Coppins Leaves Everyone Choking in the Sand

Coppins Leaves Everyone Choking in the Sand

NOVEMBER 26, 2016: The phrase "multi-talented and versatile" doesn't even go halfway towards describing New Zealander Josh Coppins or his Yamaha YZ450F bikes.
The 39-year-old two-time former motocross world championship runner-up and now motocross team manager rolled up for his second visit to the fabled Burt Munro Challenge festival of speed near Invercargill this week, entered in several events and armed with just two bikes.
A flat tyre on his Altherm JCR Yamaha YZ450F motocross bike in the first of his three open class races at the New Zealand Supercross Championships at Winton on Thursday evening meant he was prevented from threatening Tauranga's fellow former Kiwi international Ben Townley for the title on that occasion and he had to settle for third outright at that event.
But the man from Motueka was quick to shake off the disappointment of that result by taking a slightly modified version of the YZ450F to dominate the second of his Burt Munro title bids, Coppins easily winning the "signature" event of the week, Friday's New Zealand Beach Racing Championships at Oreti Beach.
He also won this famous race on debut at the event last year and so this was the second time that Coppins has etched his name on the trophy which is named after Kiwi legend Munro set a land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States in 1962.
Coppins led from start to finish in the 50-lap Burt Munro Trophy race, lapping everyone in the field apart from the eventual runner-up rider, Otautau's Johnny Racz.
Third in that race was Paeroa's Mark Whyte.
Coppins would most likely have lapped the entire field had it not been for an incident with another lapped rider 20 laps from the finish.
"I was trying to avoid hitting this particular lapped rider and hit a marker peg, wrecking my rear brakes. I had no rear brakes for the final 20 laps," said Coppins.
"This 50-lap race is where Burt Munro was best remembered and it's very special to win this," he said.
"It was a little smoother for me this time around because I'd had the experience already from last year. It's all about getting the bike set up correctly. To race for 50 laps at full throttle, apart from two turns, is very hard on the bike. Fuel capacity is an issue and I was carrying 15 litres at the start of the beach race, which is double what we normally carry.
"Then there's getting the gearing right. It's different going upwind to downwind and the downwind leg was closer to the sea, so the sand was firmer. It's hard, too, racing a 450cc bike against some of the other guys who were on 950cc machines," he explained.
Coppins will again race his Yamaha YZ450F, this time modified again with different gearing and with road-race tyres, in the supermoto class at the Invercargill Streets Races tomorrow (Sunday).
"The weather's not looking great for that at the moment, but it is what it is and I'll just have to cope."
Next week Coppins will be racing his bike in the world's first indoor supermoto race, at the D1NZ event at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
"I'm not sure how I'll go in that. But I'm keen to try these things. It's another of those 'bucket list' events that I want to tick off, like it was when I raced the Veterans' Motocross World Championships (in California) earlier this month."
He finished first equal to American factory test rider Mike Sleeter in the premier 30+ Pro division at the Veterans' Motocross World Championships, but was relegated to second on the count-back rule (Sleeter having the superior result in the final race).
Coppins is supported by the Altherm JCR Yamaha Racing team, Altherm Window Systems, Yamaha, JCR, CRC, Ados, GYTR, Yamalube, Fox Racing, Hollands Collision Centre, Star Moving, Ward Demolition, Fulton Hogan, Pirelli, FMF, DID, NGK, Matrix, Renthal, Motomuck, www.workshopgraphics.co.nz, Motoseat, Hammerhead, SKF, Vertex Pistons, Rtech Plastics, Etnies, Biketranz and Fulton Hogan.

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