Coppins – ‘Not too old!'
By TMX Archives on 9th Apr 09
I WASN'T the fastest guy out there, but I put the whole race together. At 32-years-old, Josh Coppins is the oldest guy in GP racing, and he was fast enough to beat them all in MX1 at Sevlievo, scene of the second round of the World Motocross Championships, on Sunday.
The French dominated MX2, Marvin Musquin escaping incidents in both motos to claim victory ahead of red plate holder Gautier Paulin and Xavier Boog, while Livi Lancelot claimed the WMX opener when she turned round Saturday's result to head home Stefi Laier on Sunday morning.
It was not a good day for Britain. Shaun Simpson salvaged sixth in MX2 to hold that place in the series as KTM had a wretched weekend, and Zach Osborne rounded out the top ten on the day after a first moto sixth, but first lap crashes cut down the KTM UK duo of Stephen Sword and Jake Nicholls as well as Matiss Karro.
And MX1 was no better. James Noble battled factory boys all the way for 12th overall, but fuel feed problems limited Billy MacKenzie to 12 points, Cedric Melotte hurt his back, and both CCM riders had to quit race two after Tom Church and Jason Dougan had scored in the opener.
Even in the WMX, Natalie Kane was restricted to seventh overall by crashes in both motos.
MX1
"THERE was no chance for me to win either moto,” grinned Coppins, Ken (De Dycker) and Jonathan (Barragan) were too fast. "But I got two good starts, and put in good laps all day. I must admit, I was a little scared of losing it in the closing laps when David (Philippaerts) came at me, but I rode defensively and kept him out, despite sore ribs from last week in Italy. Perhaps I'm not too old after all!”
The Kiwi had only qualified sixth after a poor getaway on Saturday, but he knew the importance of gating well on the Sevlievo expressway and put his head down to follow gate neighbour, Max Nagl, and pole-setter Ken De Dycker through turn one.
As MacKenzie dropped back and out with an unreliable fuel feed, the only potential danger to the trio was Barragan, and the Spaniard made life difficult for himself by stalling the big KTM early on.
MX2
IT was already clear in training that the 250F KTMs were in trouble on the extremely fast undulating track, and Saturday evening was spent revising suspension settings for race day.
Both Shaun Simpson and Rui Goncalves were more comfortable than the previous day, but damage limitation was the name of the game. Simpson salvaged sixth overall, but Goncalves had more problems in the first race when the rear brake was damaged in a collision.
"I was comfortable for 15-minutes, but then I lost the plot again,” admitted Simpson. And after seeing off the challenge of Tonus for seventh as he recovered some composure, the Scot hit the bank and crashed to surrender the place and best KTM finisher to the Swiss rider.
But nobody had a chance against the French – in particular Musquin.
Already in training he was two-seconds a lap faster than anybody else, his fastest lap in the qualifying heat was 1.5-seconds faster than Steven Frossard, who in turn was a second up on everyone else, and the trend continued on Sunday.
STEFI Laier ran down Livi Lancelot for the win in the World Ladies Championship class on Saturday, but the defending champion found the solution to reverse the situation on Sunday morning: "I am always strong in the early laps, so when I got the lead I opened the gas to open a gap.
Stefi came back at me in the middle of the race,
but I had a big enough gap.”
US champion Ashley Fiolek raced the title contenders for a couple of laps in each race and twice finished third, but Natalie Kane, the only other girl approaching the speed of the trio, spoilt her chances with falls in both motos, the first when the fork legs dragged on the sides of a rut. The Irish teenager finished seventh overall.
Sophie Paull kept going for five points, and Alix Dunlop grabbed three on her World Championship debut.
The World Ladies Motocross Championship riders gather for a group photograph before the main action began on the track.