Coppins strikes back to win Italian GP

New Zealand’s MX1 star, Josh Coppins, has bounced back to win
both moto’s of the Italian GP in Mantova. The Factory Yamaha
Rinaldi rider used good starts and smart riding to extend his lead
in the FIM MX1 world championship series.

With arguably one of the most exciting MX1 opening laps in
history, the sellout Italian crowd were on their feet. Coppins lost
some positions while the dog fight ensued up front and smartly
kept out of trouble. Crowd favourite, David Philippaerts and Marc
de Reuver, tangled in the fight and went down, allowing Coppins
to make a move on Belgians Strijbos and De Dyker to take the
lead. De Dycker retaliated but Coppins quickly stamped his
authority on the race and took control to the checkered flag.

Track conditions were considerably tougher in the second moto
but Coppins was placed well at the start and took his time in
getting past, fast starter, Mike Brown. “Lizzard” seemed to be
settling into a good rhythm when a challenge from Ken De
Dycker caught him off guard. Using his head, the Kiwi regrouped
and re-passed the Belgian with five minutes left on the clock to
cruise to a double victory, his second of the season.

“It’s no secret that I don’t like this track and it was pretty obvious
yesterday. I worked really hard with the team. The Yamaha
Rinaldi guys were very smart in making some decisions for me.
We really improved the bike over the two days. I knew my race
pace was good – I just couldn’t go that little bit extra to put the
whole lap together so I had to be a little bit smart and fight to the
end. The first moto was crazy – a lot of guys were trying to win
the race in the first ten minutes but I just let them do their own
thing. This is probably my best win ever. I kept a cool head and
played it smart and did better than ever expected.” commented
Coppins.

Coppins heads round 5 in Teutschenthal, Germany next
weekend, with a 36 point advantage over championship rival
Kevin Strijbos.