Cooper Injured After MX Victory

Team Rockstar Motul Suzuki's Pro Open challenger Cody Cooper showed
that he is the fastest contender in the 2011 Australian National
Motocross Championship - but an injury has temporarily sidelined
his Championship challenge.
In the first of four Pro Open motos, the recently-crowned New
Zealand Motocross Champion destroyed the field, taking the win by
nine-and-a-half seconds from fellow Kiwi Josh Coppins.
In the second moto, Cooper had again gapped his competition and was
well ahead of the field when he crashed heavily on an uphill
double. He re-joined the race and was able to finish the moto but
he sustained a rib injury in the crash and was sidelined for the
remainder of the day.
It was a disappointing end for the Rockstar Motul Suzuki pilot.
Prior to the crash Cooper had clearly demonstrated that he was the
man to beat and his race time for moto one proved to be the fastest
race of the day.
With only a week before the third round of the Championship, Cooper
will face an uphill battle to be fit for Raymond Terrace. However,
he has proved his physical and mental toughness on many an
occasion, and the team is hesitant to rule out a round three
return.
Cooper currently sits 10th in the Championship, 43 points behind
series leader Dean Ferris. With 700 points still on offer, the
reigning New Zealand MX1 Champion is still a serious Championship
contender.
Team Raceline Pirelli Suzuki's Lawson Bopping also had a
challenging weekend. A 6-2-DNF-7 result saw him finish seventh on
the day and sixth in the Championship.
In the Pro Lites class, Daniel McCoy put in a solid performance
over the four motos. McCoy again struggled with poor starts which
proved difficult to overcome. His 3-9-6-9 result saw him finish
fifth on the day and he currently sits equal-sixth in the
Championship.
Team Rockstar Motul Suzuki Team Manager Jay Foreman, was
circumspect with the weekend's results. He said: "With Cody, it is
what it is. We know he is fast so hopefully he will be fit enough
to race next week. This week we will be busy with Daniel to get on
top of poor starts. He showed he has the speed to run with the
front guys, but he just needs to start with them. We are testing
again this week to work on starting techniques."
The series will now move to Newcastle at the Raymond Terrace
circuit in New South Wales for round three on April 10th.