Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1539721
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 P135 for his antics—first for cutting the track and second for endan- gering his fellow riders—his only saving grace being his clash with DiFrancesco clearly wasn't deliberate. I wish I could say the same for what happened later. Put simply, Deegan's actions in race two, where he took three deliberate and obvious stabs to knock down Jo Shimoda and thus take a third-straight 250 SMX crown, were downright shameful. You can slow the pace to bring other riders into the battle. That's fine. But you can't do what Deegan did. That's not racing; that's roller derby. The teenager, seeing a possi - ble $500,000 win bonus slipping away, let the red mist fully de- scend, blinding him to all sense and sensibility. But he broke the number-one rule of trying to take someone out: don't get hurt doing it, or (okay, two rules) at least, don't take yourself out. Deegan's broken collarbone was the result, and it now puts Team USA in jeopardy heading into the MXoN at Ironman Race - way in a few weeks' time. The real shame here, in my opinion, lies with the AMA. Deegan was on probation af- ter his clash with Cole Davies at the Denver Supercross earlier in the year, and so his riding in race two in Las Vegas saw the AMA dock him five points as a slap on the wrist, dropping him from fourth to fifth in the SMX stand - ings and costing him roughly $50,000 in prize money. Whoopdy-fricking-do. While a lot to most, $50K is nothing to Deegan, and it showed the AMA has zero spine when it comes to mak - ing a stand against dangerous riding. I'm now more convinced than ever that it's okay to use your motorcycle as a weapon in Supercross competition. Think back to Joey Savatgy and Zach Osbourne, or Justin Barcia and Malcolm Stewart. Had Deegan ridden with this malicious intent in any other form of motorcycle racing, a black flag, like Chad Reed saw after intentionally crashing Trey Canard during the Anaheim 2 Supercross in 2015, would have been the very mini - mum he could expect. Concern- ing the Reed/Canard incident, FIM Race Director John Gal- lagher, who made the decision to black flag Reed that night, said, "Not ever will we accept a rider taking matters into his own hands." At the time, the AMA's Kevin Crowther said that he and the AMA fully support Gal - lagher's decision to take Reed immediately out of the race. In Formula One, Michael Schumacher tried to take out Jacques Villeneuve during the 1997 final at Jerez and promptly beached himself in the gravel, Villeneuve going on to take the title. What happened to Schumacher? The FIA, Formula One's governing body, deemed Schumacher's move unsporting, resulting in him being stripped of all his championship points for that season. He was erased from the championship! Incredibly, on this same past weekend as Deegan, we saw the same riding by Kay de Wolf in Australia, as he repeatedly punt - ed off Simon Laengenfelder in a last-gasp effort to hang onto the MX2 World Championship crown. Like Deegan, it didn't work, and he, too, tarnished his reputation as a result. Maybe it's not just an AMA thing. I will never lay claim to know - ing the kind of pressure Deegan or de Wolf were under in their races over the weekend. No one can. But that doesn't give you the right to set a precedent where it is okay to go after your rival in such a manner, especially in a sport that's already risky enough. A generation of kids watching will now think that if you can't beat your rival, just take him out. No one will care, least of all the AMA. Is this motorcycle racing or the WWE? Sometimes I find it hard to tell the difference. And before I go, a quick shout-out to those on social me - dia who backed Deegan's moves as simply, "He's a racer, man!" "He just wants to win, man!" You know nothing about racing if you really think Deegan's actions were acceptable. Money will do strange things to a person's brain, but that doesn't excuse Deegan's ac - tions, and it certainly doesn't excuse the AMA's response to first the DiFrancesco incident and then to the repeated attacks on Shimoda. Everyone involved in this sad state of affairs must do better, because the next time it happens (and it will), the injuries could be a lot worse than a concussion for one rider and a broken col - larbone for another. CN