There’s a reason why Bay of Plenty’s Cody Cooper has the big No.1 emblazoned on his Honda motocross bike.

The 33-year-old from Mount Maunganui is the best MX1 motocross rider in the country and he has been for the past four seasons.

He fully intends to stretch that winning streak to five this season and began on that path in the best possible way on Sunday, by winning the opening round of four in the 2017 New Zealand Motocross Championships at Pleasant Point, near Timaru.

Cooper (Honda Racing Team CRF450) finished 1-3-1 in his three MX1 class outings and this was enough to give him a five-point gap over nearest challenger, Australian Dean Ferris (Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing Team YZ450F), who managed 2-1-4 results. Third best in this premier grade was Mount Maunganui’s Rhys Carter, who took his 3Twenty3 Racing Team Kawasaki to 3-2-3 results.

With Australian visitors Todd Waters and Jesse Dobson taking their Honda CRF450 bikes to finish fourth and fifth overall, it gave a distinctive red hue to the extended podium, with three Hondas among the top five.

It was a tough day at the office for Cooper and for his rivals too, with the track starting out soft and slippery and then becoming progressively harder and more rutted with each passing hour. By the last race of the day, sharp-edged rocks worked had their way to the surface of the track and “blue groove” tyre stains were being left on the dry dirt.

Cooper had experienced a difficult time the previous weekend and forced to settle for an unaccustomed third position overall at the big annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville when limited set-up time had left him scrambling to find a favoured setting for his bike’s suspension.

But that problem was turned around in just one week and Cooper seemed to glide effortlessly over the Timaru bumps.

“I have had only very limited time to prepare my bike, with after-market parts arriving quite late, but even when everything is not 100 percent, I know that if I can get a good start, I could get the job done,” said Cooper.

“I have not done anything else but testing during the week and so that means I’ve missed out on doing a lot of the training I’d normally do.

“I can’t thank the guys on the Honda Racing Team enough and especially Kiwi Suspension Solutions’ Robert Taylor. The bike just got better and better all weekend and it was a dream to ride in that last race.

“These are the settings I’ll now use for the rest of the series.”

Sunday’s result follows on  from Honda’s successful run of wins this season, including Cooper’s dominance at the annual post-Christmas Honda Whakatane Summercross and Waters’ MX1 class win at the Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix at Woodville just over a week ago, although Yamaha’s Ferris did win the main trophy at Woodville.

The national championship competition now heads to Rotorua for round two in just over two weeks’ time, on February 19.

Round three is set for Palmerston North on March 12, with the fourth and final round at Taupo on March 25.

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

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