No matter what Haiden Deegan does it will generate headlines. If he wins, people will scream from their laptops on social media that he is the best rider in the world, will smoke Jett and Jeffrey and Eli and Chase and whomever else once he moves up.
If he loses, people will scream from their laptops on social media that he is overrated, he won’t beat Jett or Chase or Eli and that he isn’t beating “anyone”… whatever that means.
Welcome to the modern era of social media, everyone! Where you can say whatever you want with zero consequences. Soak it up!
As I’ve written all week leading up to and out of Anaheim 1, it’s a weird race that produces weird results. Hell, even Ken Roczen, who has won Anaheim 1 four times but hasn’t won a 450 title, admitted after the race Saturday that an A1 win doesn’t really mean anything: “I’ve won Anaheim 1 quite a bit and it kind of leads nowhere.”

Yes, a win at A1 is great and you will be soaked in headlines and social comments about how awesome you are, but unless you do something good in San Diego it means… well, nothing. Except for the win bonuses. Those are nice.
The only thing that Haiden Deegan can’t seem to conquer so far in his young career is openers. For the second straight year, the young phenom has left the opening round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross having to crawl out of a points deficit. This time felt different from Detroit a year ago, though.
Last year, Deegan was nursing an injury, came into Detroit hoping to salvage points, got collected in a massive crash and left with a 16th. Saturday, he once again got caught in an early crash (second turn this time), but collected himself and charged to a hard-fought fifth and only leaves with an eight-point deficit to Jo Shimoda.

“It was a solid first round and a lot better than last year,” he said in a Yamaha press release. “We got a top-five and are not sitting 16th. I’m not super happy that we biffed it on the start, but that’s racing. It happens. All we can do is go back to work and come back swinging next week.”
Yes, Shimoda, JuJu, Smith and others will give Deegan trouble this year, but being down eight after Anaheim 1 that included coming from nearly dead last to fifth, with no Levi Kitchen and Austin Forkner, has to have Deegan confident about his title chances going into San Diego.

Images: @octopi.media