The sixth round
of the British champs in Skelder Bank has been swept by CAS Honda’s
Josh Coppins. The confident Kiwi won both motos in stifling conditions
on a technically demanding circuit that totaled
49 whoops.
After blitzing qualifications by almost 2.5 seconds, Coppins shot out of the gate in moto one and looked well on his way to the first moto win. Due to the hot, dry conditions, a couple of lapped riders impeded Coppins’s vision which cross rutted the Kiwi on a jump take off and sent him flying. ‘Lizzard’ quickly recovered from fourth to move back into the lead with one lap to go and take victory in front of fellow Honda team-mate, Ken De Dycker.
A second moto hole-shot saw Coppins control the race from start to finish to take victory by 20 seconds over Irishman Gordon Crockard.
“I crashed in the first moto around the halfway mark when I came up to some lapped riders. I couldn’t see too well because of the dust and hit a rock and went down. I managed to recover well to win the race. The second moto went according to plan with another win – the track was quite demanding on the knees with all the jumps and was quite slick because of the hot weather but I enjoyed racing today and am looking forward to Loket next weekend,” explained Coppins.
Coppins heads to Round 11 of the FIM MX World championships which will take place in Loket, Czech Repulic, on the 28-29 July.
Race results:
MX1 Race 1
1 Josh Coppins
2 Ken De Dycker
3 James Noble
4 Gordon Crockard
5 Neville Bradshaw
6 Bryan MacKenzie
7 Mark Eastwood
8 Danny Smyth
9 Jody Smyth
10 Ryan Voase
11 Glen Phillips
12 Richard Lawson
13 Jamie Lewis
14 Jason Higgs
15 Ben Lambert-Williams
MX1 Race 2
1 Josh Coppins
2 Gordon Crockard
3 Ken De Dycker
4 James Noble
5 Neville Bradshaw
6 Julien Bill
7 Bryan MacKenzie
8 Mark Jones
9 Glen Phillips
10 Danny Smyth
11 Mark Eastwood
12 Jody Smyth
13 Ryan Voase
14 Jamie Lewis
15 Jason Higgs
British championship standings:
1 Ken De Dijker 337
2 James Noble 292
3 Gordon Crockard 229
4 Mark Jones 219
5 Neville Bradshaw 181
6 Josh Coppins 177
7 Stephen Sword 158
8 Julien Bill 127
9 Mark Eastwood 115
10 Martin Barr 115
11 Danny Smyth 113
12 Mark Hucklebridge 109
13 Jody Smyth 97
14 Bryan MacKenzie 94
15 Alex Rach 86