Words: Simon Makker

After an impressive rookie campaign as a full-time 450 rider this year, it’s safe to say that Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper has found his feet in the premier class. He features in our latest Profiled interview while preparing for Monster Energy Supercross 2025.

The 2021 250SX West Coast champion completed a handful of 450SX races early in the 2023 season – including a season-best P6 at Daytona – before switching back to the YZ250F for the Pro Motocross Championship, where he pushed Hunter Lawrence to the final round for the 250MX crown.

Season 2024 saw Cooper enter the 450 class with the Star Yamaha team alongside multi-time champions Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb. While his primary goal had been to complete every round of the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) and learn as much as he could along the way, the New York native achieved some commendable results.

Cooper finished his maiden 450SX season sixth overall, with his best result being an impressive runner-up at the final round at Salt Lake City. Pro Motocross saw the 27-year-old continue to improve, ultimately wrapping up the championship in fourth overall.

Along the way he led his share of laps, was regularly among the qualifying front-runners, finished P3 in six motos and featured on two round podiums at Thunder Valley and Spring Creek. There’s no question that Cooper has always had raw speed on his side and this year he deliberately focused on trying to balance that pace with patience during the motos.

Image: Foremost Media.

“My qualifying speed is really good, but one of my weaknesses is I’d settle into a pace that I know I’m good for, where I won’t get tired,” he reflects. “This year I wanted to switch that up and try to carry some of that qualifying speed to where I’d tire myself out a little bit more and then hang on the rest of the race.

“Sometimes you’ve got to ride over your head and you’ve got to pick and choose those battles… like when you get a holeshot, you’re in a good position and I think you risk it a little bit more. But when you’re battling through the pack and there are a lot of guys around you, it becomes tougher to use that speed. You’ve got to assess each situation and be smart about it.”

But this year didn’t all go Cooper’s way, since at the second round of the SMX Playoffs in Texas, a crash in the opening moto resulted in a cracked collarbone. With the end of the championship in sight and major prize-money up for grabs, he taped up his shoulder and soldiered through the Las Vegas finals to a solid sixth overall for the round.

“The collarbone didn’t need surgery, but it was pretty painful,” he admits. “I didn’t ride that week, just showed up to the race and was like, ‘Hey, this is the last one’. We taped it up and even had some foam, like a roost protector over the bone. It was painful, so I just rode within my limits and didn’t take any unnecessary risks that’d put me on the ground.”

The top-six result elevated him from 13th to eighth in the 450SMX standings and it was equally important for himself to finish the year out on a personal level: “That was a major thing, to get through that last round and say I’d completed my first full season. That was important to me – I think only three or four of us did that this year.”

The steady results were enough for the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team to slide another contract in front of him for 2025. Interestingly, even though Star is the only team he’s ridden for since he turned pro in 2017 and he’s proven to be a 450 front-runner, his contract is again only for one year.

Image: Supplied.

While that doesn’t provide the security of a multi-year deal, Cooper is under no illusions about how competitive it is to even secure a factory deal.

“There are a lot of good guys and there’re not many spots available, so I’m grateful to be where I’m at,” he explains. “I’ve got to take it while it’s there, and it’s good to be around the same people and start my 450 career with the same team I spent throughout the 250 class.

“I’m at the point now where I feel like I deserve this ride. The second that I don’t feel like I deserve this ride, if I’m doing that poorly, I’m not going to be pumped or think I should be on the team. As long as I keep doing what I expect of myself, I think I’ll have a ride there for me.”

Coming into the new season with effectively the same bike as last year, he feels like he’s already more prepared than he was 12 months ago, and wants to continue working on his mental strength, consistency and race strategy.

“Mentally, you have to be strong, and you really have to be strategic about how you approach these races,” Cooper says. “Getting on the podium takes a lot of mental strength as the guys aren’t backing down for nothing. For me to reach the podium, I’ve got to stay pretty much mistake-free and keep that speed up.

“Obviously we’re working hard during this off-season and I think coming into Anaheim 1, we’re going to be more prepared than we were last year.”