Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 8 / FEBRUARY 23, 2019 FORD FIELD / DETROIT, MICHIGAN P58 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS iii My Own Race: 2 COOPER WEBB 2ND (6-2-1) 450SX "It was a tougher day, for sure," Cooper Webb said. "I mean, everybody's very close in practice, but it was more of a struggle for me today, and I knew going into the mains from practice, you want the best gate pick you can get. So, I would've liked to have qualified a little better, but I was just struggling a little bit. I was mess- ing around with the bike a lot and not really getting anywhere, so after the first main event, I kind of went back to what I knew and was able to ride it, and I got a holeshot, which made my life easy, and Eli [Tomac] got around me, but it was good to at least ride with him, because he was obviously the best guy today, by far. But the last main event, it was good to get a good start, make some passes, and run up there and get a main-event win, or whatever you want to call it, so I was pumped to get better and still be up here on the podium with a second. It shows me I've got plenty of work to do to keep it going." Webb also seemed to get better as the whoops broke down throughout the night. "We were kind of making changes that didn't suit them as well," Webb said. "I think the last main, going back to the base [settings], seemed to be a lot better, but they were a little weird. They were probably one of the bigger sets this year, but they were really uneven, so it was tough to get a good rhythm, and actually when Eli passed me in the second one, I kind of saw how he was able to get on them and doing them, so I was able to get better, actually, once he got around me and I was able to see what I needed to fix." 22 CHAD REED 3RD (3-5-7) 450SX Chad Reed, at almost 37 years of age, gave the JGR team its first podium finish since 2015. "It was a fun day," Reed said. "Right from the beginning, I felt okay. For me, it's not always about where you're at in practice. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see myself up there in the top 10 in practice, but I don't ever get too stressed on being 14th. It definitely gets old. I just felt racy. I felt like with a good start I could go. It was fun. The track was challenging tonight. It was fast-paced, the whoops were tough, so, yeah, it suited me tonight." 94 KEN ROCZEN 4TH (5-6-5) 450SX "I'm glad tonight is over," said Ken Roczen. "We were just one point away from another podium, so that sucks but overall I'm still happy. I've been fighting the flu all week, so my body didn't feel up to par tonight. My focus the entire night just wasn't there, and I was uncomfortable. I just wanted to minimize the damage, and I think we did that with a fourth. We're still second in the championship and only six points out of the lead." 51 JUSTIN BARCIA 7TH (10-7-3) 450SX "It was another crazy night of racing for me in Detroit," said Justin Barcia (Monster Energy Yamaha). "The track was really good. It had a lot of option sections and I felt like my bike was working good in the whoops. The first two races for me were not great with arm pump I dealt with, but the last race was a step in the right direc- tion. I led some laps and put in a pretty good ride with a little bit of arm pump. My starts have definitely been getting better, so things are definitely starting to come around. So all in all, it was a decent weekend." 28 JORDON SMITH 2ND (2-2-4) 250SX EAST Jordon Smith is fighting a wrist injury that he suffered in the waning laps a week ago in Arlington and was happy to salvage second place on the night after working with his team to find a chassis setting that was easy on his injured wrist. "We just didn't want to make it [his forks] too harsh in the initial part [of the stroke] just to give that good feeling for the wrist," Smith said. "So, in our decisions, we just kept that in mind to try to get it through the night as good as possible. When I rode on Thursday back at MTF, I wasn't even sure I could make it through the whole day or not, because I only made it through one 10-minute moto. So, it was a tough night show, but I made it through it and salvaged good points, and that's all I could ask for tonight."

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