Salt Lake City SX II: Webb had Roczen ‘beat in Daytona’

Newly-crowned Monster Energy Supercross king Cooper Webb believes the championship turning point came at the Daytona round and it was in Florida that he broke Ken Roczen.

Webb finished the season with a win while Honda’s Roczen scraped into the top ten, 22 seconds behind the Red Bull KTM rider who claimed an eventual points gap of 35 after 17 rounds.

“All week it’s so easy to think about the what if’s, don’t to this, don’t do that. I was in a great situation with a nice points gap coming in, I think it was 19th or better if Kenny won, so unless something catastrophic happened I had a really good cushion,” Webb said, speaking at the track.

“I wanted to end the season on a high. I felt like in 2019 I won my championship and my nerves were high, I was stressed out. I learned from that and wanted to have fun throughout the day and enjoy it. It’s not every day you get to win a 450 championship, so I wanted to enjoy the little things.

Webb believes the momentum shifted to him when the series landed in Florida as he took his second and third wins of the yeart in Orlando.

“I think in Orlando was the beginning of it, but I think Daytona stamped it. Seeing the emotions that went into that, I kind of knew right then and there, that I got this guy [Roczen] beat. Obviously anything can happen.

“The mental side is the biggest part of our sport, in my opinion, so when I saw how things went down there, when I saw his reaction, I kind of knew in my head. I was right where I need to be, right in the thick of points, I was hitting my stride, and I was getting my confidence.

“I knew from there it was going to be a fight, it was going to be tough, but I felt like the momentum shifted there. It was like, ‘I’ve had this feeling before, let’s go for it again.’”