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COOPER WEBB
450 SX / TEXAS
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> It has been years since a 250 rider has been able to accomplish as much as Cooper Webb has. Cooper has been able to get a total of 3 championships is in 250 career (2015&2016 West Coast SX champ, 2016 motocross champ). Coming into the 450 ranks Webb was a rider every team wanted to get their hands on. Cooper ac- complished his success with Yamaha in the 250 ranks but they didn’t currently have a 450 factory team. With fears of loosing Cooper as a Yamaha rider the manufacture de- cided to build a factory effort and field Veteran Reed with rookie Webb. Coopers time was up in the 250 ranks and it was time for him to pick a career number and move up to the 450 class. Webb made a bold pick for a career number taking over the #2 for- merly worn by The King ( Jeremy Mcgrath), and 4x Supercross champ Ryan Villopoto.
With such high expectations Webb got a bit star struck in his first two rounds of racing the “big boy class”. The rookie has since turned things around and looks comfortable in the 450 class.
Although on paper Webb’s result looks mediocre, his riding was fantastic and he showed the heart of a champion. In his heat race Webb was on the bubble of a direct transfer to the main event before Eli Tomac jumped into the back of Webbs Yamaha machine putting them both on the Texas dirt. Cooper got back onto his bike as fast
as possible and began to charge to the front of the field. On the final lap Webb was
in a heated battle with Millsaps and Canard with Webb in 5th. Cooper was able to get around Canard and take the final transfer by a mere 15 hundredths of a second. After an inspiring heat race Webb showed up for the main event with thoughts of getting on the podium for the second straight weekend. When the gate dropped Webb was able to get the holeshot but the race was quickly red flagged. In the restart Cooper nearly got the holeshot again coming around the first corner in 3rd. After running in a podium position for the first 6 minutes of the race Webb started to drop positions rapidly due to a flat tire. The #2 went back to the pits to get his tire changed. By the time the tire got swapped and CW2 made it back on the track he was a lap down, nearly in last position. Showing true grit Webb managed to crawl back to 14th. @cooperwebb2 later stated on Instagram “#getemnextweekend”. It is only a matter of time when the rookie gets his first win.
62 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 12, 2017