Final GP of the year sees Coppins on podium.

The 17th and final round of the MX1 GP season has come to a close in Desert Martin, Ireland. CAS Honda’s Josh Coppins ended his 2005 GP season with third overall and stepped up onto the podium alongside friend and fellow Kiwi, Ben Townley to make it a strong Kiwi end to the year.

The first race of the day got underway with Coppins rocketing his CAS Honda to the hole-shot. He set the race pace however Stefan Everts and fellow New Zealander, Ben Townley were hot in pursuit. Coppins was losing precious time in the heavy sand section at the back of the circuit and Everts and Townley capitalized on this. Fifteen minutes into the race both Everts and Townley made their way past. Coppins did all he could to stay in touch but the duo succeeded in pulling a gap. Coppins managed to regain some of the deficit towards the end of the race nevertheless he had to be content with third spot.

Unable to capitalize on his usual excellent starts, Coppins had to fight his way through the pack in the first few corners. He appeared in fourth spot on lap one and was making good headway. As Coppins was making a move to clinch third place he had an unexpected crash and went down hard in a treacherous sandy whoop section. Coppins quickly picked up his machine and rejoined the race way down the standings. He kept his head down and blasted through the pack with a never say die attitude and with fifteen minutes to go he was back into third place. A last surge by Belgian Steve Ramon saw Coppins lose a place at the chequered flag however he still secured third overall for the day.

Coppins reflected on the final GP of the year: “In the first race I got a good start and pushed really hard but I was a little bit slow on the sand section and Ben and Stefan were catching me there. In the middle part of the race I was riding really well but I didn’t get a chance to get further than third. I bumped with Stefan in the start of the second heat and had to come through the pack. I was making a pass on Leuret and I got a little bit ‘squirly’ on the whoops and crashed pretty big. I really wanted to make the podium to day. I wanted to be on the podium together with Ben at his last race – two riders on the podium from one country especially a country as small as New Zealand is pretty special.”


MX1

Race 1

1 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 39:13.384
2 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 39:14.281
3 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 39:31.971
4 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 39:39.778
5 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 39:44.293
6 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 39:52.763
7 Strijbos Kevin, Bel, Suzuki, 39:56.036
8 Barragan Jonathan, Spa, Ktm, 40:11.738
9 Noble James, Gbr, Honda, 40:11.908
10 De Dijcker Ken, Bel, Honda, 40:50.213
11 Pyrhonen Antti , Fin, Tm, 40:53.440
12 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 40:55.180
13 Jorgensen Brian, Den, Yamaha, 40:56.274
14 Gundersen Kenneth , Nor, Ktm, 39:16.853
15 Priem Manuel, Bel, Yamaha, 39:32.807

Race 2

1 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 39:59.247
2 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 40:20.262
3 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 40:39.061
4 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 40:39.617
5 Strijbos Kevin, Bel, Suzuki, 40:45.241
6 Barragan Jonathan, Spa, Ktm, 40:49.327
7 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 41:05.963
8 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 41:07.862
9 Priem Manuel, Bel, Yamaha, 41:17.290
10 Jorgensen Brian, Den, Yamaha, 41:18.682
11 Leuret Pascal, Fra, Honda, 41:38.630
12 Atsuta Yoshitaka, Jpn, Suzuki, 40:00.249
13 Noble James, Gbr, Honda, 40:01.625
14 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 40:21.286
15 Kovalainen Marko, Fin, Honda, 40:32.904

MX1 World championship standings

1 Everts Stefan, Bel, Yamaha, 721 points
2 Coppins Joshua, Nzl, Honda, 652 points
3 Townley Ben, Nzl, Ktm, 589 points
4 Ramon Steve, Bel, Ktm, 500 points
5 Pichon Mickael, Fra, Honda, 476 points
6 Smets Joel, Bel, Suzuki, 385 points
7 Barragan Jonathan, Spa, Ktm, 312 points
8 Leuret Pascal, Fra, Honda, 306 points
9 De Dijcker Kenneth, Bel, Honda, 303 points
10 Noble James, Gbr, Honda, 302 points
11 Leok Tanel, Est, Kawasaki, 299 points
12 Theybers Danny, Bel, Suzuki, 283 points
13 Jorgensen Brian, Den, Yamaha, 281 points
14 Atsuta Yoshitaka, Jpn, Suzuki, 218 points
15 Pyrhonen Antti, Fin, Tm, 216 points