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CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 56 ISSUE 13 APRIL 2, 2019 P61 really pushing hard behind me, and obviously, Cooper is very aggressive, and he pushed me off the track, so I lost some time. But I showed some good speed, and in the Triple Crown, you've got to be consistent for three main events, and unfortunately, it's not always the fastest guy out there that wins the overall. You can be the fastest, but if you make a mistake, you can't make up points. I did a clean pass; I never touched Cooper, but we'll see what happens in the next few rounds. But it's definitely not my intention to do stuff like that. He's my competition, but also my team- mate. We'll see how racing goes, you know?" Webb seemed apologetic afterward. "It gets intense, and we were definitely aggressive racing, and I got frustrated and let it affect that," Webb said. "That's not the way to do it, for sure. I think we let Ken [Roc- zen] obviously get away, and the guys catch us, so I'll learn from it, for sure, and try to contain the emotions a bit better. We are teammates and train- ing partners, but we are one and two in the championship, so it's a tough line. But I know I made mistakes and got a little frustrated, and I'll learn from it and try to be better, for sure, moving forward." PIPE BURNS Cooper Webb had a pretty big crash in practice that resulted in his bike being stuck on top of him. He suf- fered some burns on his leg when his exhaust burned through his pants. "It's obviously all good," Webb said. "Crashes happen. It's fortunate that it wasn't worse, but it was fine." TRIPLE CROWN POPULARITY Most of the racers who were on the podium in Houston, in both classes, seemed to have favorable things to say about the Triple Crown format, but not Dean Wilson, despite his suc- cess at the event. "I'm outnumbered here, but I'm still saying that I don't really like them," Wilson said. "My reason is that I just think it's more of a risk factor, but at the same time, you can have a bad race and have two really good motos and bring it back. I think with Adam [Cianciarulo] tonight, he really salvaged some points, be- cause if it were a single main event, that wouldn't have been good. If we stick with just having three of them, that'll be just fine." RACING SMART Cooper Webb doesn't like to lose to anybody at any time, but in Houston, he knew he didn't have to chase down Eli Tomac late in the main event to come away with the win, so he didn't push to do it. "You never want to let someone get you, but I could tell he was all over me and moving forward, and Marv [Musquin] was pulling away, so we were in a good position, and it was good to kind of know where you're at, but you never want to settle and let somebody go," Webb said. "Once he got around me, I tried to latch on, and he had some good laps, but it kind of clicked, and I knew I was in a good situation, so I just kind of hung out." RACING THROUGH PAIN Jimmy Decotis (JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki) had a big crash in practice in Houston and was almost forced to sit the races out, but he relied on adrena- line to line up for the first main event. He ran up front but faded as the reality of his pain set in. Still, he managed fifth overall with a 6-5-6 score. Briefly... RJ Hampshire (31) returned to the podium with a second-place finish.

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