Photo by: Hoppenworld
The 2014 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship started off with a 6th place in moto one of the Glen Helen National for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson and his possibilities at winning another outdoor Championship in 2014 took a huge detour in moto two. Deano was running 5th and trying to get around Rockstar/KTM’s Jason Anderson for 4th when his 250F sputtered on the downhill and left him tumbling down the steep Glen Helen hill with the bike chasing him. In the end, the bike caught up with Deano and left him with a gnarly laceration that would make the best of stomachs weak.
It was an unfortunate start to the season for the 2011 250 AMA Motocross National Champion, but after taking three rounds off to recover from the laceration, the #15 announced yesterday that he will be back on the line this weekend at the 2014 Tennessee National. The former champ is coming in with just a little over a week of seat time and, we’re sure, will race back into shape quickly. Being “out of sight, out of mind” has plagued Wilson over the last three seasons, but there’s no doubt Deano will remind everyone of his outdoor skills before the series ends in Utah. You don’t ever win championships by accident.
Last week, before Deano knew he would be coming back at Muddy Creek, we interviewed the Scot about his crash at Glen Helen, his injury and recovery and about James Stewart’s positive test results in Seattle. You can read what Dean had to say in the interview below.
How is the recovery coming, and what have you been up to lately?
I’ve been doing pretty good, mostly just trying to do therapy and trying to get healthy. The therapy went really well, and in the first weeks, I was just working on straightening my leg because where the cut was made it hard to straighten it. I did a lot of that. Yeah, it was going really well, so I just got the release to start riding again. I started riding on Tuesday (6/17/14) and I rode today (6/19/14) and it’s going good. I was feeling quite comfortable and just happy to be on the bike. It was definitely an injury that could have been really bad, but we got lucky. That’s one positive from it. We didn’t hit any tendons or nerves or anything like that.
Yeah, I don’t think anyone that looked at the picture of the cut that was posted on Instagram and thought you got lucky. It was nasty. Do you think it was the footpeg that caused that kind of a gash? Be warned, it’s nasty, but you can view a pic of the injury here>>>
To be honest, I’m not even sure what it was ’cause if you look at my gear, there was no cut marks on my pants, no tear marks, no blood or anything. It could have been anything. It could have been the footpeg, it could have been my knee brace strap, it could have been a rock—I don’t know. There’s no footage of it, so that really didn’t help us out.
Racing dirt bikes, we’ve all broken bones and had injuries, but with something unexpected like a gigantic gash—did you know something was wrong right away or did you just hurt and feel the blood leaking?
Yeah, I pretty much tumbled from the top of the hill to the bottom, so I had to gather myself for a minute. Once I gathered myself, I tried to stand up, and my leg just wiggled and the muscle contracted. I had sliced my muscle so I lost some muscle with that. At first, I thought I blew my ACL out or something, ’cause I’ve never had that feeling before. Then, when we got to the Asterisk Medical Unit, I ripped my pants and knee brace off and there was just some meat hanging out off my leg. It was pretty gnarly, and yeah, that picture was the end result of that.
It’s a bummer being off the bike, but what have you been doing on your time off?
Honestly, just doing therapy and trying to keep my fitness up. I was trying to go to the gym and keep myself busy. That’s really it. My main focus has been getting healthy and my leg good again. I really stuck to the program with that. I had to keep my leg elevated, ’cause any time I’d put any weight on it, it would start to swell up. I’d work it really hard one day, but then the whole rest of the day I’d have to elevate it and ice it. I think that’s why it healed fast. I’d work my leg really hard with exercises, but then I really took care of it after. The first two weeks, it was a pretty good process, but after the swelling went down that’s when my healing results were massive. Yeah, for the first two weeks, I pretty much just watched “Breaking Bad” and finished five seasons in like four days. I was quite busy with that. (laughs)
I know you picked up Ryan Hughes as a trainer in 2014. What’s a week like working with Ryno?
Yeah, pretty much I just work with Ryno in the gym right now. It’s good. We have good circuits that we do. It’s a really good atmosphere in the gym, and we put in our time.
Does Ryno go out to the tracks with you and working as a riding coach as well?
No, not any more. I went back to training with Sam. Sam’s helped me since I was 15 back in the B Class. He’s just someone that really understands me. I do that and then I go to Ryno’s gym, so I have a pretty good schedule.
At Glen Helen, you had a tough first moto and, of course, a brutal second moto with the crash, but overall how were you feeling at the opener?
The first moto actually wasn’t that bad. Honestly, I was last going into the first turn. I have never raced a Glen Helen National before and there’s a bunch of lines, but they would all funnel into one line. As weird as it sounds, it was hard to pass ’cause they rip it so deep and all the lines funnel into one. I came back from way back. I know I was around 27th in the first turn, and I came back to finish 6th. I was all over [Justin] Bogle for 5th on the last lap, but I just couldn’t do it. Honestly, I think top-three or top-five would have been good enough for the first round. In the second moto, my start was actually pretty good. I was sixth, so I was happy with that. Then, they red flagged it, and that sucked. In the restart, I was 10th off the start, and I think I was 4th when I crashed.
I assume you’ve been watching the races while you’re healing up. What do you think about the 250 Championship, and is Jeremy Martin’s success outdoors a little bit of a surprise for you?
Yeah, Jeremy surprised me a little bit, but he’s always been fast. I think it’s just that he had such a crappy Supercross season that he really focused on outdoors. From the time he didn’t make that first main event, his mind switched to outdoors. When you miss two races, you’re not even in contention, so he just focused on outdoors. He’s going really fast and getting good starts. I think getting good starts is really key to Glen Helen. At Glen Helen, he got a good start, and then he checked out and won by a big margin. That’s the perfect way to start the season. Then, boom, you have that confidence and know you can win. Then, in the second moto, he pretty much did the same thing. He had that confidence and knew he could win. That takes you really far.
I know you’re back on the bike now, but when can we expect to see you back at the races?
I’m not sure on a return date yet. I don’t want to come back too early. There’s no reason for me to. I want to come back when I’m ready.
One last question before we let you go. It’s obviously the biggest story out right now with it being announced that James Stewart failed the Seattle Supercross drug test for an amphetamine. What is your opinion on that and the drug testing as a whole?
That’s a tough question, ’cause the problem with the Adderall is if someone’s been prescribed it their whole life and they had ADD, I don’t see why it’s a problem. But if they took that Adderall and never had a prescription and they’re taking it to get an advantage, something should be done. I don’t think anybody should be doing anything to get an advantage if it’s not allowed. If they didn’t do anything and let everyone do what they wanted, there probably wouldn’t be any problems. It’s an equal playing field with no B.S. It’s cool with me that they do drug testing ’cause I don’t do anything, but people can take it and get an advantage when it’s not allowed and that’s not cool.
