The wins just keep coming for Bay of Plenty motocross ace Cody Cooper.

The 32-year-old New Zealand MX1 champion was simply too powerful for his rivals at the weekend’s annual King of the Mountain (KoM) motocross in Taranaki, the man from Mount Maunganui taking his Honda Racing Team CRF450F to four wins from four starts, winning the MX1 class outright and also winning the all-important King of the Mountain all-capacities feature race from which the event gets its name.

Fresh from winning the MX1 class at the Waikato Motocross Championships in November, the Auckland Motocross Championships in December and the Honda Summercross, in Whakatane just after Christmas, Cooper was heavily favoured to win on Sunday.

And he certainly lived up to his star billing.

Cooper was never headed all day and, although the track was becoming “quite risky” late in the afternoon and, even with the MX1 class win by then already in his pocket and vital races coming up in the next few weeks, he was still prepared to accept the challenge and line up for the day’s final feature race at the steep Barrett Road circuit.

He led the feature from start to finish, crossing the line ahead of Queenstown’s former national MX2 champion and last year’s KoM winner Scott Columb, with two-time former KoM winner Brad Groombridge, of Taupo, claiming third place.

It was a truly international line-up that blessed the KoM event this year.

Such was the depth of talent that the top six finishers in this race had all previously represented New Zealand internationally at the biggest motocross in the world, the annual Motocross of Nations (MXoN).

Cooper, who raced for New Zealand in France last September and has been a Kiwi team member on six other occasions as well, used all of that experience to successfully fend off the attacks by Columb (who raced for New Zealand in England in 2008, in Italy in 2009 and Latvia in 2014), Groombridge (a team NZ rider in the USA in 2010), Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont (Belgium in 2010, Germany in 2013 and France in 2015), Hawera’s Daryl Hurley (Belgium in 2001, Netherlands in 2004 and USA in 2007) and Elsthorpe’s Kieran Scheele (France in 2011).

“I tried to ride within my comfort zone because I didn’t want to risk too much with some big races coming up, like the New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville next weekend and the (four-round) nationals after that,” said Cooper.

“But Scotty (Columb) really pushed me. He was right there (behind me) and I had to go outside my comfort zone a bit today. The track was slippery and getting quite chopped up at the end. It was pretty sketchy out there.

“The tyres I was using today had already been used a bit. I raced with the same tyres at Summercross, so they had lost their sharp edge and that made things difficult for me. But I have been trying to become mentally stronger and ride around any problems I have like that.

“I did feel strong today and I think I’m ready for Woodville and the nationals.”

Lamont was the outright winner of the MX2 (250cc) class after a thrilling day-long battle with fellow Kiwi international Courtney Duncan.

Sunday marked a return to racing after injury for both of these Altherm JCR Yamaha Team riders and they showed they were back to world-beating form.

Otago’s Duncan will leave shortly for Qatar where she will race the opening round of the women’s world championships.

Meanwhile, winner of the junior King of the Mountain title was 16-year-old Stratford rider Sam Cleland.

Cleland (Suzuki RM-Z250), a year 12 student at Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, finished the day third overall in the 14-16 years’ 250cc class and also managed to finish runner-up to 450cc rider Brendon Mcaskie in the all-capacities senior MX3 class.

But he really turned it on in the feature race to take the chequered flag by just a bike length from Dunedin’s Grason Veitch.

Class winners on Sunday were Mount Maunganui’s Cody Cooper (MX1, Honda); Mangakino’s Kayne Lamont (MX2, Yamaha); Ngatea’s Ben Broad (National 125/under-21, KTM); Otago’s Courtney Duncan (Women, Yamaha); Inglewood’s Larry Blair (Vets over-35, KTM); Wellington’s Glen Woods (Vets over-45, TM); Morrinsville’s Brendon Mcaskie (MX3, Yamaha); Masterton’s Camden Butler (Junior 14-16 years 250cc, Yamaha); Sanson’s Max Hefferen (15-16 years 125cc, Yamaha); Matamata’s Brodie Connolly (Junior 12-14 years 125cc and 14-16 years 85cc classes, KTM); Palmerston North’s Toby Winiata (Junior 12-13 years 85cc, Husqvarna); Pukekohe’s Coleman Brydon (Junior 8-11 years 85cc, KTM); New Plymouth’s Jesse Wickham (Junior 8-11 years 65cc, KTM).

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

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