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Young Kiwi motocross star Josh Coppins is storming closer to third overall in the glamour world 250 championship after a fine fourth overnight in a rain-hit Brazilian Grand Prix.
Slugging it out in appalling conditions, the young star of the Suzuki Corona team outpointed his senior teammate who is leading the championship.
With third and sixth placings in the two moto legs, 23-year-old Coppins took fourth in the GP and with 215 points is just 15 behind ace German Pit Beirer (Kawasaki).
With top riders falling all around him as a tropical storm hit - the first rain at Belo Horizonte for three months - the young man from Motueka kept his head and ensured he stayed in the points.
\"It was really hard riding,\" commented the expat Kiwi. \"The mud was flying and you couldn\'t see.\"
\"Riders were throwing their goggles away and then had to stop with mud in their eyes.\"
\"This red soil turned into slippery mud and a lot of the top riders saw their race just slide away.\"
Coppins, still carrying an ankle injury after running over his own foot a fortnight ago, was delighted with his charge to a podium finish in race one.
\"I didn\'t ride so good in the first moto, I was too stiff in my style but as the others started to fall I began to relax and I was definitely faster in the second part of the race.\"
With Beirer having a bad weekend Coppins senses the chance to chase third overall in the five rounds remaining - an amazing achievement in his first year as a factory rider.
His Suzuki teammate, Frenchman Mickael Pichon, retains the lead he has held most of the season but with sixth in this GP he is under increasing pressure from current world champion Fred Bolley who managed third this weekend. The Honda rider, also from France, is repeating the late run he made to the title last year.
Results. Race one:
1. Mickael Maschio (france) Kawasaki;
2. Claudio Federici (Italy) Yamaha;
3. Josh Coppins; (NZ) Suzuki;
4. Yves Demaria (France) Yamaha;
5. Fred Bolley (France) Honda;
6. Paul Cooper (GB) Husqvarna;
7. Pit Beirer (Germany) Kawasaki.
Race two:
1. Mickael Pichon (France) Suzuki ;
2. Demaria;
3. Bolley;
4. Cooper;
5. Crockard (GB) Honda;
6. Coppins;
7. Maschio.
Grand Prix: 1. Demaria; 2. Maschio; 3. Bolley; 4. Coppins; 5. Federici; 6. Pichon; 7. Cooper.
World championship points:
1.Pichon 317;
2. Bolley, 296;
3. Beirer, 230;
4. Coppins, 215;
5. Federici, 205;
6. Cooper, 163;
7.Crockard, 158;
8. Demaria, 149;
9. Maschio, 119.
