Catching Up With…Wil Hahn

bayodome

• May 12 2009
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Muscle Milk/MDK/KTM rider Wil Hahn is now in his second full year of professional racing.  A graduate of the Toyota TMX program that boosts one rider from amateur to factory supported professional status, Wil has been steadily improving since making his pro debut.  Now on a full factory ride, the younger of the Hahn brothers recently had the best finish of his career at the final round of the East Coast Supercross Lites series, leading the majority of the race and eventually finishing second.  Wilbur joined us at the TWMX Pro Ride Day and gave us his thoughts on his season thus far.

You seemed to only get faster as the season went along.  Do you mind breaking down your season for us?

I started off a little slow mainly due to injury but its no excuse; after Houston we had plenty of time to be ready for Atlanta.  Every weekend seemed to get a little better and I would get a little more confidence back from the injury.  I ended up getting second in Jacksonville and ended up fifth overall,which was the goal for the year.  I’m pretty happy with that.  The bike is still getting better and I am getting more comfortable every time I go out onto the track.  Overall I am pretty happy with my Supercross season and looking to carry that over to outdoors.

This year you had two major adjustments: new bikes and you also switched coasts.  Does that have an effect on your performance or is it all the same to you?

Yeah I think it does.  I seem to struggle a little bit more on the hard pack stuff while ruts suit me well.  The deeper the ruts, the more comfortable I feel.  If I had my choice I would do East again just because of the ruts.  All of the tracks and the stadiums are really cool and just to see new stadiums and cities is great.  Being up in Toronto, for example, was really cool.

Did you get injured in the middle of season last year?

Yeah, I got hurt right before Glen Helen.  I ended up tearing my groin pretty bad.  It doesn’t sound that bad…

No, that sounds bad!

It was a much worse injury than I thought it was going to be, for sure.  So my season started off bad and it just took a long time to get better.  At the last couple of round I started getting better.  I had a sixth in Texas, an eighth at Millville, and then a about a tenth at Steel City.  I was happy to end the season like that because at times I was just struggling to get points.  I struggled with myself, my body, and my bike.  This year I’m coming in strong and my bike is dialed.

So you just feel more prepared than last year.

Yeah.  I am just in much better shape and getting my work done during the day.  That’s all we’re worried about and I should be prepared and ready for outdoors.

Do you have any goal or expectations?  You mentioned you met your goal of top five for Supercross.  Have you set similar goals for this summer?

My goals are just to improve from last year and start of better than I did last year.  I know that if I can start off good then its just going to get better every weekend.