Round eight of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross series is in the books. The 450SX class saw Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb take his second consecutive win, while Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper won the opening round of the 250SX West class. The winning duo were available to the media following the race for this Debrief interview. 

450SX

We saw you win in Orlando 1 now winning in Orlando 2, we’re kind of right at the halfway point in this season. Are we going to see you get on a roll?

Yeah, the Orlandos treated me awesome. Tonight was a great race all in all. We’re at the halfway point and I think we’re in a really good spot with the bike. After you get a few races under your belt you know how it kind of works and whos going to be where. So yeah, we’re always fine tuning and trying to get better and we’ll try to keep plugging away.

It looked like for back-to-back weeks, same stadium, same dirt but completely different conditions. How different were those two tracks? 

Honestly, the first Orlando definitely had some better traction I’d say. I think it was kind of unfortunate that it didn’t get rebuilt like we would have all expected. I’d say today was definitely a lot more hard-packed as you saw in practice it was pretty dry. The night show was a little better and it had some really tough, weird places. It just felt like the dirt had been sitting there for a while and some of the jumps that were the same it just seemed like they had been baking all week. It just felt super hard to be honest. It was nice having a little bit longer lap times than we’ve had the first five or whatever [races] we had in Indy and Houston that was one cool thing. Overall, it ended up being good. In an open stadium, you never know with the weather what can happen so I think that was a positive, not having a full-blown mudder.

Looking at the bike there have been some changes back and forth with one key component, which everybody knows that you and WP have been working on all year. You went back to the spring shock this week. Is doing that taking another element out of the equation so you can focus on racing and trying to close this point gap as the season moves on?

Yeah absolutely. The air shock has such massive potential, but we weren’t able to really get as much testing as we were hoping to in the offseason just due to lack of parts really. The team was here this week and I felt like we actually made great progress with the air shock and I was feeling really good and confident with it this week. But man, it’s one of those things, do you change what you just won on last Saturday? For me, I wasn’t willing to do that. Like you alluded to I think after that first Orlando when everything was clicking it was just something that was just ‘hey, that’s the go to’. But in this class and in this sport, we’re always improving and trying to get better so we’ll work on some things and see what we end up with at Daytona.

Three different stadiums so far in the series and we’re eight rounds in. What’s that dynamic been like in terms of the rhythm of the championship? 

It’s been a lot different that’s for sure. You know I definitely like going to a different stadium and different venue every Saturday and with Covid, it’s obviously restricted. So it is a little bit different, I think as we’ve seen it almost seems like each guy kind of gets to their stadium that they gel with, or the track or condition and kind of have good nights overall. So yeah I can’t complain, obviously Orlando was great for me but as we saw with Kenny in indy so. It’s definitely different but I think its what makes Supercross so exciting and different is going to those new stadiums and new dirt, new layout, new floor, but like I said, times have changed so it’s good to be racing. I have enjoyed the Saturday and Saturday this time to get some practice in during the week. For me, I live in Clermont which is about 30 minutes away from the stadium, so it was a super mellow week for me, and yeah same for Daytona. It took an adjustment but we’re all in the same position and making the most of it.

When you win a race like tonight and you get to the podium and the guy you’re trying to catch in the points isn’t there on the podium, is that like a bonus of some sort? 

Yeah, I was kind of gauging where everyone was, over the triple, you could kind of see and I was liking what I saw at the beginning. Especially with AC [Adam Cianciarulo] and Eli [Tomac] ahead of him [Ken Roczen]. I knew I needed to capitalize on it and it was a great night. You kind of know, I feel like for me you know I saw that and kind of knew ‘hey it’s a big night to get that win and get those extra three [points] on second place.’ Like you said I cut it [the points lead] in half tonight so that was a really awesome thing. With racing you never know like I keep saying and with this class it’s consistency but at the same time you gotta win and maximize those points. So it was good and when the championship competitor isn’t on the podium that’s a plus.

250SX West

Any questions coming into this first round that you answered tonight? 

Yeah the first rounds are always wild and it’s good to get through them healthy, better yet to win it. We saw with the red flag a couple of guys went out and that’s not what you want to see. I’m pretty sure I rolled every jump for two sections, there were medic guys everywhere, I heard Cameron [McAdoo] got one of them. It was crazy it was hectic and I knew it was going to get red-flagged after that. But yeah, I got two good starts, got out front again, and really just put down a couple of laps and was able to ride pretty comfortable out front. Started getting into some lappers and I’m glad it wasn’t too bad. Overall a good day, felt pretty good all day the track was tough. Just glad to get through this one safe.

Did you feel good? Do you feel like the foot injury is behind you or do you not even know where you stand because you kind of rode by yourself a lot?

Honestly coming into it, it was more just getting mentally ready and it was hard because when you break a bone you really can’t do much. I was sitting there just doing some exercises for a good 45 minutes, all arm stuff, and had to stay off the foot for a good three weeks. It was tough, mentally tough. Just had to keep pushing through it and keep the mindset right and come into this as prepared as I could. The fitness probably isn’t as good as it could be but yeah I was able to get a holeshot and ride some clean laps and didn’t really have to push into that hard zone. The bike was set up good from the offseason and I never really had any issues with it today, I didn’t make any changes. That’s always good and a good base starting point for the season and I’m just happy to get out of there healthy. You can lose a championship here and you definitely can’t win it.

Last year you had the red plate at one point and you started out really good. At the end of the year things kind of tapered off for you. Is there something you’re focused on this year, have you thought about that, or are you working on making sure that you stay consistent throughout the whole season? 

Yeah for sure. That’s always the goal to stay consistent and that’s the key. Yeah, last year before Salt Lake I had a really big crash. I didn’t really want to race the rest of the series after that, I came in pretty beat up and it was with my chest so it didn’t help with the breathing and the altitude. That really set me back and yeah it just kind of ended right before it even started in Salt Lake. The beginning of the season was good, I think I was on the podium almost every round and that’s just the goal. Obviously taking all of that into this year, it’s go time for me and it’s a little bit more important to get on that top step and that’s what’s expected from me. Yeah just taking what I’ve learned over the last couple of years and trying to do the best  I can with the experience that I have already. Being a veteran of this class want to try to live up to that a little bit.

Because of the foot injury, you were kind of flying under the radar coming in. Take us through the prep a little bit, how much time you’d spent on the bike prior to racing today, and did that take a little bit of pressure off of you? 

Yeah, I had a lot of questions for myself, I didn’t know what was gonna happen. When I crashed it was four and a half weeks away and I knew right away that I broke something I just didn’t know how bad it was. Luckily it ended up being pretty minor and I was able to get back on the bike I think at three and a half weeks. So I had three or four days on Supercross before this and I felt pretty good the first day just didn’t have that intensity all the way through the moto’s like I usually do. So just playing catch up there. Yeah just really excited to be back racing especially because I didn’t think I was going to make this. Everything’s going good, we have a couple of weeks off to keep working and that’s really important for me because I’m still catching up a little bit. Not really where I want to be yet, but it was a good start to the season and I’m just looking to build on it.