Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Haiden Deegan escaped injury after landing on a downed rider’s bike in the second moto at RedBud. Deegan crashed heavily but was quick to remount and earned a P6 result in the moto. The 250MX points leader is already eager to get back to work this week to turn things around at Spring Creek.

The incident happened on the 13^th lap when Deegan was catching Tom Vialle and Ty Masterpool ahead of him. A lapped rider crashed on the big RedBud tabletop and Vialle and Masterpool both narrowly missed hitting him. A few moments later, Deegan came over the blind jump unaware of the crash and landed right on the machine laying in the middle of the track.

Deegan somersaulted onto his back and landed heavily but bounced right back up. He lost over 10 seconds in the fall and with it, any shot to get into a fight for an overall podium. But Deegan appears to be okay from the crash as he already has his eyes set on the seventh round coming up this weekend.

“In the second moto, I got pinched off really hard on the start, so it made it a little hard on me, but I got going,” said Deegan. “I started setting some of the fastest laps, and then a rider crashed on a landing and there were no flags, and I crashed. So, 2-6 for fifth overall on the day, and no points lost, that’s good. We’ve got a 42-point gap still, so we’re in a comfortable position. We’ll go back to work this week, though, so we can come back swinging next weekend.”

Deegan escaped with the exact championship lead he had entering the day despite the rider P2 in the championship, Chance Hymas, winning the overall. Hymas was docked five points after the first moto for jumping on a red cross flag and ultimately only outscored Deegan by five points on the day with 4-1 scores to Deegan’s 2-6.

Overall, both Deegan and the team are relieved that things didn’t end up worse in that situation.

“A lapper ended up going down on the landing of a tabletop, and Haiden crashed,” said team manager Jensen Hendler. “It wasn’t great, but he got back up and finished sixth for fifth overall. We still have the points lead and didn’t lose any points in the championship, which is good considering how it could’ve gone.”