Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross championship is in the books. Cooper Webb grabbed the win and took the red plate from Ken Roczen in the 450SX class, while rookie Seth Hammaker took his first win in the 250SX West class. The duo was available to the media following the race in Arlington for this Debrief interview feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

That was quite a points swing tonight, how important was it for you to come in here and lay down the law in the first race and try and change the momentum a bit?

Yeah, it was a huge night. The whole day was really good. Got a great start in the main event and was able to lead every lap and felt in control, just hitting my marks. Yeah, it was a great night overall and like you said to run the red plate is sweet. That’s what we work for and that’s the goal. Yeah it’s exciting to know that we have to more races here and with how well I gelled today I’m excited to keep it going. As we’re getting closer to the end of this thing every point is important, but when we can maximize them that’s always an advantage for sure.

You had a horrible crash in Arlington last year, did you ever imagine you’d be where you are today after that?

It’s never a good memory to have. Coming into today you kind of have that in the back of your mind so to get redemption from that is awesome. For me, to kind of be able to block that out and focus on racing today, I gained a lot of confidence. It’s racing stuff happens, you have crashes and you have to kind of forget about it and put in the past but for me, that was probably the biggest one of my career so when I saw the concrete today I had to block it out. But it’s awesome to be able to fast forward a year or whatever it is later and get complete redemption its a really cool feeling.

This week we saw a lot of hype around last week at Daytona with the comments from Ken Roczen. The hype that social media makes does that affect you or do you just feed off of it and use it as motivation?

That stuff get’s me going, so yeah it was a good week for that and we made the most of it. It is what it is obviously in the times with Instagram and everything you’re able to see a bunch and it creates a good story that’s for sure. But I love it and I feed off of it so it was cool.

You spent a lot of time during the press day in the mechanic’s area working with your mechanic Carlos and your WP suspension tech, what were you guys looking for in the setup? Was it a lot of small changes, just fine-tuning stuff or are you throwing the kitchen sink at it trying to figure out a good setup?

We’re in a really good spot right now. I think the last few weekends, besides Daytona, it’s just been a click here or there, really just kind of fine-tuning things. Honestly, in the press riding and in practice we just kind of try things just to see what it does, but nothing major, I feel like I’m in a really good spot. More just trial and error depending on track conditions depending on how it’s going to be. I think today was one of those things where the morning session the track was awesome, a bunch of traction, ruts, really good dirt and as we saw in the main event it was pretty hard-packed and dry. You kind of just do things to kind of prep for later in the day knowing that the track is going to change, but overall we’re in a really good spot.

250SX West

Image: Octopi Media.

Tonight was a big night for you. You’re a rookie, you’re coming into the season and you probably have aspirations of doing well, did you think, honestly, that by the third round you’d be competing for a win and get one?

No, I definitely didn’t think that by the third round I’d have a main event win. I knew I could eventually get it done, but to be this early it’s pretty awesome. I’ve learned so much already, just want to keep it going and I’m just stoked to get the first win.

You said on the podium the race lasted forever. At what point in the main event did you think ‘I’m going to do this’? Was there doubt halfway through? What was going through your mind mid-race and when did it lock in that you were going to get the win?

Yeah, so the first half of the race I was riding pretty good. I was hitting my marks and when we got to halfway I was like, ‘man we’re only halfway’. So I was kind of feeling that and riding a little tight out there. I feel like probably when my mechanic gave me five laps to go on the pit board I was like ‘alright, I can do this, hold it together, hit your lines, and keep riding what’s in front of you.’ I would say by then I realized I could do it.

Where are you with your progression as a test rider in the sport of Supercross? When you go back to the truck and talk to your team, are you getting more instruction from them on set up or are you choosing where you want to go with it?

A little bit of both. I kind of relay the information that I’m feeling to the suspension guys and the team and then if they see something they come up with an idea [of what direction to go in]. We’ve been trying stuff in practice and once the night show comes around we’ve been pretty much keeping it the same. As a rookie, testing and knowing what you want your bike to do is kind of tough and I’m learning that. I feel like if you can change something and have it work for the better it’s a positive.

Can you talk about this journey to the win tonight after dealing with injuries and ailments throughout your amateur career?

It’s been a long time coming for sure even just to get to the pro ranks. I had shoulder injuries and got those fixed and then stayed another two years amateur. Then I got epstein-barr and that set me back. It just kind of felt like when everything would start rolling I would have another setback and it was hard to take that. But I just kept pushing and knew that my time would come and was able to start supercross this year and everything lined up well. It’s going pretty smooth so far and I’m going to keep working hard and try to get solid finishes.