The Moto City Suzuki Team has thrown down the gauntlet.

Former New Zealand MX1 motocross champion Cody Cooper has a few of his high-profile rivals sitting up and taking notice as he threatened to steal away with the MX1 class at the weekend’s 52nd annual New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville.

Although last year’s Woodville winner Ben Townley had been widely tipped to take the main prize at Woodville again this season, Cooper paid little respect to what the pundits were saying and even had them running back to their form books as he shot his immaculate Craig Guy-prepared Suzuki RM-Z450 to the front of the pack in race one on Sunday.

Former world champion Townley (Carlton Dry Honda CRF450) had no answer for Cooper and had to settle for runner-up spot.

Positions were reversed for the next two outings, however, and Townley claimed the outright class win, but alarm bells will surely be ringing now that Cooper has hinted at what’s in store when the New Zealand Motocross Championships kicks off near Timaru in just over a week’s time (February 10).

“We were only using stock front forks today and that did cause a few problems, with the track beating me up a bit,” said Cooper afterwards.

“But this was an excellent build-up for the nationals and I am thrilled with the bike. I head across to Australia this week for some testing and we’ll be raring to go when the New Zealand Champs kick off.”

Moto City Suzuki team manager Andrew Hardisty said it was “great working with great people” and Copper and his MX2 class team-mate Rhys Carter were two of the best.

“It was a very tough day today, purely because of the track conditions.

“It was fantastic to see both Cody and Rhys riding so well. Cody could easily have won the day if a lapped rider hadn’t gotten in the way and fouled things up for him in race three, causing him to lose his lead.”

Carter finished fifth overall in the talent-packed MX2 class, getting better as the day wore on, his best result a third placing in the last race of the day, just when the track was at its worst and dust was also making visibility difficult.

MX2 world No.4 Jake Nicholls (CMR Red Bull KTM 250SXF), of Great Britain, won the MX2 class and Queenstown’s Scotty Columb (JCR Yamaha Racing Team YZ250F) finished runner-up, with Hamilton’s national MX1 champion Darryll King (Fox DC Fuzion Yamaha YZ250) taking third spot and Tauranga’s Peter Broxholme (Botany Bel Ray Honda CRF250) finishing fourth overall.

Carter will no doubt be aiming to shake up that finishing order in the nationals and, hopefully, swap his No.3 board for something a little leaner.

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