Coppins Fizzing for the Re-Start

Coppins Fizzing for the Re-Start

Andy McGechan

JUNE 25, 2012: It is just a few days’ time the Australian Motocross Championships resume after a mid-season interval and Kiwi Josh Coppins is one rider who can’t wait to get back into gear.

The former motocross Grand Prix star – currently in the United Kingdom on a sabbatical – is leading the Pro Open Class across the Tasman after five of 10 rounds, happy to have a 21-point advantage at the halfway stage as the series shut down for a mid-calendar respite.

The CDR Yamaha ace has been “Mister Consistency” throughout the first half of his Australian campaign – finishing inside the top 10 in every single race thus far – and he heads to round six at Hervey Bay, in Queensland, on Sunday (July 1) in a confident mood.

Motueka-based Coppins said he “didn’t feel good” at the last round – at Murray Bridge, South Australia, on May 20 – but he has been hard at work over the intervening weeks and says he will again be strong at Hervey Bay.

“I had a coming together on the track with (Australian rival) Jake Moss in the third race at Murray Bridge and my bike was damaged. I managed to salvage some points by nursing it home for an eighth place finish.”

That was enough for Coppins to maintain his stranglehold on the series lead, although he lost some ground. He had been 42 points in front after round four and he is thankful at least that he remains comfortably in charge with five rounds to go.

“I think I got the jump on my rivals in Australia because I was able to continue my good form after the New Zealand nationals (which had wrapped up just two weeks before his Australian campaign launched on April 1).

“But 21 points is not really too much of an advantage. That can disappear very quickly. I can take nothing for granted.”

Coppins knows he can expect a hot time in Hervey Bay with a tight bunch of very talented riders all nipping at his heels.

Australian stars Todd Waters, Lawson Bopping and Tye Simmonds, British ace Brad Anderson and fellow Kiwi Cody Cooper, of Mount Maunganui, are all within strike range for Coppins, although the Yamaha man’s nearly 20 years of Grand Prix experience give him a distinct edge.

ends

© Scoop Media