A lot of riders use Anaheim to remind people that they’re fast, but Justin Cooper doesn’t worry about that. He’s okay keeping the pressure off, and with superstar teammates in Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac around him, he’s in prime position to learn outside the spotlight. Don’t sleep on him, though. After an early tangle left him on the ground, he came all the way back to eighth, even passing Tomac late in the race. We called him this week to find out what he learned.
Racer X: This is where I'd like to say, anyone who they don't talk about a ton before Anaheim that rides well in Anaheim, usually this is their chance to be like, “Oh, people should have been talking about me.” But I feel like you didn't mind that. I feel like you almost were ok with the fact that you weren't getting that much attention..
Justin Cooper: Yeah, it's tough. This is a stacked class and to be honest, I don't really expect to be in the headlines. I kind of like laying low and, and just kind of going in there without pressure. It's definitely been a long time since I haven't had pressure to win, so I'm kind of using it to learn. So it was a good start.
Explain to me what happened in that first rhythm lane. A bunch of guys went down. What did you see happen?
Yeah, honestly, I kind of just watched everything happen. I kind of was rolling through the section behind them and really didn't expect that to happen so quickly. But yeah, just literally caught like two feet of air over a single and kinda Kenny's bike and laying there. So I kind of just rode into it a little bit. I had to get off my bike and turn it around.
So you started last, like eventually Mookie and Kenny got up behind you. But when you were first getting on your bike, weren't you actually the last dude on the track?
I wouldn't say dead last because those guys were laying next to me [laughs]. I would say, I think I came across in like 20th though.
When we look at the lap times early in the race, even though you're trying your best to make moves, surely you're getting held up in parts. It's not the ideal lap, I would think early in the race.
Yeah you've got guys taking the main line so you gotta search otherwise, but I felt like I was doing my best to not get held up and trying to make the passes without, you know, getting held up. So I felt like I did a pretty good job with that and actually made quicker passes than I expected to, but a couple of guys were definitely stubborn with the spot.
Twentieth and to come all the way back to eighth. You had to be happy with that.
Yeah, I was very pleased with that. I felt like my speed was good all day. I was really happy with my qualifying. I qualified fifth like a half a second off. So it was very, very happy with that and my starts were ok. But what I learned was that those guys are very aggressive the first couple of turns and, and they really value… they really criticize those first few turns and it really separates the good guys from the bad. They get to the front quickly and they take those chances right away.
It's weird though because I think people would hear that and be like, well, he raced five of these last year or whatever it was. It's still a new experience for you.
Well, I didn't really get any good starts last year, so I wasn't really in that mix of the talent and I really didn't get the racing experience with the top guys, I would say. Kind of just looking back on the race now and, you know, watching what kind of happens in the first couple of turns, that’s what it looks like.
Take me through the off-season with this. You did prepare a bit on the 450 last year, but was this much, much more preparation than you were doing last year?
Well, this year we had a goal and we had a start point, right? Last year was kind of unknown. I really just was riding and getting used to it and, , just doing laps with the guys really too, to stay, I guess, fresh on Supercross and learn the bike a little bit. So we made the call to jp up and race last year. But, yeah, this year we, we had a plan, we know we're doing the whole series. So that kind of helped.
You told me when I saw you a month ago that you did learn some bike stuff from Webb. Are your bikes similar or just how does that part work?
I think they're pretty similar. We don't like the exact same things but we have, you know, we both tried the same stuff and I definitely tried his set up. He's definitely played around with what I've got going on and, yeah, we, we kind of just go our way from there. But, yeah, the team obviously has both of us try the same stuff and see what works for, you know, each rider. So it's been cool.
Another thing that obviously changes is the last five minutes of the main. Your first lap is what you used to race at the end of the 250 race. What is that experience like?
I kind of like it slows the track down. A lot of these guys can go so fast on a fresh track and it's kind of scary. But at the end of these mains, we were looking at a lot of lap times. It's like probably 1:06 is like a good time, and in practice, like, I think Jett was around a 59. So, , seven seconds, it just kind of shows you how the track changes throughout the day. I feel like some of the main lines don't really work and you kind of got to start exploring, especially on these softer tracks that'll come on the east coast. So, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out too.
