Coppins shows amazing fight at Nismes

Josh Coppins has shown his true fighting spirit at the twelfth round of the MX1 world motocross championship in Nismes Belgium. A rain drenched crowd witnessed an amazing Coppins surge in the second moto to claim second overall and move one point closer to his arch rival, Stefan Everts.

Riders were lucky to start the first moto in somewhat drier conditions. Coppins managed to hug a tight line around the first turn and made up a handful of places by going around the outside of the next corner. As the pack settled into a race rhythm, Lizzard was forth and making huge ground on Pascal Leuret and Brian Jorgensen. It took the CAS Honda a couple of laps to take hold of second place and give chase to Frenchman, Mickael Pichon who had succeeded in pulling a reasonable gap. Coppins kept his head down and started to eat into Pichon’s lead. The clock would be against the Kiwi as he ran out of time however he did succeed in closing the gap substantially to settle for second.

Coppins went down in the second turn of race two as he could not avoid hitting a fallen, fellow Honda rider, Pascal Leuret. The heavens had opened in the meantime and Coppins’s hopes of a GP podium looked dismal. ‘Lizzard’ took the bit between his teeth and started his charge through the pack. Within two laps he had broken the top ten and was posting the fastest lap time with ease. By the halfway mark Coppins had amazingly rocketed into third position and was rapidly closing down the leading duo of Pichon and Everts. Pichon made a mistake with five laps to go and handed Everts the lead. Coppins could smell the fumes of the Frenchman’s Honda and having lost his goggles due to the rain, he had to avoid getting roosted by Pichon by changing his racing lines. Still he pushed on and started to pressurize Pichon for second place. As the chequered flag fell, the CAS Honda rider had done all in his power to rebound from stone last to an awesome third position.

“ I was fast enough to gain more points today so I am bit disappointed that I couldn’t capitalize on that. I put my heart and soul into the second moto and I did all I could to try and pass Pichon. We can be happy with the work the organisers did on the track last night and all weekend. The conditions could have been a lot worse but they did a great job. I’m looking forward to Loket next weekend. I like the track there, in fact there are some good tracks coming up and I like all of them,” explained a confident Coppins.

Results MX1

Race 1

1 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 40:26.396
2 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 40:30.935
3 Leuret Pascal, Fra, Honda, 41:01.021
4 Jorgensen Brian, Den, Yamaha, 41:04.164
5 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 41:11.383
6 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 41:12.943
7 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 41:16.903
8 Smets Joel, Bel, Suzuki, 41:19.819
9 De Dijcker Ken, Bel, Honda, 41:27.814
10 Priem Manuel, Bel, Yamaha, 41:29.198
11 Strijbos Kevin, Bel, Suzuki, 41:31.600
12 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 41:35.012
13 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 41:37.973
14 Seguy Luigi, Fra, Yamaha, 41:39.583
15 Van Daele Marvin, Bel, Honda, 41:39.941

Race 2

1 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 39:15.069
2 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 39:17.550
3 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 39:19.446
4 De Dijcker Ken, Bel, Honda, 40:11.148
5 Priem Manuel, Bel, Yamaha, 40:15.097
6 Smets Joel, Bel, Suzuki, 40:27.490
7 Atsuta Yoshitaka, Jpn, Suzuki, 40:31.099
8 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 40:33.272
9 Leuret Pascal, Fra, Honda, 40:34.912
10 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 40:37.316
11 Freibergs Lauris, Lat, Suzuki, 40:50.172
12 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 40:54.172
13 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 41:01.888
14 Seguy Luigi, Fra, Yamaha, 41:10.629
15 Strijbos Kevin, Bel, Suzuki, 39:33.206

MX1 Championship standings

1 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 496 points
2 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 458 points
3 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 390 points
4 Smets Joel, Bel, Suzuki, 377 points
5 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 346 points
6 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 332 points
7 Leuret Pascal, Fra, Honda, 243 points
8 Noble James, Gbr, Honda, 218 points
9 De Dijcker Ken, Bel, Honda, 214 points
10 Jorgensen Brian, Den, Yamaha, 206 points
11 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 202 points
12 Barragan Jonathan, Spa, Ktm, 200 points
13 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 192 points
14 Atsuta Yoshitaka, Jpn, Suzuki, 171 points
15 Pyrhonen Antti, Fin, Tm, 156 points