Consistency pays for Cooper Webb at Houston AMA Supercross

Yamaha’s Cooper Webb took the overall win at the Houston AMA Supercross round, despite not winning any of the three race .

Webb started sixth in the first race, but made his way quietly up to fourth, passing Jorge Prado and Jason Anderson, and benefitting from a Hunter Lawrence crash, although he was passed by a charging Eli Tomac.

KTM’s Tomac had been the fastest rider in qualifying and seemed to carry that speed into the night show, but bad starts meant he had to cut through the pack in both of the first two races. That resulted in a third place in Race 1, but the second race saw him crash after climbing up to fourth. It seemed Tomac hit neutral in a transition towards the end of the track’s longest rhythm section and the result was him falling forwards off the next jump and cartwheeling with the bike as they hit the ground out of control.

Tomac was able to remount and finish the second race 13th, but even a win in the final race wasn’t enough then to keep him in podium contention, but a fourth place on the night meant he made ground in the points over Chase Sexton, who had a muted night, going 2-9-6 (including a second-race crash in the final corner) for fifth.

As for Webb, he took second in Race 2, finishing behind Lawrence after they both passed the holeshotting Jorge Prado. 

In Race 3, Webb hit Joey Savatgy on the take-off of the finish jump on the first lap and was fortunate not to be landed on when he came up hugely short on the landing. The Yamaha rider recovered, though, finishing third after a lengthy battle with Ken Roczen towards the end.

Roczen himself was one of the fastest riders on the night and took the victory in the first race, holding Sexton at bay for the majority of the 12 minutes. Race 2 saw a bad start for the Suzuki rider, but he was able to get back to fifth; before, in Race 3, a number of mistakes prevented him from getting close enough to make an impression on Webb in the closing stages in what was the battle for the overall victory.

Had Roczen made the pass, he’d have won the overall, but failing to pass Webb left him third, behind Webb and Lawrence, the Australian recovering after his Race 1 crash to take his first win in a 450SX Triple Crown race in the second moto before finishing second in Race 3 to secure the middle step on the overall podium. 

Lawrence’s P2 overall finish is his third in succession and leaves him now four points behind Tomac at the top of the championship. Roczen is a further eight points off the points lead in third, while Sexton is one point further away (14) than he was after his Anaheim 2 win a week ago. Webb’s victory moves him to within 17 points of the championship lead.

250SX: Deegan sweeps

In the 250SX West class, Haiden Deegan completed a straightforward sweep of the first Triple Crown of the season.

The first race was as simple as it gets for the reigning champion, holeshotting and immediately checking out. 

In the second race, Deegan started third, behind the two Pro Circuit Kawasakis; by the time he passed Cameron McAdoo for second Levi Kitchen was around three seconds clear. Deegan closed that gap down by the end and made a clean enough block pass on Kitchen to take his second win of the night.

Max Vohland made the holeshot in Race 3, with Max Anstie second. Deegan was attacked by Kitchen in the turn after the finish on the first lap, but rebuffed that and quickly set about moving into the lead, passing Anstie and then Vohland with relative ease.

Anstie also passed Vohland, and began closing on Deegan at the end, but not enough to force an error or to try to make a pass on his teammate, who completed a perfect 1-1-1 in Houston.

Anstie’s second place in the final race was a big improvement on his first two races, which featured a crash in Race 1 and an 11th-place finish, and a sixth place in Race 2. The British rider ended up sixth overall, two places behind Vohland who went 5-4-6 on the night for fourth overall.

Kitchen went 2-2-3 to take second, while McAdoo completed the podium with 3-3-4 scores.

Ryder DiFrancesco took a stealthy fifth place with 6-5-5 finishes, and Michael Mosiman took eighth after a crash on the first lap of Race 2 left him down in 14th at the finish.

The Houston results mean Deegan, winner of the last three races in a row now, is 19 points clear at the top of the table. Anstie leads the pack behind him, one point ahead of Mosiman, who in turn is one point ahead of DiFrancesco.