Cooper Webb was consistent all night going 2-2-5 for the win despite a heavy cold that sapped his energy and now the gritty former champ is right in the mix of the championship battle.
Webb said: “If you do really well the first two [races], the third one sometimes is easy… I had a lot of wiggle room [in Race #3] and could just, honestly, have a solo ride in fifth place. But it is a little bit weird, for sure, to not go over the checkered flag first. But I think that’s kinda the unique thing about the Triple Crown, is we’ve seen a lot of this happen. You can have big point swings, and you can have one bad race and then have two good ones [and] you end up on the podium and something like that. So it’s never over for sure in these kind of situations… I saw Jason [Anderson] right in front of me [in Race #3], he went down, and it probably wasn’t the best thing for me, because it was instantly like, ‘All right, I can just kinda chill,’ but I was grateful to put myself in that situation.”
Meanwhile Eli Tomac did not get the starts in the first two motos and was back in a ferocious top ten brawl trying to make moves against top tier talent and not getting a peak at the front of the pack.
But, for the third moto he finally got the start and neither Chase Sexton nor Jett Lawrence could catch him! Eli’s smile was huge after that final moto, you could see the relief and the realisation he knew he was back.
Eli knows he can win again and the confidence he takes from that third moto victory could be huge for the rest of the series and a problem for his rivals, this was as straight up as it gets against Sexton and Lawrence last years, supercross, outdoor and SMX champs.
Eli commented: “I was pretty frustrated after those first two [races]. I was like, ‘Okay, here I’m just – what am I now, fifth – seventh place guy right now?’ I don’t know. I just had to go do something, I had to get off the gate there, so it was good. It was good. Had a good flow. I was able to get the whoop combo down, and I felt like that was important for me, and yeah, felt good.”
Image: Feld Entertainment Inc
Article: Jonathan McCready
