There have been quite a few surprises in the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross series, but none bigger than what Cooper Webb has been able to accomplish during his inaugural year on the Red Bull / KTM. Cooper scored his first-ever 450SX win at the Anaheim 2 SX “Triple Crown” and he backed that up in Oakland with his first-ever regular main event win—leaving Oakland with red plate for the first time in his 450 career. Cooper lost the red plate the next weekend in the San Diego mud when he finished 8th, but after scoring back-to-back main event wins in Minneapolis and in Arlington, Cooper had the red plate back on his KTM. The #2 has been over a red background ever since.

Over the last two weekends in Indianapolis and in Seattle, Cooper’s teammate and training partner, Marvin Musquin, came alive with back-to-back wins of his own but because of a 7-point penalty against Marvin in Seattle, Cooper’s lead was still 14 points heading into Houston. Even with a little cushion in the points, Cooper needed to stop Marvin’s win streak in Houston, and he got that handled with a 2-1-3 score for the overall win. Cooper’s sixth win and tenth podium of the year in Houston pushed his lead up to 17 points with just four main events left in the 2019 season.

After the Houston SX was in the record books, Cooper answered some questions about his win and more.

Cooper lighting the candles in Houston.

Cooper. I gotta ask this question and it’ll probably be dramatized this week, but it’s gotta be asked. In main event one, you and Marvin went back and forth and it did get a little physical. Just kind of take us through that main event and those early laps and just your thoughts on that race and moving forward.

It gets intense. We’re definitely aggressive racing. and, you know, I got frustrated and let it affect that. That’s not the way to do it for sure. I think we let Ken [Roczen] obviously get away and the guys catch us. I mean, I’ll learn from it for sure and try to contain the emotions a bit better. Like Marv said, we are teammates and training partners, but we are one and two in the championship. So it’s a tough line. I know I made the mistakes and got a little frustrated and I’ll learn from that. I’ll try to be better for sure moving forward.

 

You got the overall tonight plus the overall for the Triple Crown. Talk about that a little bit. Is that kind of a step on the way to where you want to be at the end of the season?

Yeah, for sure. It was cool. You know, I didn’t actually know it was a thing. So, yeah, that was obviously good and yeah, I’ve had some good success in the Triple Crown, so that was great. It’s tough. With the three main events, consistency comes into play so it’s three tough main events,

 

As the season winds down, it looks like the battle’s just between you and Marvin. Do you guys have a plan to keep training together during the week? Are you going to separate? How are you guys going to deal with that? Oh, what do you think?

It is tough and it makes you question a lot but, like you said, we’re one and two right now and I feel like we’re established the class right now with the going back and forth. I think it has risen our levels and made us both better for sure.

We know they don’t say it publicly, but you gotta think it’s getting tense at the Bakers Factory during the week.

You had a pretty bad crash in the un-timed session. It looked like the bike was stuck on you and I heard you had a burn on your leg. How’s your leg?

Yeah, it’s obviously all good. Crashes happen and it’s fortunate it wasn’t worse. But, yeah, it was fine.

 

Did it burn through your pants?

Yeah, a little bit. But, you know, you gotta keep plugging away.

 

In that third main event, it seemed as though you were content to let Tomac go. Did you know that you have the overall in hand? And did you mean to let them go?

I mean, not really. No. You never want to just let somebody get you, but I could tell he was all over me and, and moving forward and Marv was kind of pulling away. We were in a good situation, so it was good to kind of know where you’re at, but you never want to just settle and let somebody go. Once he got around me, I tried to latch on and he had some good laps. I think like you said, it kind of clicked and I knew I was in a good situation. So I just kind of hung out.

Cooper (center) and Marvin (left) have been on the podium together in 8 of the 13 races in 2019.

We’ve had two years now with Triple Crowns. You’ve been able to experience them on west coast tracks, east coast tracks and tweaks to the format. Obviously, this year is a little bit different, but now that we’ve had two years of them, would you want to see more, less or the same amount of them in the future?

Yeah. I think three is a good mix, and then we add Monster Cup so for the 450’s, you get four. It does switch it up, but I think the traditional racing, at least for me, I enjoy it a lot. I think three is a good mix with the way they spread them out this year to kind of give us a break. Especially late in the season, it kind of switches it up and gives you something to look forward to.

Photos by: Simon Cudby

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