When Chance Hymas, the original 250 rider for Team USA went out with an injury, and with Haiden Deegan having surgery on his wrist to remove hardware, the team was left scrambling to find a fill-in rider. Enter Cooper Webb, who rode his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate’s bike and decided to give it a shot. A hero effort to step up for sure, which gained him a lot of respect from fans. But still, Webb has not raced a 250 since 2016 and jumping down may be just as hard as jumping up to a 450 from a 250. Webb called into the PulpMX Show on Tuesday night to talk about his race, how impressed he was with teammate Eli Tomac and how difficult it was to drop down to the 250. Read the interview below or you can listen to the entire interview starting around the 1:37:00 mark.
PulpMX: Coop, you got better every time you went out on the 250, I feel like if you had done another moto it would have been even better. I heard you were pretty pissed after qualifying on Saturday. But overall, are you happy?
Cooper Webb: No, it was good. Saturday was not great. I was tight and [not riding well]. But at the same time that was one of the gnarliest tracks I have ever ridden. That’s what I was also trying to explain to the boys when they were harping on me, they were like, “Oh you look scared.” I’m like, “I am scared.” But overall, it was a great experience. From the beginning, in all reality, I shouldn’t have even been there. So, with how it went, last minute, and coming down to Vegas and Eli making a decision to go, just how it all transpired if you would have told us we would go P2 on the day, I personally would have been over the moon. I thought a podium would have been unbelievable but going into the last moto with life of a win possible, to get second was a little bit of a, I shouldn’t even say bummer because it still was an amazing day for everyone, but it was just like “damn.” You start thinking of those three points, it's like if each one of us, or if I would have gotten two spots better.
But with that being said, I felt like first moto I definitely didn’t do very good. I had a bad start and goggle issues, so the second moto I knew I really had to step up and knew I had to try to, that was our goal was to put a single digit on the board. It wasn’t going to be easy because I was going to be outside both times. But that was my choice. I felt like I was the weak link, so I wanted to try and let those guys get the lowest score and like I told them, “I need to step up at least one moto” and I felt like I did that in the second one. I was able to make some passes and like I said put a single score up. But overall, it was really awesome. The event there’s nothing like it, everyone always says it but there truly isn’t. The pressure, the fans, the track, racing every badass motocrosser from 18-year-olds to 32-year-olds. Everyone’s there. It’s just a crazy event, you work as a team. It truly was a super sick weekend. I think like I said to walk away with a P2, I think we surprised and shut up a lot of people, maybe even you Steve, I don’t know.
Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations - Combined
October 6, 2024
| Rider | Points | Race | Class | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 26 | |||
| Jett Lawrence | 1 | Race 2 (MX2 + Open) | Open | Honda | |
| Jett Lawrence | 2 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | Open | Honda | |
| Hunter Lawrence | 4 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | MXGP | Honda | |
| Hunter Lawrence | 8 | Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) | MXGP | Honda | |
| Kyle Webster | 11 | Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) | MX2 | Honda | |
| Kyle Webster | 19 | Race 2 (MX2 + Open) | MX2 | Honda | |
| 2 |  | 29 | |||
| Eli Tomac | 2 | Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) | MXGP | Yamaha | |
| Eli Tomac | 3 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | MXGP | Yamaha | |
| Aaron Plessinger | 7 | Race 2 (MX2 + Open) | Open | KTM | |
| Aaron Plessinger | 8 | Race 3 (MXGP + Open) | Open | KTM | |
| Cooper Webb | 9 | Race 2 (MX2 + Open) | MX2 | Yamaha | |
| Cooper Webb | 17 | Race 1 (MXGP + MX2) | MX2 | Yamaha | |
No, I put you guys, like, “They can get on the podium, maybe, with a few breaks.” And you guys didn’t get breaks you just rode your asses to second.
