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Of course, the Lawrence brothers’ championship showdown stole the spotlight at the Pro Motocross finale at Ironman. But there were plenty of other storylines to follow.
Jorge Prado finally won on American soil. Julien Beaumer ended the season with a win, which moved him to second in the championship. And, as we found out on Monday, Eli Tomac has raced his final Pro Motocross race, as he’s calling it career after the SMX Playoffs.
Somewhere beneath all of that was Cooper Webb.
In what will likely be his final Pro Motocross race—he’s not retiring, just moving to a Supercross-only deal for 2027 and beyond—Webb found some of his old outdoor magic and rode to a third-place finish. It was not only his first overall podium of the season, but his first since Thunder Valley in 2023.
While he even admitted success in Pro Motocross on the 450 wasn’t what he expected, he was a 250 National Champion and achieved a lot during his time outdoors. While we’ll mostly recognize Webb as a Supercross guy—his three 450 titles speak to that—he was fast outdoors.
Of course, Webb’s biggest headline from the weekend came with his decision to step up for Team USA at the Motocross of Nations in October. After other riders or teams decided not to attend, Webb was there to answer the call. But that’s Cooper Webb. Always up for a challenge. Always punching above his weight.
So, while we continue to argue about Ironman, lets take a moment to cherish Webb’s Pro Motocross career. Here’s what he had to say after the race.
Your final Pro Motocross race and to end on the podium, not to mention heading into being the team captain of Team USA. You’ve got to be pretty stoked on this whole situation.
Cooper Webb: It’s an incredible day. Really is just incredible weekend with the USA stuff and it was emotional day being my last ever National and just had an awesome day across the board. Qualifying. Moto 1 was crazy. I led a lap, which was awesome for me. And then I made a last turn pass for third. That was sick. And then dug deep the last one. All the good guys were up there, so just tried to put myself in a position to somewhat hopefully be up here, but a little bit of luck went my way that second one and the math worked out. But my goal was to get a top-five, so I just was so happy to be on the podium.
You mentioned the emotions of racing your last outdoor National today. How many great memories from years past, such as your 250 MX title, your 450 one years ago, how many of those memories came flooding back today when you realized, wait a second, this is the last one?
A lot of them. It’s mainly the fans that I’ll miss. Like anything, I would’ve loved to achieve more in my 450 career, but I had a heck of a 250 run. National champion, a lot of race wins, a lot of podiums. And then yeah, I won one 450 National, went 1-1 that day. That was awesome. And then I think today is my eighth outdoor 450 podium. So, it’s something. Like I said, I wish I did more, but yeah, the 2016 Coop was a bad dude. That was a fun year. And then, winning that 450 1-1, that was an incredible day. It’s been a long time since that happened. Today honestly ranks up there too because I didn’t think I’d be in this position at all today.
I’ve asked you a few times this summer if you’re enjoying it and you’ve said you’ve really enjoyed the process of the final Pro Motocross season. Has there been any moment at all where you’re like, “Ah, should I do one more of these?” And touching on that, Motocross of Nations will actually get to be your final pro motocross race. And how does that feel to cap it with that?
We will get one more. So, honestly, no. Even that last moto when I was suffering and just trying to stay in a position to get a podium and battling with RJ [Hampshire] and Eli [Tomac], I’m like, “Golly, this is so much harder than it used to be.” So just time. I’m 30 and the body is still good, but it’s just a lot. The outdoors are so gnarly. It’s the speeds and the riders are so good now that, it’s so competitive. I’m happy that I made it through the full summer. That was a big goal for me to do every round and I did that and a bunch of ups and downs, but I made it through. This is a dream ending for sure. I put myself in a position to go represent the country next week. So we got one more day of moto, I guess.
This isn’t your final motocross race. That’s actually in October. However, I do have a hypothetical for you. We see a lot of guys that are Supercross only. They come back, they do a couple rounds to get some points for SMX. Is there any way that we see you jump in for a round or two next summer?
I’ll never say never, but we’ll see. We got an interesting schedule next year. I’ve committed to doing Supercross in the US and World Supercross, but you never know. Never say never. Right this second, probably not, but I’ll never rule it out. I think you see it with Kenny [Roczen] a lot where he’ll do one, or some of the guys, and maybe I’ll do one that’s a track I enjoy or something like that. But hopefully not having to make it for SMX. Hopefully we do our job in Supercross and we’re all settled in there.
With SMX in mind, how important or is this important, this podium, heading into those last three races? They’re going to be kind of supercrossy. Is that going to play into your favor?
Today doesn’t really matter for SMX. We actually rode it this week and I’m excited to get back on Supercross-style and I already knew I’d be a lot stronger in the SMX just based off Supercross. I honestly think I can do really good in SMX this year. I think there’s chances at being on the podium again and maybe going in third this year I think is great. So yeah, I think I can surprise a lot of people, especially with it being more supercrossy this year.
With your time off for next year in the summertime, have you bought a beach house? Have you bought a boat? What’s on this cards for you?
That’s a good question. I’ve got three daughters, so I’m sure they’ll be busy there, but we’re going to do some fun stuff. I think it’ll be really cool to do Supercross and then I’ll still be racing World Supercross. Be able to unwind, probably do some YouTube, influencer life stuff, go see some people and do a lot of things that I’ve just never got to do in the summer. Vacations and just cool stuff. Go ride my dirt bike, but do it for fun. Not saying this isn’t fun, but a different kind of fun for sure.
Photos: octopi.media
