INTERVIEW
P42
WIL HAHN
TURNIN
Wil Hahn is
making it a race
for the 250 East
Supercross
Championship.
Wil Hahn talks abo
recent success in
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY
SHAN MOORE
M
any were predicting the
2013 250 East Supercross Series would be
a Dean Wilson romp, but no one
told Wil Hahn, the GEICO Honda
team rider from Texas who recently won his first Supercross ever in
Atlanta and then followed that up
with another impressive win at St.
Louis. And the new points leader
was impressive again after finish-
ing second at the Daytona Supercross, where we caught up with
Hahn and talked with him about
his recent success on the track.
It might not have been a win,
but you still had an impressive
ride at Daytona.
I really wanted to be up there
at the front, but I'm happy with
my finish and it helped us in the
points.
Let's talk about your first
win two weeks ago at Atlanta.
It was a game changer, for
sure. It's been a long time coming, too. I've been in the 250
class a long time and I've been
close to getting a win before; I
think in '09 I led 10 laps of a main,
and then I lost it in the last few
laps. But to finally get it was a
relief. And it was a dream come
true. It makes it feel like all those
years of struggling were worth it.
It was a very emotional experience for you.
Yeah, even getting on the
podium the week before was a
huge deal for me. This is my third
year on the GEICO team, and I
don't have that many podiums
for them. The year before, when
I was with Troy Lee, I think I got
five or six podiums, so I was happy to get a podium for GEICO. So
it's been tough. You feel like you
go through a stint where you're
up and down and it gets frustrating, but these guys stuck with me
through it all and now it's paying
off.
What has been the difference for you?
For one, I was able to come
into this year healthy. This is my
first time to come into Supercross
in good shape since my first year
as a pro. This past outdoor season was good, I had a solid out-
