Five-time Australian MX Champion Regan Duffy is poised for an emotional return to this year’s Manjimup 15000, taking to the Cosy Creek Circuit for the first time since surviving a near-fatal Motocross accident.
The now Raceline Husqvarna Tdub Racing Team rider has said he is excited about returning to the event he became the youngest ever champion at back in 2019.
“It’s always an exciting time, not even just for the racing, it’s just a great weekend to hang out with friends and family,” he said.
“If I’m in Manjimup, I’m happy!”
Only three months after Regan finished runner-up in the 2021 Manjimup 15000, Regan was left fighting for his life on the floor of the Shrubland MX Park circuit, after he had been unintentionally run over by a rival rider in an opening lap multi-bike incident.
In the emergency helicopter on the way to Perth, Regan’s condition considerably worsened as he sustained a traumatic cardiac arrest, causing a traumatic stroke and eventually a hypoxic ischaemic brain injury.
Recalling the incident in an Instagram post, Regan said his aorta had been torn from his heart.
“I’m led to believe I was brought back from death multiple times on that flight,” he said.
“One doctor told my dad it was the worst flight in his life,” he said.
Doctors performed open heart surgery in critical care at Fiona Stanley Hospital, with Duffy being placed into an induced coma.
Waking up a full eight days later, Regan remarkably survived. Within the space of a month, he was sent home with just a stroke rehabilitation program to regain motor coordination in his left arm.
“I had many doctors and nurses baffled at how I had survived let alone not been disabled or have permanent damage to parts,” he said.
Just over twelve months following the incident, Regan signed with GASGAS Racing Team Australia to take on the Australian Pro MX1 for the 2023 season.
A remarkable comeback, but the reality of returning to professional racing in such a short time frame hit Regan hard, suffering multiple setbacks throughout the 2023 MX1 season, that saw him finish a disappointing 16th.
Regan chose to sit out the 2024 season, focussing on building up his strength, and now has returned fitter and stronger with Raceline Husqvarna Tdub Racing Team Australia for the 2025 ProMX1 season.
“It’s definitely much better this time around and I’m happy to just be making progress without sort of going backwards every couple weeks due to a silly crash or something like that,” he said.
“I said before the season I’ll just give me a bit of time and I’ll see how I start riding. And if I start riding good then let’s try and make something happen. And then I started riding well again, and all the pieces of the puzzle sort of fallen together. And we’ve made this happen with the Raceline team, and it’s been unreal so far.”
Regan finished ninth in the opening round of the ProMX1 season in Wonthaggi.
“My main goal is just to get back to the old Regan, which obviously we’ve seen at Manjimup before,” he said.
“I just want to ride like myself, to be honest. That’s my whole goal for this year.”