The 15th round of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross championship is in the books and it was Cooper Webb taking the win in 450SX action while Nate Thrasher took his second win of the season in an action-packed 250SX West main event. The winners were available to the media following the race for this Debrief interview. 

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Take us through the last five minutes of the race, it looked like the switch kind of came on. When you saw Kenny [Roczen] have those issues is that what woke you up and were you settling for taking a second before that?

Yeah I mean it changed a lot [when he crashed]. It kind of changed the dynamic, he had a good lead and I could see when I was entering the whoops he was exiting them. So I saw a few laps we were all struggling in them, they were extremely tough to get through all day and especially in the main event. I think we were all kind of searching for lines and what to do and what not to do. So I could kind of see that and was kind of just trying to click my laps, I was making some mistakes early on just kind of overriding and trying too hard, kind of lost some ground. I had AP [Aaron Plessinger] and Eli [Tomac] back there behind me too, kind of ready to pounce. So obviously when I saw he went down, I felt like I had a shot to win the race and just really put my head down and that’s when I figured out the whoops and was able to get through them really good there at the end. Yeah, obviously a late-race charge and it was definitely a tough race. The track was really gnarly and yeah, stoked on it, to be honest.

We think we know what we see when we’re watching practice, you had 2.2 seconds between you and Jason Anderson who was the fastest qualifier. We’ve seen you pull this off before but even that looked like a really big bridge to cross. Are you worried at that point? Did you go into the night show thinking I’ll sort this out or are were you as on the ropes as it looked?

Today I actually felt pretty good. The last couple I’d been off the pace quite a bit. Today in qualifying I actually had a couple of issues with getting laps and whatnot, but I felt pretty comfortable. Pretty good in the whoops, pretty good everywhere else. After the heat race I felt like I rode good, got a good start, but when I was able to ride with Jason [Anderson], I could kind of pick up on some things he did, that seemed to help me. But yeah, for the main I mean I feel like the conditions changed quite a bit I think it was more hard-packed than we’ve had it these last few [races] and obviously the whoops were extremely tough, breaking down and stuff. So yeah, I mean I felt confident, but you never know. Obviously, the way the track was and the way these races have been there are a lot of fast guys and a lot of guys stepping up the plate, so you never know what’s gonna happen.

The whoops tonight were the toughest we’ve seen, do you prefer them that way and is that what you’d like to see moving forward? 

Yeah, for me, they were by far the toughest whoops I’ve ridden probably ever. So yeah it was definitely tough and it definitely separates and as you can see when you get them right it’s key and when you don’t, it’s tough. But yeah, they broke down like crazy from practice to the heat it’s just such a change when we get to the main event that it’s tough to read.

We know you weren’t happy with Saturday and Tuesday’s results and you had the KTM team all hands on deck doing some testing in Florida this week. What did you guys find and what did you guys change to make you more comfortable?

Yeah like you said, the first two I obviously struggled. This track has obviously been a lot different than a normal supercross and it was kind of all new for everyone so it took some adjusting and some changes that needed to be made. Yeah we did a shock change and a triple clamp change that really helped. I was just appreciative because Roger [DeCoster] and those guys drove from [Atlanta] to Florida for a day of testing and just to have that commitment from the mechanics to the suspension guys to do whatever it takes is pretty cool. As you saw it was a lot better result tonight for sure.

What’s more satisfying for you, the fact that you were able to overcome a big gap in the main to catch Roczen to get the victory or the fact that your championship lead is now out to 16 points? 

Obviously, I think the biggest thing was the turnaround from Saturday. Obviously, I got a kind of gift a little bit tonight, but I felt like a solid second was on the table. Then yeah it’s obviously rewarding when you have the opportunity to win and to be able to do that is super rewarding. I mean yeah points are always clutch and always key as we get later into the season, but I think just those moments of gratitude of digging deep and accomplishing the ultimate which is winning, is pretty hard to beat.

250SX West

Image: Octopi Media.

How do you win an LCQ and mentally turn it around and be able to win the main event?
I think its thought but you’ve got one advantage, you’ve rode the track last. I think that’s the only advantage you have, so you just have to go out there in the first couple laps [knowing] that you know the track better than everybody else. So you’ve just got to put down solid laps in the beginning, the main key of the races so far has been the start, so you’ve just gotta execute the start and put solid laps in. The starts the main key and [going to the LCQ] doesn’t leave you with a good gate pick, got a little lucky with the gate but it ended up being good.

Four weeks ago, ninth was your best finish and four weeks later, you’ve won two races, led a lot of laps and shown massive improvement. Where was the moment when you started to figure out supercross over the last three weeks? 

Yeah I think the main key was that my starts were pretty bad in the last couple races there and if you don’t start up front you just kind of get stuck in their pace. So it was a little bit of that I think and the main thing was just getting up front and leading and just getting confidence. [When] you’re a rookie so you don’t have the confidence coming in like some other people do, so you just have to kind of build every race and get more confident and go from there. But I felt like we made a lot of improvements during the break like you said, we just came out swinging and fixed some things and it ended up going good.

Is there anything specifically that you improved on during that break that really unlocked some consistency for you? 

Yeah for sure, I feel like we worked a lot on the whoops and the whoops were key tonight they were very tough. Both my wins, the whoops were very tough so that was a key and corner speed obviously you gotta be better with that. But I feel like the main key was just starts, you have to be up front to win, you can’t come from the back, so we worked on our starts and got them dialed in.

You’re out of the points race obviously and the last race of the year for you is going to be Salt Lake City with the 250 showdown. Any extra or added motivation to get a showdown in?

I don’t think it’s anything different, we’re coming in with the same mentality we have now. Coming in with good starts and execute laps. It’s a couple more guys in there but it’s the same goal at the end. We’re just going to come in and do the best we can do, we’re out of the points for the championship but we’ve got little goals in there you know, so we just hope to get in and finish it out strong.