Back on the top step of the 450SX podium in Detroit was Cooper Webb, securing his first win of the 2025 Monster Energy Supercross Championship and elevating him to joint possession of the red plate, while Levi Kitchen finished on top in the 250SX East category after a dramatic late-race restart saw him secure the victory. Both riders were available to the media following the main events for this Debrief feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Coop, congrats on the win! Talk us through that race, we saw you lap after lap testing that spot where you ultimately made the pass. How did you have to know what you were going to do in the end?

It started to get difficult, that three in, and I kind of caught that lap when Kenny [Roczen] had the lapper incident. I did it that lap, and I was like, oh okay, this could be an opportunity. Because to hit it correctly, at least the left back onto the straight, you leave the door quite open. But that’s the fast way around. So it was kind of like a road race section right there, where you kind of want to go out and in, and you really want to set everything up. But with that being said, you had to be close enough to make it happen, or it wasn’t going to happen. I think the track was a good track, but there wasn’t much separation as in the fact of different lines or different options or stuff like that. So yeah, just kind of patience and seeing where you could or couldn’t make a pass. I felt comfortable, obviously, like where I was. I felt like when I needed to, I could make up some time. So I think that just was kind of the point that I picked out.

“It seems like you’ve been building into this championship each round. What would you say is the biggest step forward for you now versus A1? Is it your health, fitness, or has there been progress with the bike as well?

I think just everything, the health and fitness for sure, and just in general, just getting better every weekend. I mean, I felt like I ended the West Coast swing really good. But as we know, I definitely love going east, and I feel like that’s where I tend to shine, so just excited there. Plus, just the opportunity, again, we’ve had some injuries as we know, which is a bummer, but I’m in the championship fight, right? I’m tied with the red plate and it’s just not talked about much. I think a lot of people didn’t expect this. A lot of people expected the other guys to kind of maybe do their thing. And so yeah, it’s good to quietly remind everybody always.

It seemed like through halfway through the race, the whoop section became either jumping or skimming. You were skimming the majority of the time in the beginning, but there towards the later stages, you were kind of going back and forth. Can you speak on that?

Yeah, they got tough. I mean, they weren’t that big, but just very edgy. So you’d hit them one lap, no problem, and then the next lap, I felt like I’d hit the same line, same everything, and I’d get kind of like a kick or a swap or something. So once again, you’re kind of searching a little bit. You’re trying stuff. I was skimming and jumping left, right. And I picked up on the left-hand side of skimming really well. But then you’re on the left going into a right-hander with not many options. So yeah, it was more just kind of searching and there at the end, just kind of making sure you didn’t make a big mistake to allow – at least for me – Kenny to get around me again.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Levi, you showed a lot of speed today. This was a crazy finish to a main event. For you, it was all out attack mode. So just walk us through your game plan before that restart at the very end.

Yeah, that was kind of a crazy one, obviously. I didn’t have that drawn up exactly, so I just knew that me, Max [Anstie] and RJ [Hampshire] were going to probably be bumping bars. So I tried to just pick out a spot, and I knew that that three in the back was really hard and you had to go really wide, so I ended up getting close enough to try to make it past there and I made it stick and tried to get away. It was chaos, but it was also tough because we just raced for 14 minutes or whatever, then your heart rate comes down and you’re kind of a little winded. So overall, I’ll take it. I mean, it’s not really how I would like to win. But also, last weekend, I was kind of on the other side of it too. It wasn’t a great one either. So yeah, I’ll take it.

Tampa might have been a little bit of a off weekend for yourself and RJ. Do you feel the podium tonight is a little more indicative of what the championship will look like when it comes down to the series end?

100 percent, I expected this to be pretty much the battle, I guess you could say. I knew there would be some other guys that are going to be good and there are going to be guys that are good at certain places, and depending on how the tracks break down. But I feel like us, like the three of us, all have the aspects pretty good. Like, except when RJ decides to jump the whoops. But yeah, I fully expect this to be a pretty good battle to the end, and it’s fun too. I think we all race each other really mature and there was probably opportunities, like in the heat race, he could have really t-boned me, and Max probably in the main, or at the end there. So, I don’t know, it’s fun racing with these guys.

I know you guys do sprints and stuff during the week, but a sprint like that with that much at stake, what do you even guess your heart rate was? Then, had you settled in for a second, you know, the way Max pulled away from you before the restart, or were you trying the whole time to catch him?

Yeah, the heart rate thing, I’m not sure. I’m sure it was pretty high, but at that point, it was like, I’m willing to send it to try [and win]. I was totally settled in for second. I mean, he got me a lot in the first seven, eight minutes, and after that, I felt fairly good, but I knew I’ve been in his shoes, like he was just clicking them off. I think all three of us were kind of just expecting to just finish where we were at. But yeah, that was a wild turn of events, I guess.

You mentioned on the podium after the race that they explained to you guys green, white checkered, but I feel like you guys did more than three laps. Did it feel longer than you thought?

Yeah. It’s kind of weird because you go through the start and then like through the whoops. It was like three and a half laps maybe. But to me, it felt longer than three laps. I was like, once I got Max, I’m like, I better go. Then I got white flag, I was like, ‘I really better go. We got another lap.’

We know you took a little bit of heat for your late move to the East at the beginning of the year. Can you talk a little bit about the depth of the field here on this coast and what it felt like to grab a win with two defending champs on the line next to you?

Yeah, the whole East-West thing is always tough, but I guess we will see in a few weeks, but I would put my money that this is a pretty fast coast. I mean, I guess it sucks a few people got hurt, so now I’m not sure, but at Tampa, this was a very, very stacked class. So, yeah, I don’t know. I’m excited. I’m hungry for more because I really don’t feel like I won tonight.

Last weekend in Tampa was a tough one for you, shat was the difference from last weekend to this weekend?

I mean, nothing really changed. I changed my bike right before Tampa, which probably wasn’t the right decision, so I went back to my base this week. But yeah, Tampa, I struggled. I struggled in the whoops. I struggled in the sand and yeah, I think I just was more comfortable [this weekend]. I knew I’ve been racing long enough to know now that every night it can totally change. I knew that I could bounce back from that. So yeah, I don’t know. I didn’t really do a whole lot different. I just did my normal week and changed the bike a little bit and came in this week fresh and ready to battle, I guess.