Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper earns valuable points with a 3-7 moto score to finish fifth overall and maintain third in the 450MX Championship
MARIETTA, Ga. – July 21, 2024 – Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Justin Cooper scored another top-five overall finish in the tricky conditions at the Washougal MX Park. After scoring his sixth moto podium of the season, the New Yorker came back to finish seventh in Moto 2, scoring valuable points for the overall result and maintaining third in the Pro Motocross 450MX Championship.
Despite all of the chaos with travel interruptions brought about by the global IT outage, it was a smooth start on race day for Cooper at the eighth round of the championship in Washougal, Washington. He qualified third and then got a great start in the opening 450 moto and rode a strong pace in the runner-up position. Before the halfway point on the clock, he was passed and then shuffled to fourth shortly after. The New Yorker continued to ride his own race in the tricky conditions and when a rider ahead went down, he advanced back into third, where he would finish to score his sixth premier class podium.
In the second moto, Cooper got another great start to take his fifth holeshot of the season. He was shuffled to third on the opening lap and then to fourth in the heat of the multi-rider battle. Unfortunately on the second lap, he had a big crash and rejoined in 13th. Undeterred, he put his head down and made his way to seventh. The rookie did what he could to close the sizeable gap to sixth, but ultimately would have to settle for seventh to secure a top-five overall finish and maintain third in the points standings with his 3-7 score
The Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team returns to action on August 10 as racing resumes at the Unadilla National, Round 9 of Pro Motocross and Round 26 of the SuperMotocross World Series, at Unadilla MX in New Berlin, New York.
Jeremy Coker – Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 450 Team Manager
“All in all, it was a good day, especially with how the weekend started with all the crazy travel delays. Justin had a good first moto and two amazing starts, we’ve just got to work a little bit on a few things. It’s a learning year for the rookie. We’ll have a little bit of a recovery these next couple of weeks, and come back stronger at Unadilla.”
Justin Cooper – Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing #32
“The day started out well. I was third in qualifying and had a really good first moto. I started second and eventually finished third, but rode pretty strong in that whole first moto. In the second moto, I got off to another good start and then crashed on the second or third lap, and just kind of rode it on home from there. It was definitely a hard day and I ran out of steam once I got going again. So yeah, it was a tough day overall but we’ll build and learn from it.”
2024 Pro Motocross 450MX Washougal Results
2024 Pro Motocross 450MX Championship Standings
