Already a two-time Monster Energy Supercross Series champion, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Cooper Webb was in a titanic fight for a third premier class title when he hit the ground in heat number one at the Nashville Supercross. Accidentally pegged by Adam Cianciarulo, Webb was immediately sent to the local emergency room with a concussion. Webb called time on his stadium season the very next morning from a hospital bed.
Back for the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship outdoor series, that title chase also went up in smoke for the 27 year-old when a midweek practice crash immediately took him out of action for the entire summer.
But that was then and this is now.
Over the summer, Webb quietly struck a deal to join Star Racing Yamaha for the 2024 racing season. An outfit for which he earned three 250cc championships during the opening phase of his professional career, it’s a place Webb has always called home, and a place which will serve as headquarters in his quest to gain 450SX title number three.
“I’m super-excited for the challenge that lies ahead with Star Racing Yamaha,” Webb said. “I think I’ve had a great run in the 450 class so far and last year was a great supercross season. Obviously the ending wasn’t what I was hoping for, but we put ourselves in the fight and continued all year and had the red plate at a few rounds. I had that concussion at the end of the year and that kind of put our title chances out of the picture, but I’m excited for 2024. This is a new start for me and a new challenge. I’m back with a familiar team that I had a lot of success with in the 250 class. The goal is to go out there and win a supercross championship and that’s what we’re going to try and achieve.”
About to enter his 12th year of professional competition, Webb comes off a five-year run with KTM, for which he won the 2019 and 2021 supercross titles. Now back to the Star Racing Yamaha enterprise for which he won three 250cc championships, Webb, is enjoying the return home to the Yamaha-backed works effort.
“It has been really nice,” he said. “I had a great run with my former team and we achieved a lot. I think it was just time for me to make a little bit of a change, and this was something that I was really excited about doing and kind of wanted to do. I wanted to get back with the guys that I started my career with, and we had so much success as a group of individuals together and I feel like the success that they have had in the 450 class during the last two or three years really speaks for itself. I’m excited to be back with a lot of guys I’ve worked with in the past and I’m excited to work with some new guys, as well. It just definitely feels like home for me.
“Once I knew I was making the switch to Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha, it was one of those things where I feel like a kid again. I feel like I’ve now got those butterflies. We also moved to Tallahassee, where the facility and the team is based. For us that was quite a big change, but it’s nice for us to adjust as a family and to have a different lifestyle from what we had.
“Also, going to a new track and a new facility and new bike, there are just so many new challenges and a lot of new goals that we now have. Just simple things like driving down a different road and figuring out a new city at this point in my career was just something that I was ready for. I felt like I really achieved everything that I wanted to with the team I was at. I was in a spot where I needed a change or maybe retirement would have maybe come sooner. As an athlete and as we do get injured and stuff, you definitely have thought of retirement, but for me, this time that thought went away quick.”
In an effort to get a read on what Webb and the Star Racing Yamaha team will need to develop during the off-season, the effort competed in the three-round 2023 SuperMotocross World Championship. Webb placed eighth at zMAX Dragway, seventh at Chicagoland Speedway and landed on the podium in third at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum round while getting his head wrapped around the Yamaha YZ450F.
“We didn’t have too much time on the dirt bike, but we wanted to go race and see where we stood and overall, it was up-and-down,” said Webb, who wound up fourth in the final SMX point standings. “I think the last race at the Coliseum was definitely a much better performance from myself. I think the SMX races were definitely different. I think none of us, as far as riders or teams, really knew what to endure or what kind of track or situations we were going to be up against. On our end, we definitely did a lot more supercross testing, I should say, than maybe the hybrid and motocross-style tracks that we ended up racing on at the first two SMX races. It was a little bit of trial and error, but for me overall, it was good to get some gate drops and to see what we needed to work on with myself than maybe the motorcycle.
“We just really wanted to get some gate drops, because the last race that I did was the High Point National this year. Up until SMX it had been about four months of no gate drops. It was good to get those gate drops in SMX and to end the year with being on the podium, which I thought was really solid and will help us know what we need to build on for the upcoming year in supercross and motocross.”
While performing his in-race research and development on both himself and his YZ450F in the SMX races, Webb was also able to take a look at the competition he’ll face off against in the 2024 Monster Energy Supercross Championship.
“It gets tougher and tougher every year, right?” said Webb. “I think this year is going to be a good opportunity for me. All of the (other) guys are going to have some challenges of their own and I might, as well, but I think mentally and physically, and as the racer and champion I am, I feel like I really succeed over 17 supercross rounds. I may not be the fastest guy every weekend or the flashiest guy out there, but when it comes to racing and my racecraft and my consistency, I’ve been able to be very successful over 17 races. I think that will be my strong point.
“I’m going to bust my butt this off-season and get to be the fittest I’ve ever been and the strongest I’ve ever been and really put in the work and I feel like I can have a lot of success in 2024.”
The 2020 and 2022 Monster Energy Supercross champion in both 2020 and 2022, Star Racing Yamaha rider Eli Tomac almost had the 2023 title in his possession before a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered at the penultimate round at Salt Lake City gave the title to Chase Sexton. Sent reeling from the misfortune, Tomac will be back with a vengeance in 2024 and Webb will be forced to cross swords with his new teammate.
“El and me definitely haven’t had the best chance to talk, but at the L.A. SMX race we actually did talk,” he said. “We were able to walk the track together and spend some time together as teammates and that was actually really cool. We’ve always had a lot of respect for each other. That’s one thing that has never been a problem with us, it’s definitely a unique dynamic with Star Racing Yamaha having two championship-level guys, but I think that’s just going to elevate both of us. The biggest thing is now I have two supercross championships and Eli has two supercross championships and we have a lot of experience. Now us being on the same equipment is something, at least for me, I know it’ll be, ‘Hey, if he beats me it’s because he’s the better rider that night.’ There are not as many variables now, that’s for sure.”