Photos by: Hoppenworld
Most of the hype heading into the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, was centered around the impending battle between Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac for the 450SX Championship, but some wanted to throw rookie Monster Energy / Yamaha factory rider Cooper Webb into the equation before his first ever 450 gate drop in Anaheim. After a 250 career that included two Western Regional 250SX Championships and a 250MX AMA National Motocross Championship the expectations were lofty for the freshman, but after a 10th and a 14th at rounds one and two some people were looking to push the panic button. Luckily for Webb, he wasn’t one of those people.
At last weekend’s 2017 Anaheim 2 SX, we finally saw a glimpse of the Cooper Webb we all want to see. In the first qualifying session of the day, the #2 was on the leaderboard for some of the session, and in session two, he was on top of the board with the fastest lap for the first time in his 450SX career. In the end, Cooper went into the night show third overall—just two-tenths off the leader—and with that, the confidence of knowing he had found the speed that had eluded him thus far in 2017.
In the night show, Webb was a different rider than we saw in the first two main events. The North Carolinian qualified directly out of his heat race for the first time in 2017 and had another career-first in the main event: his first 450SX main event holeshot. Cooper ran with the lead group before dropping to sixth on lap eight before passing Josh Grant back for fifth, but unlike the first two rounds, Cooper looked more comfortable with the pace near the front. In the end, Ken Roczen’s crash moved Coop up to fourth on the night with an average lap time just six-tenths off Dungey’s average lap.
After the race, I caught up with Cooper for the first time since before A1 and talked to him about his fourth place finish, his struggles, the 450SX pace and about how he got it turned around.
Cooper, better day for you today in Anaheim.
Yeah, it was a much better day for me. We made a lot of progress. Everything was good. Practice went really awesome. I qualified third and was on top of the board for a long time so that was cool. My heat race was good. I had a good battle with Eli [Tomac] and qualified right from there. I holeshotted the main, which was pretty bad ass. I ran with those guys for a good eight or so laps. I tightened up pretty bad, but I kind of fought through it. I actually got better once I did. I was stoked to see the progress—huge huge progress really. I’m just glad. I’m starting to feel like myself again. I have a ways to go before I’m really where I want to be, but I understand it takes time. I’m glad the hard work is seeing results.
Did something big happen this week or did you guys find something major to make you feel more comfortable? Or was part of it that Malcolm [Stewart] was here and, you being you, were not going to let him step in off the couch and beat you? I know how your mind works. (laughs)
I think we just had a good week. I went back to not overthinking it. Everyone was panicking, and I almost did the opposite approach. I almost started not caring—not not caring but just worried about myself, knowing what I want to fix, what I want to make better and how I want to do stuff. Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel, trainer] and I came up with a really good plan and it worked. That was really cool to see. I felt a lot more relaxed. It was weird, this morning I woke up and me and my buddy were playing music on the way here and I just said, “Man, today is going to be a good day.” This A2 race has been good to me in general. I was talking about it this morning, and my rookie year [on 250’s], I got second and then I won two A2’s. So I had a good track record coming in: a second and two firsts. I think it gives you good vibes.
I haven’t talked to you since the day before A1. We talked about your expectations of the 450 class coming in, but how does that compare to what you’ve now experienced? Is the pace more than you thought?
I think that’s tough to answer. I knew it was going to be gnarly, not necessarily the pace, just how long they can keep that pace up.
And the whole 450SX class, from front to back, can run that pace.
All of them! That’s the biggest thing. In the Lites class—as you can see—I did a lot of my work later in the races. With these races, I still feel like I’m getting better at the end, but it’s just too late. That’s what we’ve been working on is intensity. I think if I can get where I can run that pace for the first ten laps, I’ll be set. I think I was able do it for about six tonight, so we made progress.
You talked about being first on the board in qualifying. That had to be nice. Was the board even working at that point?
No, it wasn’t working. They have the big TV, and I was looking towards 8-9-10 and it wasn’t there. I looked up and was first and was like, “Damn, this is a pretty bad ass feeling.”
Are you where you expected to be after the third round?
Honestly, we did a lot better than I thought I would tonight. Granted, Kenny [Roczen] crashed and Jason [Anderson] wasn’t in the main event, but I made leaps and bounds. My goal tonight was top eight, and I doubled that. Qualifying was unreal—two-tenths off of first—and the heat race was awesome. In the main event, I got a holeshot, so we made huge steps. Still have a ways to go, but at least now I can focus on the smaller stuff, not all the problems I was having. I think that the most reassuring thing.
Ryan Dungey was pretty emotional when talking about Roczen’s crash during the press conference. Is seeing stuff like that something that ever affects you over the next few races?
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think about stuff like that. Some people do, but I don’t.
What did you think of the track tonight?
I thought the track tonight was bad ass. (laughs)
You did good on the bad ass track. (laughs)
I think it was a good race track. You could see how tricky it was, and I think that’s what a good race track is, when it’s tough to do the obstacles every lap. They had some good berms, and it reminded me of an old-school track. There was a lot more passes than normal, there were battles, and the start was pretty even. I actually really, really liked it. It was on the longer side. I like when a track is tough to hit things every lap and is physically demanding; it’s technical and challenging.
