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Final GP of the year sees Coppins on podium.
The 17th and final round of the MX1 GP season has come to a close in Desert Martin, Ireland. CAS Honda’s Josh Coppins ended his 2005 GP season with third overall and stepped up onto the podium alongside friend and fellow Kiwi, Ben Townley to make it a strong Kiwi end to the year.
The first race of the day got underway with Coppins rocketing his CAS Honda to the hole-shot. He set the race pace however Stefan Everts and fellow New Zealander, Ben Townley were hot in pursuit. Coppins was losing precious time in the heavy sand section at the back of the circuit and Everts and Townley capitalized on this. Fifteen minutes into the race both Everts and Townley made their way past. Coppins did all he could to stay in touch but the duo succeeded in pulling a gap. Coppins managed to regain some of the deficit towards the end of the race nevertheless he had to be content with third spot.
Unable to capitalize on his usual excellent starts, Coppins had to fight his way through the pack in the first few corners. He appeared in fourth spot on lap one and was making good headway. As Coppins was making a move to clinch third place he had an unexpected crash and went down hard in a treacherous sandy whoop section. Coppins quickly picked up his machine and rejoined the race way down the standings. He kept his head down and blasted through the pack with a never say die attitude and with fifteen minutes to go he was back into third place. A last surge by Belgian Steve Ramon saw Coppins lose a place at the chequered flag however he still secured third overall for the day.
Coppins reflected on the final GP of the year: “In the first race I got a good start and pushed really hard but I was a little bit slow on the sand section and Ben and Stefan were catching me there. In the middle part of the race I was riding really well but I didn’t get a chance to get further than third. I bumped with Stefan in the start of the second heat and had to come through the pack. I was making a pass on Leuret and I got a little bit ‘squirly’ on the whoops and crashed pretty big. I really wanted to make the podium to day. I wanted to be on the podium together with Ben at his last race – two riders on the podium from one country especially a country as small as New Zealand is pretty special.”
MX1
