Photo by: Hoppenworld
The spotlight shined brightly on the current and the former 450SX champions of Monster Energy Supercross heading into the 2014 Anaheim 1 SX opener and also on two very hyped 450SX rookies, but one 450SX rookie that won the ’13 250SX Eastern Regional Championship loomed in the shadow of that spotlight: GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Wil Hahn. Wil is used to being the guy that’s overlooked, so don’t expect the #23 to be bummed, but you can definitely expect him to get the job done despite having to do it from the shadows.
While most of the top-tier riders in the sport of Supercross are child prodigies who have won a lot and won quickly at every level, Wil has gotten to where he is off of pure heart, desire and an incredible ability to adapt over time. While guys like 450SX rookie Ken Roczen—who won at Anaheim 1—have the ability to find their speed quickly, Wil has always taken a little more time. Combine that with a long list of injuries for Wil over the last few years, and it’s been a long, hard road to the top for the Texas native. In 2014, though, after watching the first four rounds in the 2014 450SX Championship, I think the days of injuries and taking his time are behind Wil.
At round one in Anaheim, Wil showed up with decent speed on the 450 and finished eleventh in the main event. Since then, his qualifying speed has not lit the world on fire, but once the gate drops, it’s a whole different ball game. Wil has finished ninth in timed qualifying at the last three rounds, but at the last two rounds, it’s been his times in the heat races that have begun to show us he can race the best riders in the world.
At Anaheim 2, Wil finished sixth in his heat race and had to go through the semi to transfer, but his lap times in his heat race were on point with the best in the world. At the end of the heat races, he was as fast as James Stewart and faster than Chad Reed—who eventually went on to win the main event. Unfortunately, in the A2 main, the #23 started almost dead last and, after a couple more issues, was only able to leave Anaheim with twelfth place points. More importantly, though, he left knowing he had found that ever elusive X-factor: speed.
Heading into Oakland last weekend, Wil sat ninth in the points with only one 2014 450SX top-ten finish to his credit, but you would have never known it if you entered the O.Co Coliseum knowing nothing about the first three rounds. From the beginning of the day, Wil had a different swagger to his riding and some incredible whoop speed. Then, the #23 surprised everyone and decided he was going to be the first rider to huck the massive quad in the rhythm section after the start straight. While everyone was sizing it up and trying to muster up the sack, Wil sacked up and nailed it before anyone in practice. The funny part is that only a few people saw him do it, so until he did it again, it was only an unsubstantiated rumor. The word around the press box was, “I heard Wil did it, but I didn’t see it, so I don’t know.” If it was someone like JS7 that only a few people saw, everyone would have just said “James did it.”
While jumping the quad first was gnarly and a huge statement from Wil, his biggest statement came in his heat race. To become a top-tier rider, you must first let the top-tier guys know you exist. Well, in his heat race, Wil cordially introduced himself to Ryan Dungey by pulling alongside him in the whoops, taking him high in the turn after and making a pass to finish third and qualify for the main directly out of the heat race. Watching Wil first try and fail to pass Dungey, then try and succeed, felt like watching a boy become a man. You could see his amazement—first, that he could hang with the former champ, then even more so as he passed him. After accomplishing that goal, Wil quieted all of the doubters by pulling the trigger again on the quad on the last lap of the heat.
Heading into the main, Wil had the third fastest lap out of the heat races—less than a 10th of a second off the fastest lap—but after a decent start, a quick run-in with Justin Barcia killed his top five hopes. After getting Bam Bam’ed and pushed back from fifth to eleventh, Hahn worked his way back up to seventh before losing a spot late in the race and finishing eighth. Again, while the final results was not what he had wanted, Oakland was overall his best finish of the year and a huge breakthrough night for the Texan. The biggest step for a rider like Wil is believing, and if supercross was a religion, Wil would have been born again in Oakland. Expect big things from him in the very near future.
After the race, I caught up to Wil to ask him about his Oakland SX and his 2014 progress on the 450 in general. You can check out the interview below.
Wil, eighth place in the main event tonight in Oakland. How are you feeling?
Good. I had a good night for sure. My heat race was better. My practice was better. A little bit of everything was better for me tonight. We worked really hard this week at making the bike a little more ridable for me. Moving forward with it, I gotta just keep building more and more confidence every weekend.
It was noticeable all day that everything was working better for you, like you said, even practice.
Yeah, everything was coming together easier for me tonight. The dirt was something that I really enjoyed. I had a good week with the team—I mean, a little bit of everything, man. My confidence is growing, and I’ve learned not to rush these things over the last couple of years. Right now, I’m just trying to take my time so I can be here for seventeen races.
I feel like I watched your confidence grow in front on my eyes in your heat race. You looked like you surprised yourself even, because when you first caught Dungey, you looked hesitant to pull the trigger on the pass, and then you regrouped and got after it.
I did surprise myself a little bit at first. When I first went for the pass on him I was like “Wow.” Then he got me back and I’m like, maybe I can do it. Then, on the next lap, I was able to capitalize. Obviously the guy’s a bad dude, and he’s a past champion for a reason. It was surreal for a minute, but I gotta realize that I belong up there with those guys.
Tonight you were one of the fastest, if not the fastest, in the whoops, and you used that to set up a lot of your passes including the one on Dungey. Where did that whoop speed come from?
I feel like, over the last couple years on my 250F, I’ve gotten some confidence in the whoops and it’s carried right over to the 450. It’s all a credit to these guys on the GEICO/Factory Connections/Honda team.
You’re results haven’t been great, but over the last couple weeks, your heat race lap times are what’s shown me you’re for real in ’14. Is that something you look at a lot?
Absolutely, we look at that. I watch film and the whole heat race to see why I was faster. Anything like that, it’s a little bit of everything. Speed is something I’m learning, and I’m glad to see that my speed’s good, ’cause that’s usually the hardest thing for any of us to find. More than anything, though, I gotta find that confidence.
Can you take us through your main event?
I actually got a good start tonight. That’s what we worked on all week, so that was a plus for me. I was going through the pack and I felt like I was handling it pretty well, and Justin [Barcia] and I got together in a corner and I had to roll the triple and stuff like that. But, I’m learning the pace of those front guys and I was able to regroup, come back forward and pass some guys towards the end. It’s a tough twenty-laps and everyone’s out for blood, and I’m just trying to see where I fit in.
You and Justin not only got together early, but you too hooked up later for a good battle for seventh.
Yeah, again at the end, we kept finding each other, and we found each other the last couple of weekends too. It was good racing.
After four weeks and proving to yourself you can run lap times equal to the best SX riders in the world, are you now beginning to believe you are one of the best SX riders in the world?
Yeah. If you were to ask me at Anaheim 1, probably not, because it’s surreal—almost like starting over for me, like I’m a rookie in the Lites class again. But right now, after this weekend or even last weekend, I felt like I had great speed in the main, but I made some mistakes and crashed. Man, tonight was another step for me. Like I told Mike [Larocco], that’s how I felt on my 250F—the confidence, the way the bike felt underneath, everything about it was bringing me back to that 250.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I knew you would eventually be great on the 450, but how quickly you got here is the surprise for me. How far you’ve come from the pre-season race at Milestone SX up to now is pretty amazing.
Yeah, exactly. Then again, my trainer Ryan and my team gets all the credit in the world. These guys push me every day. If it means a 10th, they’re out at the track all day to find it.
Alright, well thanks for talking to us, and good luck going forward.
No problem. Thanks Dan.
