What was that Deegan?

No you are wrong. When your teammate is faster than you in a heat race you roll over for him, not try and put him on the ground.

Defending such action shows one's ignorance and low racing IQ..

It’s worked for him so far this series 🤷‍♂️ 

Exactly. 

Smith knows Thrasher and Deegan are the future of Star's 250 class.

He's a great support rider at this point of his career.

There's no way he hangs with Thrasher right now, and Deegan's soon to be leaving him behind.

And he knows it.

The only thing that “took smith out of the championship” is his own poor race craft and racer IQ. It’s been years of shit like that with him. I’d be embarrassed if a 17 year old took me to school on national tv too.

Haiden is one of the most exciting guys on track these days. Seems like a great kid from a go-get-it family. I have enjoyed his ascendancy.

Today, he raced behind himself when Jordan Smith came up to him. He looked, he slowed, he played and slowed them both down. Thats's fun to do with mates when you're mucking around. When there's nothing on the line. Not a good thing to do when you're on a team. Not a good thing to do in professional racing. Because it slows you down. It makes you a target for retribution. 

Then, at the press conference, he dismissed it with BS, saying two or three times, "I wasn't really paying attention". Joking perhaps. 

He's still a kid.

He's a kid with more magnifying glasses on him than anyone of us could ever understand. That has to mess with you, again in ways that are hard to appreciate. He's a star and makes the cost of admission worthwhile. Like Jett, he will mess up in ways that stirs us up, excites us and p's us off. 

I thought David Izer went in a bit hard - Love the guy. Called the kid out for the "Paying attention" comment. Maybe that should have been a private conversation. Dunno.

Hunter spoke up, good on him, 

(Edit) for defending the kid - I imagine without having seen the slowing down. However,

Hunter conflated his story in a way only seen in every other Vital post at around the third page of a hot topic. Congrats to Weege who addressed that so well in his wrap up, pointing out that the people celebrating the rough riding in the 90's are not the same as the ones crying about it now. Well done, well said, Jason. 

I really enjoyed the racing today. I would rather see some rubbing than see a guy win all alone out the front. 

I thought the press conference was interesting for a change, when there's a Lawrence at the table it is less likely to be a yawnfest.

As an Aussie, I am enjoying Hunter and Jett riding so well. That said, if Thrasher takes out Hunter's front wheel sometime, I will say that Hunter had that coming. I will hope HL96 gets up and passes him back, (Cleanly) and I hope they shake hands after it all.  

Memorable season. 

They’ll say let him be.. you don’t put a saddle on a mustang…

Man, if this thread is any indication of how the rest of his career is going to go, this place is going to be a war zone. I don't like the fanboy/hater schtick, it's exhausting.

Like Barcia,they lose some fans and win some fans.Deegan ended up on the podium and Jordan was visitor.End of the day,the results are what matters.lol

Looked to me like Smith’s last attempt to knock Deegan out of the way was poorly executed and it cost him. 

So,if he did the same thing in the main,would have been ok?What about it was not his teammate,would it have been better?

Smith took himself out. He was on the inside of Deegan and tried to run him wide and couldn’t do it. The whole “teammate” thing too.. they aren’t on the same basketball team trying to beat another team. They just ride the same bike

I see the Vitard's had a busy night.

Only way phil will have this opportunity is if Deegan is lapping him. You’d think Deegan ghost rode his bike into smiths head and everyone that has already disliked him since he was 10 years old is out to beat the kid into oblivion. Smith has rag dolled himself out of every championship. He just got a little helping hand this year. 

I didn't log in in a long time, but here some takes are crazy in this thread, or pretty negative, so I wanted to balance it with my opinion on this "outrageous action" lol.

Contrarily to quite a few comments that will then down vote pretty well this post, personally I think it was great race craft, and actually veteran moves. It was just in a heat ? Let us not forget it was also for a heat WIN, probably 5k for more nike's, the confidence booster and bragging right, ... and more importantly for the best position to get a holeshot and so a podium in the main.

I feel bad for Smith of course, because he lost a bit his focus and it ruined his night, but that is racing, he will probably podium next week end. The action was nothing dangerous, no ill intent to injure or DNF someone, no cross jumping, nothing reaaally dirty, just hard and perfectly executed bar banging at relatively slow speed. Stopping, parking, brake checking, block passing hard, in 1 word fighting, that was pure 90's, Bradshaw like, so for many people it is very exciting to watch. He may have lost some fans but I am pretty sure in the end he also gained some more (like if he really needed that). SX is not golf and should never become so soft otherwise we will see 3 passes per night. We are not obliged to see these 3 passes only in the whoops sometimes during the night too. I do agree though that these kind of actions are absolutely not something to do in a local race, but in front of 50.000 people, for a win in the pro ranks and at just 17, it is just normal, it is just normal to send it. Even in the press conference, honestly what do you want him to say, there is like nothing to see, rubbing is racing, is it really shocking ?

