Cooper Webb is indomitable. Poor qualifying results, bad starts, tough days at the beginning of the season, it seems like nothing can stop this guy from putting himself in the championship fight. The Red Bull KTM Factory pilot is a fighter to his very core. Since his switch to the Austrian brand, you can pretty much count on the fact that he’ll eventually be right in the mix for the championship points lead.
2021 started out relatively slow for Webb, but a win last weekend revitalised his season. And despite a rough start in Indy on Saturday Cooper somehow managed to find himself on the box when all was said and done.
‘‘I actually nailed my start but Savatgy came out like a rocket ship and then braked super gnarly, so I got hung up with him. The leaders just got out front and they rode awesome. I got buried in fifth and it was really hard to make passes tonight, so I had to be patient and wait for some mistakes.’ Said Cooper on the box.
‘‘I ended up getting around Joey (Savatgy) and then Dylan (Ferranids) made a mistake. I saw AC went down as well, which gave me a shot at the podium.’’
Cooper quickly caught the rear wheel of Adam Cianciarulo’s factory Kawasaki, which re-ignited a war that has been raging since their supermini days, ‘‘Me and AC had a good battle at the end, and I was able to get that third place. You just can’t give Ken or Eli that type of track position. We saw what they did tonight. I saw who was out front on the first lap and thought ‘sh*t!’ I just took a deep breath and put my head down…’’
Despite the field being so close in terms of speed this season, we have already seen three guys emerge early as the clear championship protagonists. Cooper Webb would agree, ‘‘I think tonight showed that there are three of us that are fighting hard, and there are a lot of other contenders too. You’ve got to maximise opportunities all year. There are going to be bad races, there’s going to be good ones, so putting yourself in a good position each weekend is going to be important. It’s going to be tight, so consistency is going to be super important.’’
The relentless Cooper Webb sits second in the points chase and will look to climb one spot higher when racing returns to Indy on Tuesday.
