deegan said.
Deegan’s goal is to be in the top three by the next outdoor motocross season, one he sees as realistic because of how much he learned in his two runs Saturday. He’ll be ready for the added bumping and jockeying on the early laps. He’ll have a better sense of how a track, its ridges and divots dug from professional laps, takes form throughout the race. He knows he got out what he needed to, even with a forgettable result.
“I actually felt good,” he said. “I felt like I had good speed, good fitness. It’s just these next — if I do another round of outdoors — is focus on my start. Get out there, run with the guys where I know I can run. Times were good in the first moto. I had good fitness, just wasn’t able to push as hard as I wanted because I lost my brake. But overall I feel like I got some good fitness.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Haiden Deegan makes professional motocross debut in Crawfordsville
