One Tough Hillbilly
Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 9:37AM Cooper Webb goes wire to wire to tie up the Supercross series!
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Webb has got that dog in him, and that dog is hungry. He spent the two-week break between rounds of Monster Energy AMA Supercross working on speed, and it showed immediately in Foxborough, Massachusetts, when he pushed to the fast qualifying time for the day, a rare feat for a rider not known for one-lap qualifying pace. Webb wanted and needed this one, though, sitting eight points behind series’ leader Jett Lawrence. The two then went at in their heat race, with Jett making a late pass to snag a close win. In the main, though, Lawrence spun after the starting gate and found himself buried in the pack, while Webb snagged the holeshot.
Webb isn’t known for qualifying speed or leading races wire-to-wire, but he is trying to check every box in pursuit of third AMA Supercross Championship. Webb withstood early pressure from the always-quick-early Ken Roczen, and then heat down the stretch from Chase Sexton, to lead every lap of the race and take his fourth win on the year and second in three races. Lawrence’s fifth moves Webb into a tie for the points lead.
“It's crazy, you know, the season's never over, you've just gotta put your head down and now it's tied; it’s pretty crazy,” said Webb. “So we'll just stick to our thing, but man, it was great. Great race, had a great pace out front, and then made a big mistake. I missed the rhythm, and the guys got [up to] me. And then Chase was riding really well, I could feel him coming. [I lost time] just being kind of dumb in the whoops. [On the] last lap I decided to skim, and it was the best I hit them. But it was great, man. To get a holeshot like that, to lead every lap, was huge. The track was really tricky, especially when it started to rain, it could reach up and bite you. So it was a great race and, man, to get [into] the points lead is amazing. I want to give it up to the Good Lord, the whole Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team, they worked their butts off, my mechanic Alex, [other sponsors], my wife, and man, this feels great.”
Red Bull KTM’s Sexton charged forward and challenged for the lead right up to the final lap. Progressive Insurance ECSTAR Suzuki's Ken Roczen held second place for the majority of the race, and landed the final spot on the podium when the checkered flag flew.
Sexton talked about how smart Webb and Roczen are and how hard it was to set up passes on them.
“I had a few good lines on the track. I was good on the on-off going outside, but it put me on the outside. And then Ken caught on to my line in the sand and was riding smart, so he made it tough on me. I set that pass up for almost a lap, and it was just a tough track overall. I feel like tonight I rode pretty well. I came from fifth or sixth, so [we’re] getting better and better.”
Just before the final lap, Webb made a mistake and missed a rut, and Sexton tried to charge forward and take advantage. He spun and lost momentum.
“Obviously wanted that win; I was pretty close,” Sexton said. “I tried to hit that corner pretty hard after the finish line and slid out [at the start of the final lap]. Other than that, though, we're making progress and happy to be getting a little closer in points; losing points to Cooper, but we're kind of inching up a little bit. So we need to click off some wins and end this season on a high.”
“It's even as it can be,” Webb said on the pressure of being tied in the championship lead vs coming from behind. “But I think, I look at it differently. I think pressure is when you're behind. Eight points tonight could have easily doubled the other way. So, to me that's pressure when you're behind. So now that we're tied up, it's a much more comfortable feeling, at least for me.”
Sexton is actually just 15 points behind the series' leaders.
“I mean, a little bit of both,” Sexton said on being happy vs being frustrated with his ride. “Obviously, I would have loved to make a late race pass. But I think for me on these conditions where it's really slippery. I think that's why I struggled the most this year and tonight, I think that was a good step in the right direction. I wasn't super happy after the heat race and kind of went back to where I was all week in practice and stuck with that. So, it was good. And, yeah, like I said, it's just a big difference going from what I was on before to, I feel like it's to where I'm at now, it's a big difference. So, getting used to it and also trying to use the bike where it's really good and also not and kind of back off it where maybe it's not the greatest. So it's kind of a give and a take and that's kind of what I'm learning at this point and trying to uh not fix my riding but adapt my riding to the, to the new bike.”
Roczen stayed in the fight, joking that he really wanted to make a last-lap pass on Webb since Webb has probably done that to him “10 times before.”
“That was gnarly, but I had a lot of fun,” said Roczen. “I got off to a really good start… That track was really hardpack and shiny on some areas, and then the whoops got super edgy, and you could just see the ruts were hardpack. It just made for tricky [conditions], especially from the wall [area of the Stadium] through the sand section, and everything, it was really tight. So, it was a track that was hard to stay loose on; there's a very fine line between pushing and trying to carry momentum. But that was a really good race. I was in second for a long time, and even with a lap to go we all bunched up again. Man, that was a fun race. I'm just really thankful to be back on the podium, that was really important for us. I'm sure the team was wondering sometimes what I was doing out there; especially in practice, I mean it was horrendous, but I’m just happy to be back up on the box.”
Series leader Lawrence was around 14th early in the race after spinning past the starting gate, then he got sandwiched with Malcolm Stewart in the first turn. Eli Tomac, winner of the last race in St. Louis, slid out early and got up right in front of Lawrence. They put on a show coming through the pack together, and finally Lawrence made a pass on Tomac. Tomac then stuck with the rookie for a bit and then the two hit in a corner when Lawrence cut down to avoid traffic. From there Lawrence got away and set sail for Anderson. He passed him trying the inside in the final corner, but Anderson blasted back around him using the berm.
