Kiwi Josh Coppins has finished fourth in the national motocross championships in Italy.

Obviously on the pace, the man from Motueka now looks ahead to getting his world championship campaign underway in Bulgaria in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, the fourth and final round of the Italian championships was staged at the spectacular San Severino circuit and factory Aprilia’s Coppins looked set to end his championship off on high with a third place in his qualification group as he hounded German Maxi Nagl and American Jimmy Albertson to the line.

As the gate dropped for the opening moto, Coppins and Italian favourite Antonio Cairoli went bar to bar into the first turn trying to grab the holeshot with ‘The Lizzard’ being pushed wide as he emerged in third spot.

Riding a steady race, Coppins came under pressure in the final stages of the moto and did not have an answer for Tanel Leok and Davide Guarneri as they stole a podium finish away from the Kiwi.

The final and deciding moto would see misfortune sideline Coppins when his machine was forced to the side with a technical problem.  Coppins was not able to complete the race and also lost his overall podium spot in the championship to Manuel Monni.

“We have been making headway with our testing. However, today we had an unfortunate DNF.  I was pumped with my first moto start and again this proves that we are now competitive on the start which is important for the GPs.

“I have missed some valuable riding time on the bike due to the broken rib but I am starting to feel confident and am looking forward to Bulgaria in two weeks’ time,” said Coppins.

Coppins won the Bulgarian GP last year and will be looking to Sevlievo for a positive start to his 2010 MX GP campaign.

Race results:

Race 1: 1 Cairoli, 2. Nagl, 3. Leok, 4. Guarneri, 5. Coppins, 6. Monni, 7.Albertson, 8 Priem 9. Salvini, 10. Krestinov

Race  2: 1. Nagl, 2. Cairoli, 3. Leok, 4. Albertson, 5. Guarneri, 6. Albertson, 7.Bonini, 8. Compagnone, 9. Bill, 10. Kohut

Overall classification: 1. Max Nagl 47, 2. Tony Cairoli 47, 3. Tanel Leok  40, 4. Davide Guarneri  34, 5. Manuel Monni 33, 6. Jimmy Albertson 29 ptn, 7. Julien Bill 21, 8. Martin Kohut 21, 9. Matteo Bonini 20, 10. Felice Compagnone 20.

Championship standings: 1. Davide Guarneri 152, 2. Tanel Leok 135, 3. Manuel Monni 126, 4. Josh Coppins 108, 5. Jimmy Albertson 105, 6. David Philippaerts 100 ptn, 7. Alex Salvini 99, 8. Tony Cairoli 91, 9. Manuel  Priem 82, 10. Julien Bill 78.

Photo by CDS