The battle between Haiden Deegan and Tom Vialle in the second 250m moto at Ironman was, while it lasted, an instant classic.
Deegan and Vialle fought a pretty tough duel for several laps of the race, and at one point there was contact between the two in the corner after the finish.
In the end, Deegan outlasted the Red Bull KTM athlete and won the race, but his 11th place finish in the first run prevented him from taking the overall win. Vialle won the day by 1-4 points. It was surprisingly his first overall win of the season.
First, let’s take a look at the five-pointer that Deegan scored after his pass to Chance Hymas…
Here is part of the fight with Vialle.
Deegan and Vialle had a tough race and in the end it was nice to see Vialle’s assessment of the fight at the post-race press conference.
“It was actually pretty cool. We did maybe two or three laps together and he passed me right after the mechanics zone and I passed him again in the next corner,” said Vialle.
It’s interesting to hear Vialle talk about his first overall win of the season. He said he knew Deegan finished 11th in the first race, but he didn’t know anything about the overall win. In fact, Vialle admitted he got tired at the end of the race so he finished 4th, which was obviously good enough for the win.
“It was a nice battle, I think the track is well suited for it. You can really change your line and that was cool. In the last ten minutes I was a bit tired,” said Vialle. “Of course I really wanted to try to keep up with Haiden, but I got a bit tired. In the second run I couldn’t do better than fourth place.”
Kudos to Vialle for being honest and open about his tiredness. I was tired watching the race from my sofa in the freezing cold air conditioning.
With Chase Sexton winning the 450 Pro Motocross Championship and Aaron Plessinger going 2-2 for second overall, it was a big day for the Red Bull KTM team. Even rookie JuJu Beaumer got in on the action as he finished 11th in the series and won the AMA Motocross Rookie of the Year Award, which will go well with his SX Rookie of the Year honors.
Vialle goes into the SMX playoffs as number 3 behind Haiden Deegan and Levi Kitchen.
