    |
 |
|
|
|
Photo - #11 Tony Cooksley:
Photo courtesy of Andy McGechan:
Email Andy: He may have a photo of you in his extensive files?
You will have read Tony Had A Birthday:
Now Yamaha have decided to make this Press release.
Yamaha ace Tony Cooksley has been racing dirt bikes for as long as he can remember and, though he celebrated his 49th birthday last week, he has no plans to hang up his helmet in the very near future. And why should he?
“I started racing in about 1974,” said the Yamaha stalwart. He's bought on average three bikes a season since then – “one for practice and one to race and another one just in case,” he laughs. Such is his passion for riding, it sounds like he must almost be wearing out his bikes faster than the Yamaha factory can produce them. “It's great being a veteran rider because it means I can get in more races than loads of other riders ... racing in two or three classes at every meeting.”
The Aucklander takes time off his work as a concrete cutter to practice two or three times a week and that's okay with his boss ... it’s Cooksley’s own business.
Of course, all that riding means he's also remarkably fit for a man his age, and it also means he’s clocked up a swag of titles over the years. He first rode to prominence at the national motocross championships in 1982 when he crashed a broke his throttle housing, the mechanical failure letting him down 300 metres from home. He was running first but had to settle for runner-up. He ended up fifth overall in the 250cc class that year, the title won by Yamaha’s Murray Anderson.
In 1984 he represented New Zealand at the forerunner to the Motocross des Nations, the Trophee Des Nations for 250cc bikes, in Sweden, and the Motocross Des Nations or 500cc bikes, in Finland. “We were all just enduro guys at the time, over there for the International Six Days Enduro in Holland but we did okay to be competitive. I seem to recall my team-mates were Graham Oliver, Chris Maindonald, Peter Gibbes and Graeme Harris.”
The team finished a long way down the standings. His luck didn’t improve when he rode for New Zealand at the ISDE, finishing with a dnf when he broke his ankle.
In 1987 he again represented New Zealand at the Motocross des Nations, this time staged at Unadilla in the United States. Cooksley and his team-mates, brothers Darryll and Shayne King, struggled in the sloppy mud and failed to record enough finishes to register but the international experience was building up for Cooksley.
In 1991 Cooksley was again called into national service, the three-man Motocross des Nations team for the Dutch track at Valkenwaard that year consisting Cooksley (500), Troy McAsey (250) and Daryl Atkins (125). They finished 20th.
At the 1996 World Veteran Championships, held in the US, Cooksley travelled with a Yamaha YZ250 packed in two suitcases. Assembled on arrival with the help of ex-pat Kiwi Phil Riddell, Tony took the 35-40 years’ title, washed the bike, disassembled it and packed it away again.
He returned in 1999 and again won the title of world veteran champ, this time in the next age bracket, for riders aged between 40 and 45. Cooksley has also won races across the Tasman, taking the veteran class wins at two rounds in Australia’s Thumpernats series.
Diverting from pure motocross, Cooksley has also won desert races in southern California, on Yamaha YZ250 equipped with a larger fuel tank. But motocross is his first love and in 25 years of racing at the top level, Cooksley has only ever missed one round of the New Zealand Motocross Championships … and that was only because of a mix-up with the sport’s governing body. “They wouldn’t let me race because I had been overseas when the qualifying races were held. I’d been told it would be okay but, when I returned, there was no place saved for me in the starting line-up.”
Cooksley is a life member of the Pukekohe Motorcycle Club and was club president for six years He's good friends with American former Yamaha factory star `Gentleman' Jim Holley and will hook up with him when he heads across to the United States again this year for the annual world veterans' motocross championships at Glen Helen, California.
In the meantime, we can expect to see the Cooksley name featuring among the motocross elite for a while yet, if not from Tony it will be his 14-year-old son Shey, who started racing motocross this year and is already showing signs he's a “chip off the old block”.
Shey too races a Yamaha, of course, a YZ125.
