It is possibly just a formality now that Mount Maunganui’s Cody Cooper will celebrate winning his third consecutive national MX1 motocross title in just a few days’ time.

The Honda Shop Racing Team rider has almost an entire race up his sleeve as he heads to the final round of the New Zealand Motocross Championships series near Pukekohe this coming weekend.

Cooper leapt another giant step closer to retaining the national MX1 crown with a solid performance at the third round near Rotorua on Sunday, extending his championship lead from three points over his own Honda team-mate, Rotorua’s John Phillips, to now be 19 points ahead of the new No.2 rider, visiting Australian KTM rider Kirk Gibbs.

Cooper finished 3-1-1 in his three MX1 class outings on Sunday to top the standings for the day and Gibbs finished 1-4-4 for the runner-up position, while Tauranga’s Ben Townley, the Honda rider making his only appearance in the series, earned Sunday’s third podium spot with his 2-3-7 results.

This was good enough for Townley to slot in at 14th overall in the championship, despite his not having raced at rounds one and two.

Unfortunately for Phillips, a minor “coming-together” with Townley in the final race of the day on Sunday saw them both crash and lose ground on the leaders. Phillips eventually fought back to finish the race in sixth spot, one place ahead of Townley, but the accident proved costly and he has now slipped to third in the championship standings, albeit only seven points behind Gibbs.

“It was an awesome day for me,” said Cooper afterwards. “I was a little annoyed with myself for making a rookie mistake at the start of the day’s first race and lost a lot of places. I had to fight back to finish third.

“It was a very hard track to pass on. The ruts would converge and so, when you tried to use a different rut to the rider in front, it would sometimes take you on a collision course.”

With 25 points on offer for a race win and Cooper 19 points ahead of Gibbs, the Kiwi hero can relax, although he says he will still be chasing the win bonus cash from Honda and that will ensure he’s very motivated to win at Pukekohe on Sunday too.

The fourth and final round of the JT Racing-sponsored series is set for Harrisville, on the outskirts of Pukekohe, next weekend.

At the conclusion of the nationals, Cooper will cross the Tasman to join the Penrite Honda Racing Team to contest the upcoming Australian Motocross Championships. He leaves on March 17 to begin bike testing.

© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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