Starting with Winston Salem’s, Mickey Boone in the 70s, the state of North Carolina has had more than its fair share of great motocross racers. Damon Bradshaw, Austin Stroupe, and Broc Tickle are just a few of the names Cooper Webb hopes to be mentioned with in the future. Just sixteen, Webb has taken his 80+ Amateur National titles to the Star/Valli Yamaha Team. They will take him through the end of his amateur career and into the professional ranks. I had the opportunity to sit down with Cooper at South of the Border MX and discuss his future.
Tell me how your ride with Star Yamaha came about?
My dad and I were sitting around one night, thinking about every situation possible. I texted a few of the people who have been good influences on me and they told me what they thought. I sat down with my dad, actually the day before we had called Bobby (Regan) and said that we were sorry but we were taking the KTM/Red Bull deal. The next day, I’m not sure if was a dream or what, it was actually Halloween time, but everything I saw that day was the color blue. I think it was a sign from God or something and Bobby was offering such a great opportunity and the chance to be on a factory team, for him to take me to the pros was a really big step. It was something the other offers were lacking and we just made the decision to go with Star/Valli team. We called him up and made it official that day. I’m stoked!
So you went to the Mini O’s and had some pretty good rides. How long had you been on the bike?
I went to Triangle Cycles the day after we agreed to the deal and they loaned me a new YZ250F. I loved it right from the beginning. We really didn’t make that many changes at all. It took a couple of weeks to get our bikes so we were kind of scrambling before the Mini O’s. I didn’t ride my race bikes till the Sunday before the Mini O’s, so that was kind of stressful, but they were really good bikes right out of the box so it really didn’t bother me too bad.
How was your race bike motor compared to a stocker?
The race bike is awesome! The whole Cosworth thing and Brad who built it, it’s a rocket ship, that’s for sure! Especially, I had never had a mod 250F, to get on a mod bike, it was really awesome! It was almost like I was looping out everywhere.
So in Supercross, you won every heat race you entered. You got good or OK starts and just went to the front. So tell me how you were feeling after the heat races.
They were awesome. I ended up going five for five for the first motos, which was really cool. I was gonna try to keep the ball rolling in the mains. I went out that morning and it was just a muddy mess. Had some bad luck, got taken out on the start, people fell in front of me and in the next three mains I fell in the first turn and just had crappy luck. I ended up getting the holeshot in the 250B mod and won that and in the 450 B mod I had to come from behind, but I ended up winning that too. I passed Bisceglia on the last lap in that one.
So going into outdoors, you were hot, kind of on a roll. How did outdoor practice go?
We made some changes to the bike for outdoors, I like both tracks. I really liked the Supercross. The outdoor track at Mini O’s is OK, it was better this year. I tried to start off like I did in Supercross and just got crappy starts outdoors all week and…bad gate picks. It started off rough and went to the second motos with, not the best scores coming in. I ended up winning one title outdoors, 450B stock I think. Outside of that I just got crappy starts and had a bunch of bad luck.
Overall the Mini O’s was really good. I ended up winning the Supercross 250B Olympiad and the Open B Olympiad. That was pretty cool. I got three more championships and a second.
Going into 2012 the question on everyone’s mind is what class are you going to ride? What is the plan?
I’m gonna definitely run B for the Spring Nationals and then, really just kinda see where I am and make a decision on Loretta’s. It is really up to me and Gary Bailey, Tim Cryster (my trainer), my team and my family. We’ll sit down after the spring races and make a decision based on what happens.
What about turning Pro for Supercross and the Outdoor Nationals?
Not too sure when I’m gonna go Pro.
So let me ask you a question. Let’s say you kill it in B, go to Loretta’s in A and you win, any chance we’ll see you riding the last four nationals? Are you prepared to make that decision this year, or even if you win, do you think you need another year?
It’s one of those things where if we all feel like I’m prepared, then we’ll do it. I definitely don’t want to go too early like some people do. But, if my good influences, my team and I call it, if they think it’s going to be beneficial, then we will do it. Just don’t want to go too early because that wouldn’t be good.
You were a part of Redbull’s program for a while. You also have some longtime relationships with Thor, Smith, Kenda, ICW, and a few others. What was it like to have to say goodbye to many of the guys who were instrumental to getting you to this point in your career?
It was tough to lose the longtime sponsors. They have gotten me to where I am now, especially Red Bull, ICW, and Thor and just all of those guys. They all really helped me out and it was tough to leave but it’s one of those things. It’s hard to continue your career and get to the next level without a pro team helping you out. It definitely was one of those things that sucked but it is just, you know, part of the process. They were all kinda bummed, but they all want what’s best for me too. In the end, I think they were all happy for me.
Competing at the level you plan to compete at this year is a huge undertaking. You can’t do it by yourself. Who is helping you out?
The Star/Valli Yamaha Team, Bobby Reagan owns the team, Brad builds the engines, Doug is the new team manager, just all the guys at Star/Valli. Gary Bailey has been helping me out since I was about nine. He wants to do everything he can for me. He wants me just focus on me for, hopefully, the rest of my career. He wants me to be his last project if you will. Donnie Luce and the Yamaha amateur program and Triangle Cycles, Rusty and Oneal have been there for me for most of my career. Ryan at South of the Border has been helping me in a bunch of ways. Just giving me an awesome place to ride and train has been a big help. I’ll have a bunch of new sponsors coming on board at the first of the year as well.
