If there is one rider you don’t want to give even the faintest whiff of opportunity, it’s Cooper Webb.
Webb is the ultimate opportunist and thrives under pressure and when it really matters, and he delivered again with a big win and his best ride of the season, to tie Jett Lawrence at the top of the championship.
Barcia blasting Lawrence the week before opened the door and Webb has blown the door off it’s hinges. He looked superb even in practice at Foxborough, then nailed the all important main event start as Jett didn’t, before dealing with all sorts of pressure from Roczen and Sexton.
With a title on the line Webb willed himself to win, and, while Lawrence still has the edge in speed, Webb knows how to get the job done by hook or by crook.
Four rounds to go, tied on points, and everything to play for, Webb gave his view in the press conference on pressure, momentum and finding speed in the break:
Webb on…
Pressure
I mean, it’s tight, right? Me, Jett and Chase. It’s tight and pressure is a real thing. It’s not like we’re midway through the season where you can have a mistake. You’re gonna have to start now doing risk versus reward. I truly believe so. I feel like I’m very comfortable in that situation and I know when the pressure is on what I can do.
It’s as even as it can be. But I think I look at it differently. I think pressure is when you’re behind. Eight points [coming into] tonight could have easily doubled the other way. So to me that’s pressure when you’re behind. So now that we’re tied up, it’s a much more comfortable feeling.
Momentum
“It’s definitely not a bad thing. I think it’s huge, right? He’s been really great this year at a lot of races, but it’s something where I just know it’s 17 rounds and we all get dealt adversity throughout the season and it can come at different times. Obviously he’s had some tough races the last few and I was able to take advantage of that, but I think the big thing is just staying in it.
I think a lot of people not only wrote me off at the beginning of the year but have written us off since Jett’s gotten the points lead. So it’s definitely rewarding to have the red plate, fight through a lot of the stuff we’ve been fighting through. It’s not easy, you know? This class and this sport is top level. So I’m really proud of myself for sticking to it and knowing that it was gonna come down to a late season push for points.
His team firing him up and off-weekend improvements
“We definitely gel. We’re, fiery, fiery people. At the end of the day, I needed to be faster. So we worked a lot on that and we learned how to get faster in more efficient ways. And I think that paid off.
“The bike, I haven’t touched since December. So just kind of working on some things with myself to get faster and be able to have the same pace as these guys up front. I think today showed that with practice and even the main event, like it wasn’t a track that you could go and just have crazy speed. You had to have a little bit of patience, mixed with some creativity. But overall, today, I was confident to know that if the pace is there, I can hold that.
Article: Jonathan McCready
Images: Doug Turney
