Cops robs the lot!
By TMX Archives on 27th Feb 08
RINALDI Yamaha are certainly taking no prisoners this year. Following their 1-2 successes at Mantova and Montevarchi, David Philippaerts stayed home in Italy to retain his 100% record in his national series but the team truck travelled to France on its way to Hawkstone... and Josh Coppins swept all three motos of the Valence Classic!What's wrong with Coppins?'' enquired a naive Belgian photographer on Saturday as the Kiwi warmed up with 35th time in the meaningless free training. But Josh was on it in all three races.
Quickly to the front each time, the 30-year-old only relinquished the lead briefly on one occasion in the opener: ‘‘I jumped too far and my front wheel got taken by a rut into the soft dirt in the outside of the turn. Exactly the same thing happened to Sebastien (Pourcel) a couple of laps later, but I didn't try to go inside him and risk a collision. I knew where I was going to line him up.''
That's how confident Josh is on his new Yam, and he didn't show any sign of nerves in the finale as Steve Ramon, the champion styling it but fast, surged onto his rear wheel as they sought a way past Julien Bill. But at the chequered flag Josh had withstood all attacks to coast home a comfortable winner again.
Bathed in brilliant sunshine, and requiring the sprinklers to keep down the dust for the first time ever in February, the Valence track was brutally hard and littered with rocks that made the long hills an unpleasant showplace for the MX2 boys as they got sprayed with pebbles shot-blasted from 450 rear wheels, but Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle were again supreme in class.
The Brit proved fractionally faster, but it was the South African who took the honours with three solid showings. His effective new strategy has seen Styla regain those two seconds he was missing last year, and he can put it into effect when he wants and needs, in racing.
Having initially wanted to miss eating MX1 roost, Tommy Gun had been a late addition to the ranks for this race, unable to resist the organiser's increased offer, but there was no way he was going to take the money and run. Once there, Tommy was in the thick of it, a first moto charge out of the pack to ninth being followed up with two head-on clashes with the MX1 stars, only their straight-line power giving them the upper hand as he punished every lap with flambuoyant assaults. But it was just one too many, as he battled for top three in race two, that cost him the class win, a downhill crash putting him back to 16th in the moto.
The fast gating Max Nagl and Julien Bill were always near the front, Ramon's starts got better as the day wore on, Pourcel was fast and threatening all day, though significantly he faded in race three, and Ken De Dycker's moderate starts reached a peak when he went down at turn three with half the pack in the final moto.
In fact, the melee took down the entire UK contingent bar Searle and Gareth Swanepoel, the South African finally getting a result after electrical problems had put him out of the opener.
Tom Church had started his MX1 career usefully with a ninth and was still on top-ten course after race two before fate took a hand, and Stephen Sword had three impressive rides which were worthy of more than his eventual 13-point tally; the Scot stalled and lost almost a lap in race one, was third MX2 in race two and chased through with Brad Anderson in the last moto.
Brad's Swift Suzuki debut had started promisingly as he raced top ten in the early laps of the first moto: ‘‘It was going good, but I couldn't get past Tom Church and tensed up. I could hardly hold on no more, then the chain came off on the last lap.'' He was never in the hunt in race two before charging well in race three.
Jake Nicholls and Elliott Banks-Browne found life difficult in the fast lane, but Jake moved forward in all three motos whilst Elliott was plagued first by a disintegrated rear-wheel, the result of the punishing track, and then when he stalled after burning out the clutch: ‘‘My hand's still not 100% and I couldn't pull the lever right in.''
Team leader Pascal Leuret had proved frighteningly fast throughout practice, at least half a second faster than any other MX2 rider in every session, but the races were a dire frustration: ‘‘The second start was my fault, but I just got closed down by the 450s in the first race, and this track is too narrow for passing. And Goncalves lost control and ran me off the track in race one.''
Molson's French import Gautier Paulin missed racing as a precaution after smacking a hand during practice.
So now to Hawkstone. Can anybody stop the Rinaldi roll?
VALENCE INTERNATIONAL MOTOCROSS
Valence, France
Overall: 1 Josh Coppins (NZ) Rinaldi Yamaha, 2 Sebastien Pourcel (F) GPKR Kawasaki, 3 Steve Ramon (B) Teka Suzuki, 4 Max Nagl (D) Red Bull KTM, 5 Ken De Dycker (B) Teka Suzuki, 6 Julien Bill (CH) Martin Honda, 7 Tyla Rattray (SA) Red Bull KTM MX2, 8 Nico Aubin (F) Ricci Yamaha, 9 Tommy Searle (GB) Red Bull KTM MX2, 10 Clement Desalle (B) Inotec Suzuki, 11 Kornel Nemeth (H) Sarholz KTM, 12 Manuel Priem (B) Kawasaki Europe, 13 Christophe Martin (F) Sima Husqvarna, 14 Tom Church (GB) Molson Kawasaki, 15 Julien Vanni (F) HDI KTM, 16 Stephen Sword (GB) Molson Kawasaki MX2, 17 Marvin Van Daele (B) Teka Suzuki, 18 Gregory Aranda (F) CLS Kawasaki, 19 Anthony Boissiere (F) HDI KTM MX2, 20 Rui Goncalves (P) Red Bull KTM MX2, 21 Gareth Swanepoel (SA) Molson Kawasaki MX2, 22 Pascal Leuret (F) Suzuki Swift MX2, 23 Brad Anderson (GB) Suzuki Swift
Moto One: 1 Coppins, 2 Pourcel, 3 Nagl, 4 Ramon, 5 De Dycker, 6 Nemeth, 7 Rattray, 8 Searle, 9 Church, 10 Bill, 11 Desalle, 12 Aubin, 13 Martin, 14 Priem, 15 Goncalves, 16 Van Daele, 17 Leuret, 18 Khousith Vongsana (F) Bud Kawasaki, 19 Yohei Kojima (J) Teka Suzuki, 20 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B) Champ KTM MX2 ... 26 Jake Nicholls (GB) Suzuki Swift MX2 .. 30 Anderson, 31 Elliott Banks-Browne (GB) Suzuki Swift MX2 ... 33 Sword
Moto Two: 1 Coppins, 2 Pourcel, 3 Ramon, 4 De Dycker, 5 Bill, 6 Nagl, 7 Aubin, 8 Rattray, 9 Vanni, 10 Martin, 11 Boissiere, 12 Sword, 13 Nemeth, 14 Church, 15 Desalle, 16 Searle, 17 Leuret, 18 Steven Frossard (F) CLS Kawasaki MX2, 19 Priem, 20 Aranda, 21 Anderson ... 23 Swanepoel ... 30 Nicholls .. 35 Banks-Browne
Moto Three: 1 Coppins, 2 Ramon, 3 Pourcel, 4 Nagl, 5 Bill, 6 Searle, 7 Aubin, 8 Priem, 9 Desalle, 10 Rattray, 11 De Dycker, 12 Aranda, 13 Swanepoel, 14 Van Daele, 15 Vanni, 16 Anderson, 17 Sword, 18 Goncalves, 19 Marvin Musquin (F) NGS Honda MX2, 20 Joel Roelants (B) Champ KTM MX2 ... 26 Nicholls.
For full pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, February 29, 2008