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Going into the next-to-last round in Denver on Saturday night, Haiden Deegan needed to win and needed his teammate, Cole Davies, to finish fifth for Deegan to clinch the 250 West championship. That's exactly what happened. But how it happened had motocross fans buzzing in disagreement.
For much of the race, Davies led with his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate, Deegan, in third. But in the final laps, Deegan moved up to second and began tracking down Davies. By the last two laps, they were racing wheel to wheel. Deegan saw an opening, pulled inside Davies in a turn, and made contact that pushed Davies off the track. By the time Davies was able to get going, he was in fifth and had no time to recover any positions.
The stadium was more rumbling than buzzing as AMA officials reviewed the pass after the checkered flag, but they eventually decided to impose no penalties, giving Deegan the championship.
Debate erupted in motocross forums from the moment the race ended, with some calling Deegan a string of words we don't publish here on Common Tread while others said it was just hard racing, a little contact is a natural part of Supercross, and they pointed to much worse examples from the past. Of course opinions were stronger because Deegan is such a "love him or hate him" kind of public figure to begin with. He speaks his mind frankly, to put it in more gentlemanly terms than he'd ever use, and doesn't avoid controversy. When he was arrested in March and charged with reckless driving in his Audi R8 sports car, he used his mug shot as his bio image on Instagram.
See the controversial pass that decided the championship in the highlights video below and form your own opinion.
More contrast emerged in the post-race interviews. Immediately after coming off the track, Davies faced a microphone and a question about what he thought of his teammate's pass. The 17-year-old from New Zealand refused to criticize Deegan's move, instead blaming himself for not holding onto his lead and thus giving Deegan a chance to make something like that happen. Moments later, Deegan, with a portion of the Denver crowd cheering him and perhaps a larger portion booing him, told the live TV audience and the fans in the stadium that if they didn't like it they could "suck it."
