Haiden Deegan wins 250 East/West Shootout final at Salt Lake City

Big night in Salt Lake City on Saturday at the final round of 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross series for the Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha program as Haiden Deegan dominated the biggest 250 class race of the year – the highly anticipated Dave Coombs Sr. 250 East/West Shootout – in a wire-to-wire 1st place effort, with teammate Jordon Smith taking 3rd. In the 450 class it’d be Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Justin Cooper and Cooper Webb going 2-3 in supercross season’s final race at a sold out Rice-Eccles Stadium.

On the season Deegan would place 2nd overall in the 250 Eastern Region Supercross class (250 ESX), while Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen, who placed 5th on Saturday, would finish as the runner-up as well in the 250 Western Region Supercross class (250 WSX). Also making the overall podium in 250 WSX was Smith, who placed 3rd.

On the 450s for the season, Webb would be the lone Monster Energy-backed racer on the podium, battling through injury to place 2nd in the long and tough 17-round season.

For Deegan, in only his second year racing pro Monster Energy AMA Supercross, it’d be a night to remember in Utah as he topped the best in the world, straight up, as East met West on the floor of Rice-Eccles Stadium – his third race win of the season.

“That was sick,” said Deegan. “That was my first East/West Shootout win. I came into this race, I’m like ‘You know what? I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m just going to go out there and execute what I do,’ and that’s what I did today.”

All totaled, Monster Energy racers captured six of the top seven spots in the East/West 250 Shootout with Jo Shimoda (Honda) in 4th, Kitchen in 5th, Nate Thrasher (Star Racing/Yamaha) in 6th and Chance Hymas (Honda) in 7th.

On the 450s Cooper would save his best finish of the year for the last race with his 2nd place run at SLC. A 2nd place start and virtually mistake-free 24 laps after that would lead to a runner-up finish and spot on the SLC 450 podium.

Said Cooper: “I was looking for this podium all year and it just happened to come at the last round. We saved the best for last.”

For 3rd place Webb, a 2nd place overall finish in the 450 points chase wasn’t what he’d hoped for, but was gracious towards the new champion, Honda’s Jett Lawrence. “It’s been a great year. Second in the championship’s not what you want… but congrats to Jett and the whole team. They killed it this year. And I just want to give it up to my team. They really invested a lot into me this whole year and they believed in me from the start. And I got back to championship for this year and probably the best version of myself.”

Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson continued to run well, finishing just off the 450 box in 4th place.

Overall Standings (17 of 17 rounds)

Notes & Quotes

• “It was a renaissance year for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki, but they were denied the titles,” said NBC announcer Jason Weigandt on Monster/PC/Kawi’s year in which, at one point, the team was leading both 250 ESX & WSX before its riders suffered some crashes and injuries.
• “Huge turnaround with Levi Kitchen. (The) end result’s probably not what he wanted, but he’s gotta be pumped. That’s just a huge, huge improvement from last year.” – NBC’s Ricky Carmichael on Levi Kitchen
• “Nerves need rest. And that’s the only thing that’s going to help it get better.” – Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo on his career-ending right hand/nerve injury that has continued to get worse over the past three seasons, despite multiple surgeries.
• “There’s definitely been a lot of learning moments from this year. … Incidents with racers. Incidents with myself. … Winning. I’d never even won a supercross until this season.” – Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Haiden Deegan prior to the SLC SX.
• “Not really sure what my future holds. Going back to Tallahassee (Fla.) tomorrow. I’ve got some good people in my corner and we’ll try to figure it out as we go. We’ll be back for outdoors.” – Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Gavin Towers
• “Shout out to Toyota of Escondido (Calif.). We lost Damian this past week. He’s been a huge supporter of this sport and of us racers for a long time and this podium’s dedicated to him,” said Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha’s Jordon Smith in honor of the late Damian Campos.
• Multi-time SX champ Cooper Webb (Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha) on his torn UCL thumb injury: “We’ll get surgery Monday on this thumb … and we’ll be back next year, I know that’s for damn sure.”

Up next: With the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season now concluded, the Monster Energy-backed racers and teams will get ready for the start of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, which kicks off on Saturday, May 25th, at Fox Raceway in Pala, Calif. For more information on the AMA Pro Motocross Championships, link to www.promotocross.com