"Next Year Will be My Last Year Racing Supercross" - Catching up with Dean Wilson

We caught up with fan favorite Dean Wilson to see what the not-so wee lad is up to these days...

Dean Wilson recently got back on a bike after his injury to his bum in St. Louis. We wanted to see how he’s feeling and talk a little about his career. Our man Jamie "Darkside" Guida caught up with him and here’s what he had to say. Scroll past the video player for the written feature of this interview of you can listen in by clicking the YouTube video directly below.

 



Jamie Guida - Vital MX:  How does it feel to be back on the bike?

Dean Wilson: It feels really good! Stoked to be back. Obviously, I've had that really strange injury on the bottom, and it took quite a while to heal. It's hard getting thrown into the deep end mid-summer, you know. I’m just trying to get back in shape and build myself up. It's tough but you know, got to start somewhere. We're trying and we're putting in the laps.

Vital MX: Is the injury still bothering you? 

Dean: It's getting better, but it definitely hurts when I sit down on the seat. I injured my tailbone pretty bad too. So, it's like when I sit down, it's like I'm sitting on a nail, and it feels like my seat covers made of sandpaper. It's good to just be back riding, training and all that. So, I'm happy with that.

Vital MX: Can you just quickly give us a rundown on the injury? 

Dean: It was at the 13th round at the St Louis Triple Crown. It was the second lap of the first race, and I caught an edge in the whoops. And it just sent me left and I knew I was heading towards the finish line structure. There was nothing I could do, and I just had to like let go of the bike. The way the bike got propped up, my ass went through the foot peg. So long story short, had a massive gash, got rushed to the hospital was in the hospital for a week. I had three surgeries. First surgery, they had to close up the artery that I had. That's why I was bleeding so bad. I hit an artery. Second one, they just wanted to make sure that I didn't, you know, rupture anything else inside, like my anus or anything like that. If I had, I would have woken up with a bag outside my stomach. But I didn't, thank God. And then the third one was to make sure everything was clean and tidy and it was all good. And then I was going to have a fourth surgery, but they never ended up having to do it. So that was good. So yeah, just, you know, just pretty much got stabbed by a foot peg and then it went really deep. Something like 10 inches. It wasn't like they could just sow it up because there was such a big hole that it would fill up with fluid and it would get infected. I just had to let it heal from the inside out, which is a very slow way for it to heal. We had to pack it every day with gauze once or twice a day. Thankfully, with the help of Sarah, we got through it.

Vital MX: It's definitely not unlike you to at least have fun with a negative. You did some YouChoob videos and even found an FMF pipe and goggles in there.

Dean: Obviously we have sponsors and they still need to get promotion. And when you're on the coach, like, you got to try and still do your part. And Donny at FMF came up with that idea because it was an idea from Austin Powers, so it was quite funny. It turned out very good. Everyone got a good laugh out of it. And yeah, it was good. 

Vital MX: Compare this injury, which was very uncomfortable and very painful to 2019, when you broke and dislocated your hip. Which one was worse to deal with?

Dean: The one that's worse was the hip. That's the worst pain that you can ever be in, it's like a science scientific fact. It's equivalent, I guess, to a woman giving birth or something. I was dying in hospital. But this one, the pain was bad for the first few days, but then it got a little bit better. It was very uncomfortable because I had to lay on my side so much. I just wanted to lay on my back, and I couldn't lay on my bum. I couldn't sit on my bum like it was just like the most uncomfortable, most annoying injury. So it was, yeah, just not ideal. But we've gotten through it now.

Vital MX: In 2011, you win the outdoor title and finished second in 250 East Supercross. The following year, 2012, you finished second again, but had the shoulder injury right there at the end. You missed your title defense. Is that a regret? Do you have any regrets in your career?

Dean: Not really. I do wish I hadn’t blown my knee out so many times. That's the only thing that I wish never happened because it just affects me in everyday life. Obviously, it affected my career and ever since I've come close many times, but I've never been the same. I've always had to be protective and couldn’t ride with a free and open mind. It's always on my mind. But other than that, not really. I don't have any regrets because I can say I've tried my best every time. That’s something I'm proud of and it makes it easier when you walk away, you know?

