"I got a good start and I said,
'We're going to lay it all out
on the track.' And we sent it,"
Deegan said after his first-moto
win. "Kenny was riding a great
race and kept me on my toes.
I saw the orange bike [Prado]
pretty deep, and I knew it's time
to make these guys crumble
under the pressure."
Deegan put himself up front
again in race two and trailed
Prado for the full moto. The
two traded mistakes and yo-
yo'd the gap in different parts
of the track. Deegan attempted
only one dive-bomb pass in the
closing laps, but Prado checked
up and avoided the takedown.
A 1-2 put Deegan on top for the
night but just seven points shy
in the final points standings. He
ends the season second over-
all in 450SMX points and adds
$500,000 to his bank account.
"I gave it everything I had,"
Deegan said. "I got the overall
but not the championship, and
that hurts. Credit to Jorge, he
was riding great. I'll go into the
off-season and work my butt off.
There's a Supercross Champion-
ship I want, and I'm going to do
everything I can to get it."
Hunter Lawrence, who led in
points going into the three-race
Playoffs and was regarded as the
favorite to win it all, quietly ended
the night in third overall. The
recently crowned AMA 450MX
Champion still had a realistic
shot at the SMX title in the final,
but the Honda HRC rider was
never really in the hunt during
either moto, stringing together a
consistent pair of thirds. How-
ever, he was clearly off the pace
of the two riders ahead. He
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P75
the Rockstar Husqvarna team. "This
weekend was an awesome way to fin-
ish the Playoffs—a real SMX track—and
it was a consistent night of results on
my end. Thank you to everybody who
has been behind us at Rockstar En-
ergy Husqvarna Factory Racing; there
are a lot of memories we have made
together as a team, and I'm thankful
for the years together."
13 JULIEN BEAUMER
6TH (4-9) 250SMX
Julien Beaumer qualified fastest but
finished outside the top five when all
was said and done. "It was a tough
day. It began really well with qualify-
ing P1, and then I started around
fourth or fifth in moto one and stayed
there the whole race. I got a terrible
start in moto two and was down in the
first corner, but I rode really well from
there—it was just a tough track to
pass on."
MYOWNRACE
31 MIKKEL HAARUP
18TH (12-22) 450SMX
Mikkel Haarup finished his time here
in the U.S. with an 18th-place result
after suffering a DNF in the final moto.
He's credited with 18th in the series
MY
Deegan kicked off
the night with a
wire-to-wire win in
the 450s over this
year's Supercross
and Motocross
Champions.
