By: Eric Johnson - The Metal Mulisha Compund/2007 - “How many people can say that?” asked Brian Deegan, standing in his trophy room deep within side the Metal Mulisha Compound, holding a medal in his left hand and a trophy in his right. “How many riders can say they’ve won an X Games Gold Medal and a 125cc Supercross first place trophy?”

“Nobody I can think of,” I replied. “Man, I remember the night you won that race in the Coliseum in ’97,” I went on. “You had just passed [Robbie] Reynard. I was standing in the infield and was so close to you in one corner; I could have reached out and shoved your shoulder.”

The night Deegan and I were reflecting back on was Saturday, January 18, 1997. After getting a mid-pack start, Team Moto XXX privateer Brian Deegan methodically picked off riders in a spirited charge t the front of the filed. With just a few laps remaining, Deegan passed leader Robbie Reynard (a full-on factory rider) and charged towards the checkered flag. Upon reaching it, he jumped off the back of his RM125 and ghosted the Suzuki over the finish line. The 50,000 fans on hand that chilly night went berserk.

It would be the last race the then empty pocketed privateer would ever win. For within two years, Brian Deegan was a full-time freestyle motocross pilot, and arguably, the most popular in the world.

“Hey, remember when we did that column in Cycle News about the ghost riding incident?” I asked Deegan, a few members of the Mulisha listening in. “Yeah I do, do you still have it?”

“I think I do,” I replied. Thus upon arriving back home in Orange County, California later that evening, I started digging through my huge stack of Cycle News back issues. Fingers smeared in old ink, I finally found it.

View from the Fence. By Eric Johnson. Page 59. Cycle News. February 5, 1997 - “I’ve always told myself that if I won a race, I was going to do something totally different – something that no one else has ever done,” declared Brian Deegan to the nearly 50,000 spellbound spectators sitting in the Los Angels Coliseum grandstands.

Just a few moments earlier, Deegan, a true to life, dyed-in-the-wool privateer, had jettisoned off the back of his of his nearly bone-stock Suzuki RM125 and ghosted it over the L.A. finish-line jump. The bewildered crowd roared in approval. In fact, the 20 big-time 250cc riders I was standing among behind the starting gate when the move went down all began jumping up and down and screaming in support as well. It was certainly a move that will go down in the folklore book of supercross.

However, that said, Brian Deegan’s well-deserved night of glory ended up being an evening of mixed emotions. A double-edged sword, if you will. After basking in the glory of victory and climbing down from the top step of the podium, Deegan was approached by an AMA official who immediately informed him that he was being fined $1000 for dangerous riding and for his mechanic running out onto the course.

At the time, Deegan let it go. He shook his head and said, “Fine.” However, once he arrived back at his well-worn box van and thought the matter over, he felt that he was not completely in the wrong with his actions; he believed he had been sent a mixed message by the AMA.

“Duke Finch was the one who came over and talked to me,” said Deegan over the telephone on the Wednesday morning after the incident. “He kept saying to me, ‘I’m sorry I have to do this, I don’t really want to, but we have to because we can’t let people do this kind of thing.’ Duke told me that they didn’t like what I did because I could have hurt someone.

:However once I thought about it, I believe that basically they are trying to make an example out of me, and I don’t think it’s fair. I think they’re afraid to make an example out of one of the factory guys, because those guys are always doing this type of thing. However, the factory teams are paying the bills to the AMA, and we’re just a privateer team, so they can do what they want to us because we don’t have any power, you know?”

While it can certainly be argued that Deegan’s self-described “punk rock” move was in fact dangerous, he does have a point about the double standard that appears to exist at times on the AMA Supercross circuit between the big-four factory teams and the much-maligned privateer group.

“They fined me $500 for dangerous riding and endangerment of their flagman, and the other $500 fine came from when my mechanic [Kenny Watson] ran out onto the track,” Deegan said. ‘I mean [Jeremy] McGrath’s mechanic has run out onto the track a bunch of times, and what about the time Stanton’s mechanic ran out on the track when he won the Supercross Championship? (Note: Jeff Stanton was met with open arms – on the track – by his mechanic immediately after winning the 1992 AMA Supercross Championship).