Josh Coppins and the Factory Aprilia motocross team headed to St Jean D’Angely in France this past weekend looking for a good result in Round 7 of the MX1 World Championship. Coppins has always enjoyed the challenging hill-side circuit and was looking forward to the race.

In the Saturday qualifying race ‘Lizzard’ blasted his Aprilia out the gate grabbing an awesome hole-shot in front of the thousands of French fans. As the race progressed Coppins had settled into the top five and was racing comfortably when the bike stalled going into a technical off camber corner. Having to get the bike re-started left the New Zealander ultimately qualifying in 13th.

On a wet and rutted circuit Coppins had a reasonable start for moto 1 on Sunday, powering around lap 1 in 14th place. Settling in to a solid rhythm ‘Lizzard’ was circulating well and picked off a few riders to get into 12th by the end of the race.

In the second moto Coppins was fast out the gate and headed through the first turn inside the top 10. Battling to find a good rhythm on the very rough and slippery circuit left ‘Lizzard’ fighting to hold onto every position, and ultimately the number 6 Aprilia jumped across the finish line in 14th position.

“It was a tough weekend for me but I have to say that I’m really happy with how the bike performed” explained Coppins. “We got a good hole-shot in the qualifying race which shows that we have made good improvements and are now competitive at the start. I feel I rode well in the first moto but could not put it together in the second. I battled to find my speed and kept fighting the track over the moto and could not finish off how I wanted to. I’m happy with the improvements with the bike and the effort that the team is putting in, and hope that we can translate this all into a better result in Teutschenthal in two weeks time”

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Results

Moto 1

1 Cairoli, Antonio
2 Ramon, Steve
3 Philippaerts, David
4 Desalle, Clement
5 Guarneri, Davide
6 Leok, Tanel
7 Boissiere, Anthony
8 Strijbos, Kevin
9 de Dycker, Ken
10 Aubin, Nicolas
11 Swanepoel, Gareth
12 Coppins, Joshua
13 Bobryshev, Evgeny
14 Goncalves, Rui
15 Pourcel, Sebastien

Moto 2

1 Philippaerts, David
2 Desalle, Clement
3 Cairoli, Antonio
4 Boissiere, Anthony
5 Ramon, Steve
6 de Dycker, Ken
7 Boog, Xavier
8 Guarneri, Davide
9 Leok, Tanel
10 Pourcel, Sebastien
11 Strijbos, Kevin
12 Goncalves, Rui
13 Swanepoel, Gareth
14 Coppins, Joshua
15 Aubin, Nicolas

Overall GP

1 Philippaerts, David 20 25 45
2 Cairoli, Antonio 25 20 45
3 Desalle, Clement 18 22 40
4 Ramon, Steve 22 16 38
5 Boissiere, Anthony 14 18 32
6 Guarneri, Davide 16 13 29
7 de Dycker, Ken 12 15 27
8 Leok, Tanel 15 12 27
9 Strijbos, Kevin 13 10 23
10 Swanepoel, Gareth 10 8 18
11 Pourcel, Sebastien 6 11 17
12 Aubin, Nicolas 11 6 17
13 Goncalves, Rui 7 9 16
14 Coppins, Joshua 9 7 16
15 Boog, Xavier 0 14 14

World Championship Standings

1 Cairoli, A. 304
2 Desalle, C. 236
3 Philippaerts, D. 229
4 Nagl, M. 218
5 Ramon, Steve 211
6 de Dycker, Ken 201
7 Boog, Xavier 181
8 Leok, Tanel 162
9 Guarneri, D. 140
10 Bobryshev, E. 123
11 Strijbos, K. 109
12 Boissiere, A. 107
13 Coppins, J. 106
14 Pourcel, S. 92
15 Swanepoel, G. 92