In his first outing this year, CAS Honda star, Josh Coppins has gone 2-2 to chase home GP rival Stefan Everts in both heats at the Pernes Les Fontaine MX international in France. French riders Mikael Pichon, Sebastien Tortelli and surprise of the weekend, Sebastian Pourcel all played a part in the weekend’s duels however it was Everts and Coppins who gave fans a taste of what can be expected for the 2006 world title hunt when the first round kicks off in Zolder, Belgium on the 2nd of April.

“ I qualified eighth which I wasn’t so happy with but I still had a good gate pick. In the first heat I made a little mistake coming off the start which left me in fifth position. I made my way to fourth immediately and then to third when Pichon stalled his bike. Pourcel was riding really well but I passed him and then went after Stefan who had managed to hole-shot so he beat me by five seconds in the end,” explained Coppins after his first moto of the day.

The deciding race would be a three way battle with a role reverse at the start.

“ I grabbed the hole-shot in the second moto and lead for five laps or so. I decided to slow the pace a little to let Stefan past and see what lines he was using but then I saw that Pichon was right on him so the plan wasn’t going to work. I made a few mistakes and Stefan got by me and he picked up the pace quite a bit but I managed to stay with him for a good battle – this is sort of sign of things to come!”

The Kiwi was also pleased with his team’s work and development during the race and was confident of his factory Honda CRF450.
“ We worked a lot on the bike over the weekend and found some good suspension settings. The engine is very good obviously with the hole-shot in the second heat. For the first race of the season I’m really content with second place. It was nice to see Stefan pushing really hard - you don’t normally see that from Stefan this early in the season,” smiled Coppins.

Click to see all images from Pernes.

Race Results:

Race 1
1 Everts
2 Coppins
3 S. Pourcel
4 Demaria
5 T. Leok
6 Sword
7 Bill
8 Ramon
9 Ristori
10 Strijbos

Race 2
1 Everts
2 Coppins
3 Pichon
4 Tortelli
5 Demaria
6 De Dycker
7 Sword
8 T.Leok
9 Strijbos
10 Leuret