Cooper Webb left Los Angeles angry and said he will try to keep teammate Haiden Deegan from winning the SuperMotocross title after the pair came together at Dignity Health Sports Park in California. Webb, who finished one place behind Deegan, said the incident turned a race for third into a promise to spoil his own teammate’s title run.
That matters now because the championship goes to a triple-points finale, and Webb is still only 20 points from the lead. Jorge Prado heads to Missouri on 92 points, with Hunter Lawrence and Deegan 16 points back and Ken Roczen another two behind, so the front of the standings remains tight enough for one result to reshape everything.
The clash itself was messy. Deegan admitted he had ridden Webb “a little dirty” and apologized, saying he was desperate to secure every position in the three-round championship. Webb did not hide his frustration. “I was pissed,” he said, adding that he felt good and was rolling before Deegan attacked up the inside at the end of the next rhythm lane and the teammates came together. Webb said Deegan had “no respect for anybody else” and made clear the finish line did not end the dispute.
Deegan’s race had already been complicated earlier, when he fell in the sand and Ken Roczen made contact with him. Deegan later complained that “some goon” had hammered his hand, while Webb’s anger only hardened into something more public after the checkered flag. “I got one more race with this team and I’ll make hell sure he don’t win this thing,” Webb said, before adding that it would be an interesting week. That is the tension going into the finale: the teammates are also buddies and training partners, but the title race has pushed their relationship into open conflict.
On the day itself, track staff repeatedly watered the dirt all day, and the surface became fast and largely one-line, which made passing hard and mistakes costly. Hunter Lawrence charged toward a dominant second-moto victory, while Prado secured the overall with a 2-2 scorecard. Deegan finished fourth overall with 3-3, and Webb ended up fifth with 5-5. In 250SMX, Julien Beaumer converted two holeshots into the round victory, Levi Kitchen kept the championship lead, Kayden Minear went 5-8 for fifth overall and climbed to fourth in the standings, and Cole Davies showed front-running speed before crashing in both motos. With triple points still ahead, Webb’s vow is not just emotion from one post-race interview. It is a warning that the final round could be shaped as much by allegiance and anger as by lap times.
