Josh Coppins 3rd in Ponte Egola, Italy
Tuesday 10 March 2009, 4:14AM
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This past weekend Yamaha Monster Energy racer, Josh Coppins, headed to the penultimate round of the Italian Championship in Ponte Egola. After a week of downpours in Italy, Saturday’s qualifying sessions dawned with great weather conditions much to the relief of the strong pool of GP riders that had turned out for the event.
The sunshine continued on Sunday as Heat 1 got underway nontheless the drenched circuit still made for less favorable race conditions. Coppins had a far side gate pick which made his start tough as he needed to run right through the thick of the mud down to the first corner. After a bad start the Kiwi was pushing hard when he slipped on a corner and went down. Coppins quickly re-mounted his Yamaha and got going. With his work well and truly cut out the New Zealander put on a determined charge and despite the conditions made passes lap after lap, edging ever closer towards the front of the pack. At the end of the race “Lizzard” had closed in on Ramon to take a well deserved 4th position.
Heat 2 would see a better start for the Kiwi as he exited the first corner in the leading group of riders. He rode a very strong race maintaining his track position to bring home his Yamaha YZ450FM in 4th position.
With the consistent race results, Josh Coppins finished with a 3rd overall:
“This weekend the bike was great, and I know the Yamaha Monster Energy Team and I are ready for the first GP. We have a photo shoot this week in Italy, so I have decided to stay down here and race the last round of the Italian Championship next weekend in Gazazane. This will be out final preparation in the countdown to Faenza at the end of the month”.
Overall results MX1 :
1 PHILIPPAERTS DAVID - 50pts
2 RAMON STEVE - 44pts
3 COPPINS JOSHUA - 38pts
4 STRIJBOS KEVIN - 33pts
5 LEOK TANEL - 33pts
6 LEOK AIGAR - 30pts
7 DE REUVER MARC - 28pts
8 PRIEM MANUEL - 26pts
9 SALVINI ALEX - 22pts
10 BILL JULIEN - 21pts