Cooper won his third race of 2015 in Anaheim. Photo by: Hoppenworld

Heading into round five of the 2015 Western Regional 250SX Championship of the Monster Energy Supercross season, a rivalry between Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Tyler Bowers and Star Racing/Yamalube/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb was boiling over. The two had exchanged hits at Anaheim 2 and in Oakland, but with Cooper having two wins and leading the Championship by eight points over Bowers, it looked like Cooper was getting the last words in. The big questions heading into Anaheim 3 was could Tyler match Cooper’s speed, and if not, would the veteran use more aggressive tactics to even things out?

Well, with all the fans in attendance waiting for more fireworks and with FOX Sports 1 doing a major promo on the rivalry, some would leave Anaheim 3 bummed. The #911 and the #17 were never even near each other at round five, but we finally got to see Webb go head-to-head with the only rider to really match his speed in 2015, Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM’s Jessy Nelson. Jessy easily ran away with the round one win and looked well on his way to winning at round three before crashing, but we had never seen how he matched up against the new red plate holder.

Nelson #28 and Webb #17 finally battled head-to-head at Anaheim 3. Photo by: Hoppenworld
Nelson #28 and Webb #17 finally battled head-to-head at Anaheim 3. Photo by: Hoppenworld

At Anaheim 3—after the race was red flagged and restarted due to a gate malfunction—Nelson got the holeshot with Webb right there in tow. The first thought on everyone’s mind was, “Here we go: speedster versus speedster.” For the first eight laps, the Nelson-Webb battle had the two never more than a bike length apart as they lead the rest of the field by more than eight-seconds. On lap nine, though, Webb squared Nelson up for the final time through the sand and proceeded to put an exclamation point on his dominance by checking out on him. In the end, it was a four-second win for Webb and an eighteen-point lead over second place, Nelson, in the Championship.

After the race, we caught up with Cooper to talk about round five and his head-to-head battle with Nelson. You can read the interview in “Race Rewind” below.

Cooper, another night, another win. That’s three now for the year. These W’s look to be getting easier.

I’m pumped. I got the start in the first one, and then in the restart, I got another good start. So, I was obviously pumped on that. My starts have been a struggle lately, so it was nice to get two good ones. Jessy was riding good those first couple of laps, so I just kind of saw what he was doing. I made the pass, rode my own race and kind of pulled away. It was nice, and to get more points is pretty cool.

Webb's confidence has him going anywhere on the track and making  it look good. Photo by: Hoppenworld
Webb’s confidence has him going anywhere on the track and making it look good. Photo by: Hoppenworld

The track tonight was an animal of its own; it was gnarly out there. What were your thoughts on the layout tonight? Pretty sketch?

Yeah, it was technical tonight. It was hard to pass, and I think that was the only issue I had with the track. Overall, though, I thought tonight was a real supercross. In my opinion, the more technical they are, the better they are. Obviously for racing, it’s hard to make a great track every weekend, but I thought tonight was cool.

 

When you and Jessy [Nelson] got out front by yourselves, was it one of those “here we go” moments? While you and Jessy have been the two guys with all the raw speed, tonight was the first head-to-head race between you two.

Yeah, I’m sure a lot of people were waiting for that battle.

 

Oh, for sure. I’m sure every Nelson fan was thinking, “Time to show and prove”—along with the Webb fans.

Yeah, I knew what I had to do, and I knew what he was going to do. He’s really good at getting the start and really going good right off the bat, but I knew if I could stay right there and keep the pressure on him he would eventually quit going that pace the whole time. It’s hard to sprint every lap. So, yeah, I just kind of waited, was patient and I got the job done.

 

Alright, you’re eighteen points up now heading to San Diego.

I didn’t know that.

After Nelson #28 quickly passed Webb #17  back, this was the final pass that sealed the deal for Webb. Photo by: Hoppenworld
After Nelson #28 quickly passed Webb #17 back, this was the final pass that sealed the deal for Webb. Photo by: Hoppenworld

Yeah, you’re eighteen up going into San Diego. Now that you know that (laughs), what’s your mentality heading into the last round before the long break?

I didn’t know I was eighteen points up, so that’s sick. Yeah, I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing. We’re just taking it weekend by weekend. It would have been easy for me to be flustered this weekend after last weekend, but we just kept our cool; we just kept doing us. That’s what we’ve been doing all season, and it seems to be working. So, we’ll go to San Diego and then go do some outdoors during the break.

 

Even with the Championship lead, you’ll be hitting the outdoor testing hard during the break?

Oh yeah, I’ll be at Glen Helen and Pala just ripping her up. We’re going to obviously try to win this Supercross title, but I really want to do good outdoors this year. I really want to get that #1 plate off my teammate’s bike right there. [We are standing next to Jeremy Martin’s #1 bike]

 

Alright, well good luck with that, and congrats on win number three tonight.

Thank you.

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.