A losing title defense last season has Cooper Webb motivated to regain the number one plate in Monster Energy Supercross as this Saturday’s opening round looms.

The Red Bull KTM rider is expected to come out firing at Houston 1 in a bid to take a second premier class championship after Eli Tomac captured the 450SX crown last year.

Webb was relentless in pursuit of the 2020 title by winning three of the seven races in Salt Lake City, despite injuring his back in Arlington and later being forced out of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross with ongoing complications.

“Getting [number one] back would be sweet,” Webb said. “I mean, it’s a dream come true when you finally get that first championship and it’s what you work for, so to run it last year was great, although we weren’t able to keep it. This year, that motivation’s definitely there to want it back.

“I’m super-excited after missing the outdoors, back healthy and looking forward to going racing again. To go racing the way we are this year is a lot different, but I’m looking forward to the format and racing a lot more than we normally would.”

In stepping up to 450SX in 2017 with Yamaha, Webb endured a pair of difficult years before switching to KTM’s factory organization for 2019 and immediately turning his form around to go on and earn the championship.