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Motocrosser Josh Coppins is back in the world championship fray this weekend, looking to continue his climb in the title rankings at the German Grand Prix.
Round six of the season takes the riders to Teutschenthal near Liepzig in the eastern part of the country behind the old iron curtain.
“It’s a great track out here, one of my favourites in the entire championship,” said expat Kiwi Coppins.
“I’ve had a pretty tough start to the season with bike problems and a few other things going wrong … it’s time to get back on track.”
The 24-year-old star of the Corona Suzuki factory team has soldiered through to third equal in the 250 title hunt, level pegging with the Yamaha of the German who kept him to fourth last year, Pit Beirer.
Coppins’ Suzuki teammate Mickael Pichon of France is well ahead with Irish Honda star Gordon Crockard enjoying a flying start to the season in second spot.
Motueka-born Coppins has identified these mid stages of the 14-round series as the time to make progress.
“It starts getting hard now, with most riders carrying the odd injury and the guys who had a good run early on starting to strike problems,” he said.
“Now we’ll start to see who has done the work during the off-season and who can adapt to changing situations.”
Meanwhile Coppins’ young protégé Ben Townley looks to continue his attention-grabbing start to the 125 championship.
His Phase Suzuki team, coming through some off-track strife, is on home turf in Germany and needs its surprise young star to shine.
Coming off a stunning 10th place last GP a fortnight ago, the Taupo-born ex-Kiwi is as cool as ever in his approach.
“It’s just the same as usual,” commented Townley. “Get to the GP, make sure I qualify, and take the race as it comes.”
The GP races are held Sunday afternoon German time.
