DESERTMARTIN (
The weather conditions were quite changeable all day with showers and sunshine playing host to Josh Coppins’ and Tyla Rattray’s win celebrations.
After 12 rounds the Motocross World Championship found a new winner in MX1. Josh Coppins spoiled the potential 100 wins celebration for Stefan Everts and defeated the Belgian Champion on the ground of Desertmartin.
The 29 year old New Zealander grasped a second place in the first moto where he was first at the end of the first lap, snatching the top spot from holeshotter Steve Ramon. Stefan Everts got close to him and passed after a side by side battle; Everts tried to open up a gap but Josh stayed behind him looking for an open door to pass. Towards the end of the race the Honda rider lost the touch with the Yamaha rival and arrived second at the chequered flag.
It was a lot of pressure to deal with but Everts managed it and won the first heat after two hard fights, the first of which was with countryman Steve Ramon.
The Suzuki rider was eleventh because he crashed twice and it took him a lot of time to restart the bike after the first crash.
Ken De Dycker was third but he lost some important time with a first lap crash. He had to restart from fourteenth and by the time he was behind CAS Honda team mate Coppins it was too late to catch him.
World Championship runner up Kevin Strijbos got fourth place ahead of local hero Gordon Crockard securing a fifth place finish.
In the second moto, it was time to win for Josh Coppins. He was first into the first corner and lead the race until Everts passed him at the eighth lap; once again the Belgian tried to fly away from last year’s runner up Coppins and once again the Honda rider kept close to the rival. He knew he had the speed to catch his fourth win of his career in the Motocross World Championship.
Joshua finally passed in the eleventh lap and lead until the chequered flag.
Everts kept the rival’s pace up for a while then arrived at the finish line with a 25 second 650 thousandth gap. He preferred to secure a safe second place and rescheduled the 100 win record for the next round in Lierop.
Barragan was third in the second moto, moving past De Dycker in the sixteenth lap. The Belgian was fourth but jumped on the third step of the overall podium. For
Second moto top five ended with Suzuki factory rider Kevin Strijbos while team mate Ramon did not finish the race because of a crash.
Josh Coppins made a fantastic race and deserved the win in Desertmartin
In the MX1 World Championship standings the top five is still the same with Everts, Strijbos, Ramon, De Dycker and Leok but now Ken De Dycker is only nine points behind Ramon and can challenge him for third place.
Coppins took a big step forward, moving from tenth to seventh, right behind Barragan.
MX2 saw last year’s winner Tyla Rattray grasping two back to back wins.
The South African showed a superb pace on the track of Desertmartin and even if he crashed in the first moto he still kept the lead.
Right after the start Sebastien Pourcel challenged him for first place and snatched it but Tyla was back to first again in the second lap. The KTM rider had a direct flight to a first place finish while Sebastien Pourcel finished fifth after he made a mistake towards the end of the race.
In that way he handed third place to his brother Christophe and fourth place to Rui Goncalves. Current World Champion Antonio Cairoli was second and raced a consistent moto. He was third at the end of the first lap and once he passed Sebastien Pourcel at the sixth lap he kept second for the rest of the race.
KTM riders Philippaerts, who was sick at the stomach, and De Reuver arrived in seventh and eighth place: they lost some time at the first lap because the Italian crashed in front of the Dutchman.
The second moto was another one man band show with Rattray winning with a 20 second 796 thousandths advantage over team mate De Reuver.
Tyla snatched first place from Cairoli at the first lap and kept a supreme pace until the end. First Cairoli and then Sebastien Pourcel tried to follow him but none of them made it.
Sebastien was fifth at the end while Cairoli crashed at fourth lap and finished the race in seventh place. In the overall classification he was third but Christophe Pourcel was one step ahead in second.
Current Championship leader was fourth in the second moto, behind Italian KTM rider David Philippaerts who made up for the first moto with a third place finish.
On the other hand Rui Goncalves had a crash at the first corner, re entered the race in twenty third place and made up ground until eighth, entertaining the crowd with the many overtaking manoeuvres.
Today’s race was definitely a flight for Tyla Rattray
In the MX2 World Championship standings fourth place holder Rattray got closer to Philippaerts who is still in third place. Sebastien Pourcel moved past Billy Mackenzie and is now seventh while Kawasaki Molson rider Tommy Searle dropped down to eleventh place: after the event of Desertmartin his team mate Swanepoel is ninth and Rui Goncalves is tenth.
The fourteenth round of the Motocross World Championship will be in