Vital MX: You're just one of those guys with so much talent, so much skill, but injuries put a damper on a lot. You never really got a chance to get momentum over a couple seasons. 

Dean: Yeah, it's unfortunate. I think the first two years were really good. I had a lot of shoulder injuries and it seemed to be my problem. And then when I go 450, it was like my knee, my knee, my knee, my knee. And yeah, it just, it was so gnarly. And that's why my career has been so tough because I'm always having to come back from that and crawl my way back. I always believed that I had the talent and work ethic. Sometimes you just need a little bit of, like you said, momentum on your side. And that's the thing with the sport. It's dangerous. We ride three to four times a week. We race on weekends. It's a lot. It's a very dangerous sport. These things happen, whether it's mechanical or your own fault. Yeah. Being healthy is so important

Vital MX: In the last few years, you've been right around the top ten in Supercross and had some good finishes. The way this sport is, sometimes people say “He's not cutting it. He's not good. Why does he have that ride?”. That really feels unfair because a guy that gets 10th, 11th, 12th at the Daytona 500 in NASCAR, that's still pretty successful, at least in my eyes. How do you feel about the way the sport sees and judges results outside, really the top four or five?

Dean: People within the sport know, my goal is always to be in the top ten, top eight, you know. Of course, I want to be in the top five and podium. I just don't believe that I'm at that pace because like I said, I have such a bad knee. I've had to keep quiet for so long because every year I was always on a one-year contract. So, I was always keeping my knee under wraps because, I mean, who wants to hire a guy that's got a dodgy knee. But now that I'm 30 years old, next year will be my last year racing Supercross. So, like, I don't really care anymore. Sometimes I could barely even walk, you know, to get on my bike, but I could somehow ride my bike halfway decent, you know what I mean. Teams never wanted to take that risk of two years. It always kept me on my toes, which was good. But it was also hard because sometimes I wanted to get my knee fixed or get an injury fixed, but I couldn't because I just wasn't in a position to get it fixed.

Vital MX: Let's go to a super positive now. You and your lovely wife Sarah are going to be mommy and daddies. Dude, how does that feel? Life changing?

Dean: Oh, I know! I was so excited. Like how it all worked out, this is how I saw it happening. You know, I feel like I'm truly ready for it now and I really wanted a boy. But, you know, we can't be too picky, but we're going to have a boy. So exciting for the next chapter. This is something that I'm really looking forward to and you never know. This might give me that next spark and maybe it will help my racing as well. But it's something that Sarah and I are looking forward to and we're just like really excited.

Vital MX: Do you know what your plans are for the end of 22? Will you be back outdoors and/or World Supercross? And do you know what the future holds in 2023? Anything you can tell us for the future?

Dean: Yeah, just that I'll be Supercross only next year. Unfortunately, outdoors is just way too hard on my knee and my knee just simply can't take the outdoors. I'm at the age where I just have to make some smart decisions now. And yeah, I'll just be racing Supercross.

Vital MX: This is my last question for you. Do you feel that you can still win?

Dean: I would say I feel I could still win if all the cards were aligned. There's two times where I felt like I could have potentially won. One was A1 in 2019. I should have won that one. I was in the lead. I kind of had some issues with my goggles in the rain. And then I went back to fourth. Like within the last five minutes, I only had five minutes to go. Yeah, that's one I felt like I should've won. Then the second one was Salt Lake City in 2020. I got on the podium and I led some laps, Jason would have won the race, but his seat fell off and then Zach won...and I wasn't too far behind those guys, you know? And that's when the team went: one, two, three. So, for me to win, I mean, hey, I'll be honest with you, it's not very likely. But I mean, of course, I would love to. I'd say one thing I always wanted was just one Supercross 450 main event but it's tough. These guys are so good, so fast, and they're such athletes now. Like, I don't know, I feel like there was maybe like three, maybe four a few years ago. That was four athletes. Now I feel like there's like eight to ten that are just so good and they're so physically fit. The level that the 450 class is at now is just insane. I'm gonna give it my best next year. And we'll see how it goes and. Yeah, it will be good.


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