It is certainly been an exciting late summer season for New York native Justin Cooper. First he nails the Nicky Hayden AMA Horizon Award with his dominating wins at Loretta Lynn’s as he wraps up his amateur motocross career. Just after that he enters his first Pro Motocross Nationwide (Unadilla) and takes a solid 5th overall in the 250 class. And that fifth overall included finishing a very strong 2 nd in moto 2! Cooper might continue on finishing 11 th overall at both Budds Creek, and Ironman. As a final 2017 racing wrap up he got a very solid first moto 7 th at the very hot and humid USGP. In the process of finishing 8 th in that first moto he defeat several previous MXGP MX2 course winners! Although a DNF within moto two would end their day in Florida, Justin had been still upbeat about his incredible summer, and looking forward to 2018.
Words by Jim Kimball
Photos by Scott Mallonee
JUSTIN YOU HAVE TURNED HEADS SINCE MOVING UP TO THE PRO CLASS; IS ANY OF THIS A SURPRISE TO YOU? I had such an awesome year in amateurs. I pretty much won everything that I raced. I absolutely put my head down this year, which was the year I had to do it. Since I did well at Loretta’s, I actually came out of there with a lot of self-confidence, and moved right into Nationals to get my feet wet. I got over the podium at the first round (Unadilla) that I raced. That was definitely was obviously a boost, and I couldn’t even think that I would get up there during my 1st few races as a pro. Since then, I have been doing my greatest, and trying to stay consistently within the top ten
THE PARTICULAR TEAM YOU WILL BE RACING FOR CELEBRITY YAMAHA HAS DEFINITELY BECOME A LEADING 250 TEAM. Yes, they will definitely are the premier Team for the 250’s and probably one of the best teams out there period. I am glad to become a part of this team. Everyone treats me well here, and I anticipate the future.
MOST LIKELY A STEREOTYPICAL QUESTION, WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGE FROM THE AMATEURS TOWARDS THE PROS? It’s been just everything really; it truly is all different. Everything is bigger, and much more competitive. You can find more media, more fans, and everything like that, but you just have to get it like any other race, as in amateurs. You try to focus on your race and doing the best you can, and never letting all of he spectacle be able to you.
JUST HOW DID YOU END UP IN FLORIDA RACING THE USGP? The group just invited me, and I figured it would be another race for me to move out there and learn. It is a pretty big pro event, so I just desired to race everything I could this year, prior to I had to go into the off-season, and into Supercross.
I AM ASSUMING THAT YOU PROBABLY ALREADY DID THE ARENACROSS ROAD TO SUPERCROSS, AND WILL BE LINING UP FOR 2018 SUPERCROSS? Indeed, I did that this year, and I ended up winning the Lights Championship to the East Coast, so I definitely obtained my Supercross experience I would say. I am ready to move into that.
HOW IS IT BEEN LINING UP TO RIDERS YOU MOST LIKELY LOOKED UP TOO AS AN NOVICE? I definitely looked as much as many of them, but once you are racing them, there is no more looking up to them; you wish to beat them. They are the competition so you do not really look at them exactly the same. You want to go out there, and get aggressive with them if you are competitive. You want to be the best, and that is how it works. Basically the people you looked up to become your competitors at this point.
TODAY WITH 2017 WINDING DOWN, SO WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED? Basically just focusing on Supercross training. But first I am going to go back home now for a couple of weeks and have a rest. I have been at it for the whole year, so this is the off season now and I am going to go back and take it easy for a little bit and then we will start getting into Supercross training.
MANY ON YOUR TEAM TRAINS WITH GARETH SWANEPOEL; PERHAPS YOU HAVE STARTED TRAINING WITH HIM AS WELL? Yes, I signed up with him about a month before Loretta’s. Basically, its been going on around three months now, and he has been excellent to me. It is awesome riding using of my teammates, even Cooper Webb. They are good training partners for sure.
SHALL YOU BE A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER IN YOUR FIRST TRUE ROOKIE YEAR? I am not going to get too ahead of personally, but the goal for next year would be to look at the podium. I want to try to get up there a couple of times and still get my feet wet in my rookie period. Hopefully I’ll play it clever and see how it goes.