Yeah, I am still, like Eli was insane. I am still mind blown. I mean you know how good he can be and how good he is, but for him to show up and do what he did, not racing all summer. Not racing really the last two summers, it was really impressive, I thought. Especially the last moto, we were talking gate choice and this and that and he was stressed. I had to tell him, “It don’t matter, whatever happens, happens. You can go outside, put AP inside, do whatever you want to do.” And then for him to friggen go and pull a sick holeshot like that, that was a badass thing to do.
It's even cooler because that’s not really Eli’s specialty is starts.
Exactly. He is literally next to [Jorge] Prado. How many guys have even out started that guy. It was insane.
What was the hardest part switching back to the 250, and did it take you by surprise? Did you think it was going to be easier than it was?
I think the shifting or stalling it. You just shift the thing a lot. But it's hard to say because it's one of those things, when I got on it, right away the Star bike clearly is fast. So, power really wasn’t an issue. It was more like learning to rev it out again, at least the Yamaha it makes better power on the higher side of the revs, it keeps going. To where I was trying to short shift it and ride it like a 450 and it sounded good but it wasn’t really working like it should. So, I think that was the biggest thing, getting the gears and the rev limiter. And then just remembering that as soon as you let off the gas you are coming to a stop. If that makes sense, the momentum that you have to carry is twice as much as a 450. The engine breaking, the inertia on the 450 will keep going where the 250 just stops. So having to break later than normal, get on the gas way earlier than normal, stay on the gas, kind of ride the clutch a little bit, you really just have to ride the crap out of it. I felt really good heading into England, we rode four times and I would say by the end of day two I felt really good. But it's at The [GOAT] Farm where there is sick dirt, I know the track, everything feels perfect. And then we showed up to England and I couldn’t even ride the thing how I was at all because it was just so technical, so gnarly. So absolutely different that you had to ride it totally different. So, I think that was the toughest thing was getting to England and getting back on it in those conditions and, “Oh shit, this is gnarly.”
Everyone I think was struggling with the conditions on Saturday. And then still learning the bike and learning how to ride it and how to go fast, and at least for me I have never raced any of those guys so the style was a lot different. I say it every weekend but the 250 class there’s no regret for anything. The first lap was intense. It was just a different style of racing and when you get lackadaisical it catches up to you. So, I think that was the hardest thing. And then Sunday I guess I didn’t realize how you were underpowered [on the 250], like I would try to make some passes that I felt would be pretty easy and then that 450 just hit and you’re like, “Damn.” Like you really had to charge around the outside, really almost push your limits to make a pass. Stuff like that. But overall, it was super fun to ride. I felt like I learned a lot and kind of got a little bit of confidence back of like, “Man, you can ride the crap out of a dirt bike. And I can still scrub underneath and all of these things.” Sometimes the 450 is just too gnarly to be able to throw around like that, if that makes sense.
Talk about the second moto, did you feel that was the perfect way to ride the bike or were you still making mistakes?
I think second moto was a much better moto and I actually got better every lap. And I think that was the thing, I told those guys straight up, that first one I was about 11th or 12th and then I had some goggle issues like we all did. I was a dumbass, and I ran tearoffs in the first one and ran out and just strictly didn’t have vision. So, I was just kind of at a point where you’re just trusting yourself to jump the jumps in the lines that you knew, and I was just kind of staying there. Where the second one in my mind I was like, “Okay the 17th is hopefully our throwaway, I need to make it happen this time.” I felt like I rode it a lot harder, I was taking a lot more chances. I think that was the biggest thing, where on a track like that, it was hard to tell yourself to send it because there were consequences obviously.
So, for me I started taking a bit more risk and it was working. I could carry more momentum that way and if I rip my foot off of the peg in a turn, who cares. So, that’s how I approached the second moto and then I felt like I started getting better and I rode behind some of the other 250 guys. Like I actually passed Vialle and Adamo and some of those guys. So just riding around other 250’s I kind of learned as I went. I felt like it was a good ride, I came through well. I had a good start from the outside which was awesome. But with how I rode that second moto I felt like if I would have had the inside gate, I could have put ourselves in even a better spot but looking back that is the decision we made and I think it was still the right one.
