They were very happy over at the Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha truck on Saturday afternoon. Cooper Webb was cleaning up at the races, mostly through his own brilliant riding and talent, but also with some assists from his Yamaha YZ250F and the Star Racing folks who help tune it.
A week ago at Anaheim 2, team manager Brad Hoffman, who has been around the team as crew chief for years, called an audible after Cooper’s heat race loss to Christian Craig. The Anaheim 2 whoops were huge, and Craig blew through them, passing Webb and then holding him off for the win in the heat. Hoffman went to the notebook and called up big changes to Webb’s bike to solve the whoops.
The changes were pretty drastic, going beyond the basic mapping or suspension adjustments to include clutch and crank changes.
“We did a lot of testing before the season, and we knew we could go in a different direction if we needed to for big whoops like that,” explained Hoffman, who is easily one of the world’s foremost experts on the YZ250F.
The changes might have compromised Webb’s bike off the start, as he went from holeshotting the heat to merely top five in the main event. But the whoops were so critical, it was a compromise they were more than willing to make. It worked, as Webb was able to match Craig and everyone else through the section in the main event, eventually winning his third-straight race to start the season.
“Cooper had complete confidence in the team that the changes we made were going to work,” proudly said team owner Bobby Reagan.
The whoops in Oakland were practically nonexistent, so the team returned the bike back to the standard settings.
They were working, too, as Webb blitzed past Craig to win his heat race, and then took the lead in the main once Craig fell. There was some pressure from Joey Savatgy, but Webb seemed to be in complete control on a tricky track, and it’s doubtful anyone in the stands figured they would see anything but another win by the man who had won nine of the last ten 250SX West Region races.
By now you know he didn’t. Webb’s bike died, and so did his win streak. As he kicked and kicked, it appeared smoke was pouring out of the machine. Had it, as the old school drag racers would say, done blowed up? Apparently not, because a minute later the bike came back to life. Webb did one more lap, and then the bike was ridden the long distance between the track and the pits without skipping a beat.
“Same thing happened in a moto at Unadilla in 2014,” said Hoffman. He and Reagan were in the truck after the race, seemingly unfazed by the situation.
“We think it’s something electrical,” mused Hoffman, while also reminding that they could not be totally sure yet, since the bike was now back in running condition and a full autopsy awaited.
We asked about the smoke.
“That wasn’t smoke, that was raw fuel. Could have been the stator. The bike died and he gave it some gas, but it wouldn’t spark, so fuel was just dumping into it,” he said.
On TV, Webb explained that it was vapor lock, the same thing that once bit him on a 65cc bike at Loretta’s. Vapor lock is rare on an EFI bike with a pressurized fuel system, so Hoffman is pretty sure that wasn’t actually what happened. They’ll dig into it, because it happened once at Unadilla two years ago, and they still haven’t chased those gremlins down.
One week, a team makes a key mechanical change and it helps them win the race. The next week, something like this happens and bam, it’s right back down to earth. Somehow, Hoffman and Reagan rolled with all this. They were smiling the same way on Saturday night as they were on Saturday afternoon.
“The TV people asked us if we could do this to make it more interesting,” joked Reagan, well aware of the ups and downs of motorsports. “Now I’m just waiting for my check!”
