Image: Octopi Media.

450SMX runner-up Haiden Deegan said that he ‘tried to ride it pretty clean’ in Saturday night’s fight for the 2026 title with Jorge Prado in Ridgedale, taking ‘one shot’ on his way to second in the final moto and standings.

Deegan revealed post-race that he had no intention of repeating the events of last year’s 250SMX decider in Las Vegas after attempting to take down eventual champion Jo Shimoda, electing to race heads up against Prado.

The championship-deciding second race at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena saw Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Deegan go head-to-head with Red Bull KTM standout Prado across the 17-lap duration, with the pair putting on an outstanding display of both poise and speed.

With the points positioned as they were, Deegan needed more than a pass on Prado for the race lead to secure the crown, requiring somebody to finish between himself and the Spaniard – an unlikely scenario given their speed advantage at the head of the pack.

While Deegan made a single aggressive passing attempt in the closing stages, Prado ultimately pre-empted the move to hold on for the SMX Final and 450SMX championship victories.

“After that first race I was like, I have a chance to win this [title], let’s see how the start goes,” commented Deegan. “I know that he is usually pretty good at starts – he ripped a start, and I took one shot, but again, I’m not trying to do what I did last year. I tried to ride it pretty clean, not make it too dangerous.

“But I damn near did everything I could [to win] – it’s hard because these guys are going so fast, we’re probably [going] as fast as you can on a dirt bike. I was trying to pressure him as hard as I could, but he hung on strong, and unfortunately we ended up second.”

The polarizing Californian made his highly-anticipated 450 debut in the Pro Motocross season-opener at Fox Raceway in May, and while he went winless throughout the outdoors, he since claimed victory at SMX Playoff 1 in Columbus, as well as the overall at the final round, finishing second in the standings.

Deegan’s 450 transition has prompted a refinement of his program, indicating that a proper off-season, as well as a more tailored approach to his training, will be a welcome addition leading into the 2027 Monster Energy Supercross season.

“The progression is going well – I’m stoked with it,” he continued. “We’ll have a good off-season now [and] I’ll be able to work on the 450, which last year I didn’t get – I had to do the 250 and get ready for Supercross, so now it’ll give me some more time to build and do some more strength training for the 450.

“I really needed to get a team together, which I have done, and as we can see, it’s helped a bunch. I won two out of three in this SMX series, multiple fast laps and fast qualifiers, so for how quickly we switched everything over, it has worked well, but now with a whole pre-season with our group it’s going to be good.”