Now what I find really lame is wishing bad stuffs or hating a youngster because of that, or his dad, or not liking "what they do" or how they act based on things the deegans never even did or said. They are way smarter, more humble and realistic in their approach to getting to the professional level than quite a few people said here. Everyone can have their opinion based on old stuffs but if you are quite clueless about the more recent years and all the process behind, then follow their channel, they are pretty transparent (!), and please don't feel obliged to spread fake information too. I also guess most people here once they put the helmet on would even park their grand mother if they had to for a heat win in SX, so maybe let us add a note in the rules here that we need to wear our helmet before typing. Sorry, rant over, enjoy !

Smith has had 8 years to get the job done in the 250 class and hasn’t (and won’t) be able to pull a championship off.  Deegan is the future of the Star team and is out to establish himself as such.  Thousands of dollars are on the line even in a heat race.  If Smith thought Deegan was just going to let him ride around him on the outside in the 90 after the whoops for a heat race win, I guess he found out otherwise.  Once the initial contact was made, lots of aggressive moves were made by both riders.  As is normally the case, Smith ended up on the ground not just once, but 3 times.  Deegan is literally a kid riding with a ton of emotion.  Smith should have thought about that when picking his passing spot.  Deegan didn’t t-bone Smith, he just held his line.  Rubbin’s racin’.

Awww, a 17 year old hurt your feelings because the way he rides his dirtbike? How will you get through the week..

But you went full Vitard. Congrats!
 

rule #1 of Vitardism - Never post on Vital as if you are not one of them…

That's the second time you just made shit up on this subject....If you have been paying attention you would have noticed that they have been racing each other aggressively the entire season...obviously there is something going on between the two and tonight it boiled over in a heat race they both wanted to win...they are both equally at fault...

I dont care for either one of them but i wonder what people's excuse will be when this 17yo is still pulling this stuff at 24. Leopards dont change their spots. "it was just a racing incident no wait oops sorry yall if u thought i was too gnarly when i stopped im the middle of the corner there" 

I am a big Smith supporter, and as I wanted to be upset with Deegan for those moves after watching the replay, Smith Has to be smarter. He was clearly faster, all he needed to do was wait a lap and pass Deegan. He got caught up in the moment and try to teach a Deegan lesson, but it backfired, and he went down.

At the same time, we did not see Hymas pull that crap on the Honda guys. Even if Deegan is faster than Hymas, Hymas seems alot more mature on the track.

and people talking about this being for the win, did you cry along with Alessi when he won his heat race? It’s just a heat race so please don’t use the ”it’s for the win” crap.

Hunter rolled in second place in his race knowing that there is nothing to win batteling with Kitchen, yet the other star guys were racing like their lifes depended on it in a heat race…

I did not see Honda guys throwing it in on Hymas. Hate the 238 of you want to but keep an open mind and access the whole situation. 

It's only one race and it's not like either of them were within a race of getting the red plate. They'll just regroup and try again next week. I'm sure the managers at Star will sit them down and explain some do's and dont's and all will be good.

Or Smith and Deegan will hate eachother from here on out and it will be a grudge match lol.

Smith was a second a lap faster. In fact he was the fastest of both heats by a wide margin. He didn't need to knock anybody down. All he was trying to do was make a pass and not be taken out. WATCH the replay.

Personally didn't think the race moves were that out of line other than Smith should have cooled it when things got dicey. 

The biggest surprise for me was seeing how poorly Deegan came across in the PC.  Hopefully, he see's how that goony laugh and flippant demeanor is at best...awkward looking. 

This isn’t flag football! It’s a dog eat dog world , these older vets are pissed that the young men are coming up and beating them .. STAY HARD MF!!! Let’s go Deegan !!!!!!!!!!!! 

LOL! You sure are fully vested in this by all your multiple posts in multiple threads....The funny part is that there was very little contact between the two until Jordan tried to take Haiden out and ended up taking himself down...I think you need to WATCH the replay...these two have been going after each other the whole series and it boiled over last night...it's over and I'm sure the team will deal with it and we won't see anymore of this shit between the two.

If Jordan tried to take Deegan out by running into the back of him he is the dumbest rider on the track.

Yeah, thanks to the Vitards I am vested for a hundred bucks.This could be interesting.

You said it not me....

Just watched the heat.

If I was team leader/ manager BOTH would have been told that team comes 1st, the time for crap like that is at practice track.  Definitely more bad PR with HDeegan.  Somebody needs to take the lead and be a 'mentor' in this part of his career - oh and def not dad!