Image: Octopi Media.

A strong opening round for Cooper Webb saw him finish runner-up at Anaheim 1, the defending 450SX champion explaining that his new Factory Edition’s ‘base setting is close enough’.

Webb kept his nose clean in the main event to progressively work his way forward, ultimately reaching second to kickstart his title defence.

The event marked the formal debut of the 2022 KTM 450 SX-F FE, a machine that the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider has appeared to seamlessly adapt to, however, still remains certain that it’s capable of more in these initial stages of development.

“There’s definitely some work to do,” Webb said. “We do our off-season and, for me, I was in Florida, so you get a variety of tracks, but nothing’s like racing. That little more intensity, that little more effort, the nerves, the roughness of the track.

“We’ll get to work and try to improve. I feel like we can improve the bike a good little bit and see where it ends up. Overall, I think it’s a really nice platform to start with. I think our base setting is close enough and we’ll try to improve it, but don’t go crazy and get yourself lost.”

Webb can draw confidence that the start of his 2022 campaign has been much stronger than both years that he has been crowned 450SX champion, finishing ninth at Houston in the 2021 season-opener and fifth at Anaheim in 2019, the first round of that season.

Motivated by a switch to the 83 Compound from Baker’s Factory for 2022, Webb’s early season form could mark trouble for his rivals as he continues to develop the new machinery.