Josh Coppins and the Factory
Aprilia motocross team headed to St Jean D’Angely in France this past
weekend looking for a good result in Round 7 of the MX1 World Championship.
Coppins has always enjoyed the challenging hill-side circuit and was
looking forward to the race.
In the Saturday qualifying race
‘Lizzard’ blasted his Aprilia out the gate grabbing an awesome
hole-shot in front of the thousands of French fans. As the race progressed
Coppins had settled into the top five and was racing comfortably when the
bike stalled going into a technical off camber corner. Having to get the
bike re-started left the New Zealander ultimately qualifying in
13th.
On a wet and rutted circuit Coppins
had a reasonable start for moto 1 on Sunday, powering around lap 1 in
14th place. Settling in to a solid rhythm ‘Lizzard’
was circulating well and picked off a few riders to get into
12th by the end of the race.
In the second moto Coppins was fast
out the gate and headed through the first turn inside the top 10. Battling
to find a good rhythm on the very rough and slippery circuit left
‘Lizzard’ fighting to hold onto every position, and ultimately
the number 6 Aprilia jumped across the finish line in 14th
position.
“It was a tough weekend for
me but I have to say that I’m really happy with how the bike
performed” explained Coppins. “We got a good hole-shot in the
qualifying race which shows that we have made good improvements and are now
competitive at the start. I feel I rode well in the first moto but
could not put it together in the second. I battled to find my speed
and kept fighting the track over the moto and could not finish off how I
wanted to. I’m happy with the improvements with the bike
and the effort that the team is putting in, and hope that we can translate
this all into a better result in Teutschenthal in two weeks
time”
Results
Moto 1
1 Cairoli, Antonio
2 Ramon, Steve
3 Philippaerts, David
4 Desalle,
Clement
5 Guarneri, Davide
6 Leok, Tanel
7 Boissiere, Anthony
8 Strijbos, Kevin
9 de
Dycker, Ken
10 Aubin, Nicolas
11 Swanepoel, Gareth
12 Coppins, Joshua
13 Bobryshev,
Evgeny
14 Goncalves, Rui
15 Pourcel, Sebastien
Moto 2
1 Philippaerts, David
2 Desalle, Clement
3 Cairoli, Antonio
4 Boissiere, Anthony
5 Ramon, Steve
6 de Dycker,
Ken
7 Boog, Xavier
8 Guarneri, Davide
9 Leok,
Tanel
10 Pourcel, Sebastien
11 Strijbos, Kevin
12 Goncalves, Rui
13 Swanepoel, Gareth
14 Coppins, Joshua
15 Aubin, Nicolas
Overall GP
1 Philippaerts,
David 20 25 45
2 Cairoli,
Antonio 25 20 45
3 Desalle,
Clement 18 22 40
4 Ramon,
Steve 22 16 38
5 Boissiere,
Anthony 14 18 32
6 Guarneri,
Davide 16 13 29
7 de Dycker,
Ken 12 15 27
8 Leok,
Tanel 15 12 27
9 Strijbos,
Kevin 13 10 23
10 Swanepoel,
Gareth 10 8 18
11 Pourcel,
Sebastien 6 11 17
12 Aubin,
Nicolas 11 6 17
13 Goncalves,
Rui 7 9 16
14 Coppins,
Joshua 9 7 16
15 Boog,
Xavier 0 14 14
World Championship
Standings
1 Cairoli, A. 304
2 Desalle, C. 236
3 Philippaerts, D. 229
4 Nagl, M. 218
5 Ramon, Steve 211
6 de
Dycker, Ken 201
7 Boog, Xavier 181
8 Leok,
Tanel 162
9 Guarneri, D. 140
10 Bobryshev,
E. 123
11 Strijbos, K. 109
12 Boissiere,
A. 107
13 Coppins, J. 106
14 Pourcel, S. 92
15 Swanepoel,
G. 92
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