Cooper Recoups Losses on Start to Take Podium Finish, Teammate Oldenburg Right Behind in Fourth

Tonight was a great step. The guys were solid right off the bat in qualifying and nailed their starts in the heat races, which we have been working on, and it paid off tonight. In the main Mitch just barely missed the podium after Justin’s late charge after starting from around 17th on the first lap. We’re going to spend the time during the break to keep our forward momentum rolling.

It was a hard fight all night, honestly. I had to work for the heat win and then main event time, I got a really good start and was just leaning in to the inside and everyone came in and kind of pushed me wide. I had to go off the track and it put me way back. Honestly, it was a pretty crappy feeling going around the first lap in 19th; looking over and seeing those guys already two straightaways ahead. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me, so I just put my head down and made some quick passes.“I think I was up to seventh or eighth… I had raced with so much energy getting to that point and trying to make quick passes that I kind of hit a wall and was like, ‘Wow. I got to breathe a little bit and regroup.’ That’s kind of what did it. I kind of got a second wind towards the end and felt really good. I felt like I was back on pace and just making up a lot of time. I was keeping an eye on third. I didn’t even know if it was going to happen, but was I able to get in position to make a pass last lap for third. It was a good night for me. Good learning, good building, good progress. So I can’t complain. It just would have been nice to get away clean in that firs turn in that top three to see what we could have done towards the end of the race when those guys were getting a little tired.

It was a crazy week for me. My wife went into labor Thursday morning at 1:00 a.m. a month early, so it has been a pretty stressful and a scary last couple days, but baby and mama are healthy and doing good. It was pretty hard to leave them to come to race this week. It was hard to get my head straight and to get back in race mode and ride my dirt bike. “We had a decent day overall. The main event was good until the last four laps. I had no idea Justin was coming and kind of just checked out mentally and let it go. We live and we learn. I’m not going to let that happen again. We’ll keep working on our progress in the next couple weeks and come into Nashville swinging.