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COPPINS RIDES AUSTRIA:
Motocross ace Josh Coppins continues his climb back to the top of world motocross this weekend when he races the Grand Prix of Austria.
The 26-year-old expat Kiwi heads to the Karntenring near St Veit, in the deep south-east of the country, ready for his third race since returning from horror injuries.
“It’s all about getting back into race fitness and picking up the pace,” said the star of the UK’s CAS Honda team.
“Unfortunately my preparation has been hampered in the fortnight since the last GP by a leg problem, Coppins explained. “I picked up a bit of an infection, it’s really a side-product of the earlier injuries.”
Coppins had foot and ankle surgery as well as fusion on a broken back after a huge crash in the USA in January, but startled pundits when he flew to 15th spot in his first grand prix of the year in Italy last month.
Runner-up in the world’s glamour class last year, the laidback pro had been predicted to struggle on his return to this season’s hard-fought Motocross GP ranks.
But his promising comeback was short-lived. Targetting a top-ten spot in his next event in Bulgaria two weeks ago, Coppins was taken down by another rider soon after the start and struggled through to 17th spot.
“I’m looking to Austria to make amends,” commented the rider nicknamed Lizzard. “It’s a flat, grassy circuit similar to the ones I started on as a youngster.
“My support from Honda and the CAS team has been mega and the bike is in top order, I’m keen to take every opportunity that comes my way in the race.”
Any hope of a top championship placing is gone after Coppins missed the first races of the 12-round series he is currently 24th on the ladder - but after this weekend he has the second half of the season to regain the podium as a springboard to a 2004 title challenge.
That’s six events to re-learn his racecraft and also gain the psychological edge which decides titles.
Coppins’ absence has robbed fans of a Honda dimension in the fascinating duel between two-strokes and four-strokes at the top of world racing.
This year’s adoption of the Motocross GP class sees the 250 two-stroke, which Coppins has ridden since coming to the Europe-based championship nine years ago, confronted by the booming four-stroke of 450cc.
First blood went to the 250, with Coppins’ old rival and former teammate Mickael Pichon continuing the domination which swept him to the title the past two years.
Then the controversial Frenchman slipped to fourth at the latest two races and in the absence of Coppins no other two-strokes could foot it: six-times world champ Stefan Everts cleaned up on the 450 in Italy and Bulgaria with fellow Belgian Joel Smets, four-time world champion, second both times.
Opinion is divided on whether Pichon can come back this weekend or he has met his nemesis. For a mid-season grand prix, Austria has never been more important.
It is important in Coppins’ CAS Honda camp as well. He is the only team member on the very special HRC CR250R machine but the squad furnishes two riders with the four-stroke CRF450R.
Japanese ace Yoshi Atsuta managed 10th place in Bulgaria but is still overcoming a persistent knee injury while highly-rated Irishman Gordon Crockard, third in the championship two years ago, hopes to return after a badly broken finger kept him out of the last GP.
Flying Finn Jussi Vehvilainen, the fourth team member, is still out of the 650 class with a back injury.
Austria marks the first grand prix since the horrific crash of Pit Beirer and the thoughts of many in the championship fraternity will turn to the German, a fixture on the scene for more than a decade.
The hard-charging pro racer, who has finished as high as world runner-up, is still in a medically-induced coma in a German hospital. He is known to have severed his spinal cord in the high-speed fall in Bulgaria.
He was a teammate of Coppins in Italy last year. Beirer and his wife had their first child a few months ago.
Round seven of the championship is in Sweden a fortnight after Austria. On the intervening weekend Coppins races a round of the British championship at the Isle of Wight.
Motocross GP World Championship standings after five of 12 rounds:
1 Mickael Pichon (France) Suzuki 111 points; 2 Joel Smets (Belgium) KTM 108; 3 Stefan Everts (Belgium) Yamaha 100; 4 Brian Jorgensen (Denmark) Honda 67, 5 Claudio Federici (Italy) Yamaha 64, 6 Kenneth Gundersen (Norway) Kawasaki 63, 7 Andrew McFarlane (Australia) Kawasaki 55, 8 Yoshitaka Atsuta (Japan) CAS Honda 49, 9 Kevin Strijbos (Belgium) Suzuki 46, 10 Gordon Crockard (Ireland) CAS Honda 40. 24 Josh Coppins (New Zealand) CAS Honda 10.
Ian Miles
Josh’s Manager
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