Slaw
A wild night of racing at Round 2 of the SMX World Championship Playoffs spilled over into the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing pits, as cameras captured the tension between teammates Cooper Webb and Haiden Deegan.
It all stems from the closing moments of the second 450 main event. After Deegan went down in the sand, both Ken Roczen and Webb slipped past. A few moments later, Deegan caught back up to Webb and made an aggressive move that sent his teammate to the ground—and left Webb absolutely fuming.
Speaking on the TV broadcast after the race, Webb didn’t hold back, even vowing to make sure Deegan doesn’t win the SMX title at next weekend’s finale.
“I was pissed. It’s unfortunate. We are teammates, we are buddies, we are training partners and I am all for aggressive racing but I think a lack of respect from the kid is the common problem. He has no respect for anybody else. I’m bummed. I was rolling, he was obviously faster and made a mistake but still, I’m the guy at the end of the race and I’m just bummed. It’s one thing for the win…we will see what happens. One more race with this team and I will make sure he don’t win this thing that’s for sure. It will be an interesting week. I was a little bit off speed wise, I was a 4th/5th place guy. It will be a fun week.”
Cameras later captured a heated Webb heading into the team truck, while voices off camera could be heard shouting, “They’re fighting.”
What exactly happened inside the truck isn’t clear, but one thing certainly is: there is now some serious tension inside the Star Racing camp with one round remaining.
Get the popcorn. The finale could be an all-timer.
