Coppins salvages a 6th overall in Lommel GP
By TMX Archives on 2nd Aug 09
New Zealand's Grand Prix motocross star, Josh Coppins, only had to make a short drive down the road from his Belgian home this weekend to take part in Round 12 of the MX1 World Championship. Having always been a strong sand' rider, Coppins was looking forward to this GP of Limburg, held at Lommel's notoriously rough sand circuit.
Saturday's qualifying race was very good for ‘Lizzard' as he powered his Yamaha YZ450FM through from 7th on lap one up to 3rd position by the end of the 20 minute and 2 lap race.
In the opening 35 minute and 2 lap moto on Sunday, Coppins was just inside the top 10 exiting the first corner, however the Kiwi was on a charge and wasted no time in getting past the competition lap after lap. Riding a superb race from beginning to end, Coppins pulled all the way through to finish the long race in 4th position.
Moto 2 was unfortunately not as good a result for Coppins. After getting a good jump out the gate, the Yamaha rider was taken down in a 3rd corner collision involving a number of riders. Quickly re-mounting and setting charge on the pack ‘Lizzard' had his work cut out if he wanted to salvage a good number of points. The experienced GP racer pushed his Yamaha to the limit as he sliced his way back through the elite pack. In superb style, Coppins climbed back up the lap charts to cross the finish line in 7th position, awarding him a 6th overall for the day.
"Saturday's qualifying went quite well for me so I expected a decent result today. We were a little off the mark with the bike setup in the first race due to the rain and change of conditions which means I spent a lot of energy fighting the bike as it was. Desalle crashed in front of me on the start and then I got hit from behind so started the race in last and worked my up to 7th. This is definitely not the track where you want to come from behind so it physically tough. Considering the two tough races I had I'm pretty happy with the overall result.” commented Coppins.
This coming weekend Josh Coppins and the Yamaha Monster Energy Team are due to head to Loket in the Czech Republic for the 13th round of the 15 round Motocross World Championship series.