Now halfway through his second full season in the 450SX Class of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Justin Cooper has steadily been building. At the Seattle SX, Cooper qualified fastest, then earned his first ever 450SX heat race win when he beat his championship leading teammate Cooper Webb for the race win. He was racing with the top group and battling for a podium when he crashed and dropped back a few spots, scoring sixth at the checkered flag. Despite the crash in the main event, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider focused on the positives. Our Aaron Hansel caught up with him after the race.
Racer X: Well, it was a great day for you until it wasn’t. But up until that point you were riding awesome. Take us through it.
Justin Cooper: Yeah, it was a really good day. Started off, good practice, P1, and got my first heat race win. Everything was going in the right direction. I got off to a decent start and was like third or fourth and was in the lead group. I was kind of being patient. Chase [Sexton] got around me, then Coop [Webb] got around Kenny [Roczen], and I got around Kenny. I was in third with like four or five minutes left. I hit a rut, and it threw me to the left. I was riding the edge in that rhythm and I just got kicked a little left, grazed a Tuff Block, and it took me down. But it was a really good day. I feel like I was a little bit patient in the main event, but at the same time I was learning a lot riding with those guys. I wasn’t in too much of a rush. I feel like if I rode like I did in the beginning of the heat race, I would have been good. I was attacking and when the track was like that felt like I had really good speed. It felt like everything slowed down once it got rough, and I should have taken more advantage of the conditions in the beginning. I should have ridden like Kenny did, I would have been better off. But either way I made a mistake and ended up on the ground.
How tough was it to go fast on that track?
In the beginning, the first ten minutes weren’t that tough. The whoops were pretty tricky with the ruts in between, but other than that it wasn’t too bad. They prepped most of the track, so it held up pretty good, but the last ten minutes it really started to deteriorate each lap. Some of the lines were getting so much gnarlier each lap, so you really had to start picking lines. I feel like I did learn a lot, and even though it ended like it did, it was such a good start. All in all, it was a really good day.
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We saw you go around Webb on the outside in the heat race. Did you have plans to use that same spot to make moves in the main?
Toward the end of the race I knew it was going to come down to people making mistakes, and I was the one who made the mistake, unfortunately. But I felt like I was going to be able to do the rhythms consistently, that was my game plan. I saw guys making mistakes. Kenny was messing up some rhythms when he got passed for the lead. It was coming around to getting really technical, and unfortunately, I made the mistake. I was kind of waiting for the track to get a little more difficult.
Well, it didn’t go the way you wanted, but you still rode awesome.
Yeah, it was a good day all in all. I can’t be too hard on myself, it was a big step in the right direction and I’m definitely feeling confident coming into next weekend.
