Honda Racing’s Dean Wilson has made it three-from-three in the 2025 Boost Mobile AUSX Supercross Championship as he continues his charge toward reclaiming the SX1 crown. His Sydney victory didn’t come without controversy, after an appeal was required to overturn an initial decision that saw him stripped of the win before being reinstated. MotoOnline caught up with Wilson later for this Conversation feature.

Image: Foremost Media.

Deano, another win for you in Cronulla. Congratulations, that’s three in a row now, but this one didn’t come without its share of drama. Take us through the night from your perspective.

Yeah, I think the night was pretty good – I was happy with it. Started off in the heat race and, yeah, just kind of connected with [Dylan Walsh], locked bars a bit and couldn’t get separated, so I ended up going down. But honestly, I was pretty pleased with my riding in that one. I made a couple of small mistakes, but overall, I was happy with how I was riding. Heading into the main, I had sixth gate pick, so it wasn’t ideal, and I knew I needed to make it work off the start. I got a decent jump and settled into my rhythm, just clicked off my laps and felt solid and got the win there. In the second main, another pretty good start – I think I started second and moved into the lead on the first lap. I could feel Luke [Clout] behind me for a few laps, but I felt good, managed to build a bit of a gap, and was able to control it from there. I was happy with how I rode and crossed the line for the win, which felt good. Then I got to the podium afterwards and they told me that I’d skimmed the whoops under a red-cross flag. I said I’d seen one at the end of the whoops but not at the start – only when I was exiting the section, so I told them that it wasn’t out for me. Then I was thinking that maybe it was out and I didn’t see, so I mentioned that maybe we could review some footage to go over it properly, but they made a call straight away before checking everything. I understand that they had to do podium stuff, but they kind of just took [the win] off me right away. Once we went back and looked at the footage from different angles, you could see the flagger didn’t have the flag out yet when I went through – he was just getting ready to put it out when I went past, but it wasn’t out. There was a red-cross flag in the middle of the whoops, but anyone who rides, knows you can’t just chop the throttle in the middle of the whoops and start rolling – you’d literally just go over the bars. By the time Luke [Clout] came over the wall jump, the red cross flag was fully out, so he saw it. Anyway, once everything got reviewed, it was all sorted, and the win was reinstated. So yeah, all good in the end – another win, that’s six in a row now, and I’m pretty pleased with that.

Going back to the starts, you spoke about it quite a lot last year and it being an area that you needed to improve in. Has that been the case this year? Do you feel like you’ve made those improvements?

Yeah, I mean, it makes life a lot easier for sure. Round one, my starts were terrible, so after that I knew I needed to figure it out. It’s really just the simple things on the start that help me, so I’ve been focusing on those. The starts have been a big focus for me lately, especially over the weekend. I believe I’m fine if I’m somewhere around the top seven off the start – I can still get it done from there – but being in the lead, or even top two or three right away, just makes life so much easier. Starts have been a weakness for most of my career, so it’s definitely something I’ve been putting a lot of attention into and really trying to improve on right now.

There was a fair bit of confusion around the red-cross flag situation at the end. Can you talk us through what actually happened there? It must’ve been a strange one to deal with – especially knowing you still would’ve left with an extended points lead, but temporarily lost the win and a bit of bonus money in the process.

Yeah, they made the call without even really seeing what happened – they jumped the gun a little early, you could say – they got a little too trigger-happy. I told Yarrive [Konsky] to protest it straight away because I was certain I didn’t see a flag. The thing is, I rolled every single yellow flag or flashing light I saw when I didn’t even have to. I already had a six-second lead, I wasn’t trying to gain anything by skimming the whoops. I just never saw the flag. Once we got the footage, it was clear as day. The flagger just hadn’t put the flag out yet when I went through, and even the referee called the flagger and he even he admitted that I went past just as he was about to put it out. So I think they just need to take a bit more time to properly review things before making a concrete decision, because it doesn’t look professional when the wrong podium is already up there and the call’s still being worked out. I said to them, ‘Listen, if that red cross had been out at the beginning, there’s no way I would’ve skimmed the whoops.’ I’ve been racing professionally for almost 17 years, and I know the rules. Thankfully, once it was reviewed, we got the win – but if they’d just taken a moment to look at it properly in the first place, none of that drama needed to happen.

Image: Foremost Media.

We’re moving into a bit of a break now before back-to-back rounds at Melbourne and Adelaide to finish the season. What does this four-week break look like now for you? Do you head home and train there, or stay in Australia and get the work done with the team here?

The plan is to stay in Australia. I’m going to take a week off the bike – I’ll still train, but no riding. But yeah, just keep carrying on from there with my training and riding, and that’s it – nothing too exciting really.

The AUSX Open is up next. Obviously, a big event with the Jett and Hunter Lawrence being there, among other big names. What’s the mentality heading into that, because that added depth can definitely shake things up a little bit? Do you go there and try to stack points, or are you going to try and stick it to the Lawrences?

I’m just going to take it one thing at a time – focusing on my starts first, and then seeing where that takes me. I mean, I’m not dumb – I know Hunter and Jett are probably going to be pretty hard to beat, [laughs]. Honestly, I just try to get as close to them as I can and see where that takes me. My main focus is on getting good starts and putting solid laps together. I think the biggest thing that helps me perform well is my mindset, right? I don’t get too far ahead of myself, I just try to stay level-headed and take it one race at a time. I don’t set huge expectations or anything like that because it just creates pressure, and pressure can make riders fold. I’m really looking forward to having the Lawrence boys come over – it’ll be good racing. I’m just going to do my best to stay with them and see how close I can get — that’s the goal.

Well, enjoy your week off the bike, and we’ll see you in Melbourne. Congratulations on another win!

Thanks, mate!