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COPPINS IN POINTS AT GP:
Motocross hero Josh Coppins has bounced back into the world championship, and straight back into the points at the Italian Grand Prix.
In his comeback ride from major spinal and foot surgery the Kiwi-born star of the CAS Honda team flew to 15th place and bagged six points in the world’s premier racing category, Motocross GP.
Runner-up last year when it was called the 250 class, the 26-year-old gunned down several big names on his two-stroke CR250R in today’s blazing sun at Montevarchi in the heart of Tuscany.
It was an impressive return just four months after a horrifying crash in the USA and three months after his spine was fused, rocketing Coppins already to 25th place on the 35-place world ladder although he missed the opening quarter of the season.
But the expat New Zealander was dissatisfied, frustrated to be handicapped by injury and lack of race fitness.
“I missed the jump at the start which is usually my strong point, and I had to come back from about last at the first corner,” commented Coppins after the 40-minute grand prix.
“But whereas I expected to be fading during the race and trying to hold onto a placing, I actually picked up positions almost every lap.
“Right at the end I was on the tail of (former world champion) Jamie Dobb and I almost pipped him over the line,” said the man they call Lizzard.
Coppins admitted to injury problems during the race, but glossed over the effects.
“Of course I could feel my back and my feet, and especially this left ankle,” he noted. “But they didn’t really slow me up at all.
“I was more aware of the compensating tweaks, the other problems you feel because those things are not right … like my left knee is giving trouble now that I’m putting more pressure onto it.
“But overall it’s great to be back in GP racing and I’m working hard to get up to the front of the field again.”
Ironically Coppins’ comeback proved to be the nemesis event of his ex-teammate and old rival Mickael Pichon, who ran away with almost every race on the way to world titles the past two seasons, and who was challenged only by Coppins at the end of last year before the Kiwi’s crash.
In what will likely be remembered as an historic milestone the French rider was blown in fourth place today by the four-stroke bikes of Belgians Stefan Everts and Joel Smets and local hero Claudio Federici. He holds a slender seven-point lead in the world championship.
Everts, one of only two men ever to win six world titles and the first to spread them across all three classes, also contested today’s 125 Grand Prix … and picked up an easy victory.
Coppins’ widely-respected CAS Honda team from the UK put one rider into the top 10 today, Japanese Yoshi Atsuta pushing his four-stroke CRF450R to eighth spot and ninth in the championship.
Top-rated teammate Gordon Crockard, the Irishman who has battled Coppins at the front of the 250 class in the past, pulled out with the pain of a finger broken at last weekend’s British championship event but retains 7th in the title chase on his CRF450R.
Coppins aims to improve his form at round five of the championship in the eastern European nation of Bulgaria next weekend.
Ian Miles
Josh’s Manager
Read the MXLarge.com report.
