Image: Octopi Media.

Despite battling illness throughout the final round of the 2023 Pro Motocross Championship at Ironman, Haiden Deegan was able to return to the podium with a second-place result to cap-off his season as 250MX rookie of the year.

Deegan woke up unwell ahead of the 11th round, however, he pushed through to qualify second for the season-ending motos.

After the first lap in moto one, Deegan was P5 and put his head down to charge to the runner-up position, backing that up in moto two by fighting his way up to third to land his ninth podium of the season and secure P2 overall on the day.

“Today went well for what I was dealing with,” Deegan recalled. “Qualifying went well. I just sent it and qualified second overall. The first moto was a hard one for me. We still got second, which was good, but I still didn’t have anything in me to catch Jo [Shimoda].

“We just tried to rest in between the motos and tried to come out swinging in the second moto. I got a decent start and came out seventh and made my way up to third for second overall. It wasn’t the result we were wanting, but overall, for what the situation was, we’re happy with second overall.”

Deegan ultimately finished P4 in the standings for his first full 250MX season, scoring the overall win at RedBud and becoming the first rider in the class to go 1-1 this season at Washougal. He also held the red plate at Millville and enters the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) playoffs with the number two 250SMX seed.