Photos by: Todd Gutierrez
The 250SX Western Regional Supercross Championship has been a drama-filled series with Star Racing / Yamaha’s Cooper Webb coming out on fire and winning the first three main events only to lose the Championship points lead to a DNF at round four. At rounds five and six it was GEICO / Honda’s Christian Craig and Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy getting the wins and Savatgy securing the red plate. In Arlington, though, Savatgy went down, losing a mountain of points, and Webb retook control of the Championship with his fourth win of 2016.
In Santa Clara this weekend, Webb got off to a mediocre start and once again laid claim to alpha status in the class by working his way to the front and locking down win number five. With the win, Webb takes a sixteen-point lead over Savatgy with him into the Las Vegas and is now a huge favorite to make it two in a row in the West before graduating to the 450SX class in 2017.
After his much needed win in Santa Clara, I caught up with Cooper to talk about his night inside Levi Stadium, a recent practice crash, the new East/West Shootout structure for the Las Vegas finale and his thoughts heading into the upcoming 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
Cooper, this is your second-straight Santa Clara SX win, so you must like the place. How are you feeling after your win tonight?
I’m feeling really good. It’s nice, like you said, to win here two years in a row. It’s good mojo—I’m stoked on that—and a good night.
Can you talk about your main event a little bit?
It was a good main. I got off to a not-so-good start. I think I was like sixth—got stuck up behind a few guys—and the leaders kind of got away. I got some quick passes made. Alex [Martin] was up there and so was Mitchell [Harrison], so that was cool to see. Zach [Osborne] was riding good, though, and I knew he was going to be hard to beat. The track being pretty short, I knew we weren’t going to have too much time to make it happen. I got it done [passed Osborne for the lead] on the twelfth lap or maybe the eleventh and was able to push it home.
You obviously do well here in Santa Clara, but a lot of people don’t like this place—the dirt kind of sucks, it’s rocky, it’s hard packed, short lap times. What are your thoughts on this place?
I thought this year was way better than last year. From the looks, it doesn’t look good, but I thought the dirt was actually good. It sucks that it’s so short. I think that’s something they definitely need to work on. It’s also really fast. I think they need to slow it down a little bit. There was some really fast sections and stuff like that. The dirt was better, but it’s tough to come to a track with 45-second lap times. You get down into the 43’s and that’s a little bit of a bummer.
You’re just coming in off of a six week break. You only had an eleven-point lead, so you had to still keep the focus on SX, but did you guys get some outdoor testing in?
Yeah, I actually rode outdoors quite a bit. We did about three weeks, and it went really well. We did a lot of testing and riding. I really want to win that title this year, so we’re going to put a lot of work in, go into this next break, ride some more outdoors and hopefully wrap it up in Vegas.
This year will be great for you. Last year you were hurt going into the outdoors, but you have to still consider yourself a favorite despite the fact that your teammate—who’s pitted right next to you [Jeremy Martin]—has won the last two straight championships.
I definitely think so. Last year I unfortunately came in injured, and the year before, I tied for third in the points with [Blake] Baggett. They gave him second because he had more wins. We had a good second year when I was healthy, but I’m looking forward to it this year. I think the end of last year definitely motivated me, and we can’t let it be a three-peat for J-Mart.
There’s been a rumor going around that you had a little get off coming into this weekend at the test track. You didn’t look hurt, though. I was watching you trying to find any signs, but I didn’t want to ask you about it before the race.
Yeah, I did actually on Tuesday. I had a pretty good little get off, but that’s what we train for. That’s why I have Gareth Swanepoel [trainer] and Dr. G behind me, but it was a bummer to have a big crash like that. It kind of knocks you back a little bit, like, “Oh, man.” It’s all good; we’re healthy and it all worked out.
You now have a sixteen-point lead going into the Las Vegas finale. It’s a whole new format with the East/West Shootout counting towards the Championship, so are you and the team trying to strategize the different scenarios?
I think it will be exciting. I think it all depends on the situation you’re in. I think if it was a close points chase, I think it could be not so good for somebody.
Yeah, with sixteen points, you’re in a decent spot for sure.
Yeah, I have a little room for fluctuation, but you never know. Say you need that three points on the guy you’re trying to beat, now you gotta beat East and West guys. It will be exciting! To crown two guys at the season finale will be awesome, but it’s a little weird. I think the biggest thing is how they announced it. They should have announced it before the season. They shouldn’t have waited. I’m sure they’ll see how it goes this year and hopefully we’ll be on the flip side of that.
Alright, well, congrats on the win tonight, and I’ll see you in Vegas.
Thank you.