When we looked at the track in the morning, we're all laughing like, oh, look at these, whoops. They're so flat. Does it even matter? It's not gonna be like that in the main.
It's like, yeah, look at them at the end of practice. Like at the start, they’re fresh, and even just by the end of one practice they were getting tough, especially the second set. Those things are not easy. They get way harder than expected, as far as being technical and rough, but it's not surprising by any means. I think everyone that knows the sport knows how they'll be.
I know one of the keys then becomes, you have to set your bike up, not for the good track and practice, but you have to be aiming toward how bad it is in the main. So how do you even do that?
Yeah, in the beginning of the day you want your bikes maybe a little bit softer because the testing you do, you do it on a track that's definitely developed and is a little bit rougher. So when you get on these fresh practice sessions, the bike feels pretty stiff because we're not getting the bps that we're gonna get towards the end of the night. So it's kind of like a fine line. Like you can go softer, but you’re honestly gonna end up going back to your base setting to be different for the night show. That's kind of what I've been learning because the track is way different than the main.
Does the team actually help sometimes? Like, “No no, no, you, you might want to change that now, but trust us, you'll be glad you don't do that three hours from now.” Do they say that?
You know? Honestly, I've never even thought about it that way, and this year I've definitely already seen that and I've been hearing that a lot from everyone.
Let me take a step further back here. Were you ever worried about your deal for this year at any point next year? Or did you think you would be good the whole time?
It was kind of like, I should be good because I was crushing it outdoors. , I was on the podi every weekend pretty much so, I didn't really worry about it, but then I started to. I didn't sign my deal until the last round of outdoors. So it got a little bit weird towards the end. But it definitely came around.
They’re giving you plenty of time. You don't even care if people weren't talking about you coming in. You're fine with it.
Yeah, I'm fine with it. , at the end of the day I gotta go out there and race and, you know, I feel like it's a little bit of the pressure off and, yeah. Yeah, I'm, I'm good with it.
It's funny though because like, look, we only have to go back, two years and you and Jett [Lawrence] were tooth and nail for an outdoor title. You won a Supercross Title that year. , do you look and say like, oh, “I used to battle both Lawrence brothers all the time.” Like, do you look at that?
Yeah, , Jett has obviously done some pretty good things. , he hasn't lost a championship in a long time. That’s something great for sure. Yeah, that outdoor title definitely still haunts me. But I feel like I did the best I could and even with what I was dealt was a, it was a pretty good outcome.
So what I'm saying is like, it was a coin flip. It could have gone either way. So that's got to give you a little confidence to be say, “I used to battle this guy. It wasn't like I got my doors blown off every weekend when I raced this dude.”
No, it's cool looking back on it, with what he's done, it's cool to look back a couple of years and, and see that I was the guy beating him. It's definitely a little bit different now and he's obviously had a streak without injury for years. So it definitely goes a long way and I feel helped his learning. He’s got a good team behind him and he's got all that going for him. So yeah, we're gonna keep doing what we're doing and maybe we'll find ourselves back up there.
I was thinking about these west coast races. We actually started two hours early, to make it easier to watch TV on the east coast. Is that something you even noticed or realized?
Yeah, it was nice. I don't like racing at like 10 o'clock at night. That's a little bit too much because by the time you get in bed and everything, it's like 1 a.m. so it doesn't help recovery at all.
By the way you did pass Eli and people were like losing their minds over that, but did that even mean anything to you? You were just rolling at that point?
, yeah, he was honestly the only guy I could see in front of me. After him I think it was a Barcia but he had like 15 seconds and that's kind of how it goes like when you get a bad start. That’s how it spaces out over the first 10 minutes. So yeah, I just focused on him and I saw I was catching him pretty fast and I was kind of surprised by it, but I ended up getting close him I think with like two minutes to go. I don't even remember what it was [time was] but I passed him and yeah, that's all I could really do.
