Perseverance The Doug DeHaan Story Doug even signed on for a ride with the SMP Freestyle Motocross Team. “Yeah I got to wear the baggy pants for a while,” laughs Doug. “I’ve pretty much done it all.” During his brief tenure with the SMP team, Doug would spend most of his non-racing time out in the California desert with his teammate Tommy “The Tomcat” Clowers. “Every day we would just head out to the desert and jump sand dunes,” recalls Doug. It was during this period that Doug crossed paths with many of the luminaries of the freestyle movement, which was just beginning to take off at the time. “That’s when I first met Twitch, Linkogle and Deegan. Even that Seth guy would be out there. Tommy was definitely the best of the bunch at the time though. Most of them were just learning and a few of them were just complete goons,” laughs DeHaan. Doug actually appeared in a couple of the early freestyle videos and sometimes wonders if he should have taken that route in his career. “The money certainly would have been a lot better,” states DeHaan. “I’m a racer though. That just wasn’t for me.” Doug’s desire
to do whatever it took to continue racing helped land him a spot on Ron Ashley’s TwoWheel Motorsport Kawasaki Racing Team for the ‘99 CMRC National racing season. Ashley had assembled a bit of a powerhouse squad for the ‘99 season as Doug would be teamed up with Blair Morgan and Darcy Lange for the summer. Indeed, Doug and Blair would swap moto wins and podiums throughout the summer. In the end, Blair just managed to edge Doug out for the title while Doug slotted into a very respectable number 2 overall spot for the season. This would be Doug’s highest overall series finish for his career. Doug’s excellent results in the ‘99 campaign earned him a contract with the newly formed Blackfoot Motorsport Team for the 2000 season. The CMRC National series was really starting to come into its own in 2000 and the addition of Blackfoot Honda to the mix only helped to enhance the reputation of the series. Teamed up with American Pros Jason Thomas and Sean Hamblin, Doug had a solid season. Interestingly, this would be Doug’s second
120 Motocross Performance · mxpmag.com
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