Interview with NZ's MXoN Team Manager Tony Cooksley

I am in a hotel in Holland not from the Doeksen’s apartment - having breakfast with Andrew Stewart (Elf)

Where to start? lets go back to Qualifying and the one minute penalty.

Cody’s bike had been tested as was everyone else and they told him they were going to re-test his bike after Qualifying.  His Open Class was the last session and we were happy that we were 15th overall with Josh 9th, Kayne 34th and Cody was something like 4th. Cody was taking ages to get back and we did not know he was being re-tested. When he finally arrived he said that the bike had failed the test. Teams have a certain amount of time to the appeal so I took off for the Jury Room but by that time it was too late and Cody had been handed a one minute penalty.  That put us back to 20th, only 19 Qualify so we were the leading team in the B Final on Sunday morning.

#87 Cody Cooper in Qualifying.  Courtesy of David Bulmer from Vurb Moto. Photographer - Andrew Conway

When the gate dropped Cody holeshot and clocked out with Josh behind him.  They were saying there were 65,000 there and they were all going ballistic for New Zealand.  Cody was doing 1:59s and Josh caught him with one lap to go.  This was 35 minutes of attention on New Zealand – it was unreal.  Remembering that English is not the first language here but the commentators were absolutely hypo for New Zealand – it was unbelievable.  

Josh won by 7 seconds from Cody who was 39 seconds ahead of 3rd.  That gave NZ the win with 3 points – only the top two points counted so we didn’t need Kayne’s.  Czech Republic were 2nd on 12 points and Lithuania on 23 as was Puerto Rico. Osborne was back in 5th – 99 seconds back – he was actually closer than that but had a bad last lap.  Chisholm was down at 18th.   There were extraordinary scenes as the Josh/Cody domination was up against GP riders such as Mathias Walkner who had just won the FIM MX3 World Championship and he was down at 11th.  There were other big names such as Martin Michek (9th), Kornel Nemeth (4th) and Jose Butron (6th).  Everyone was ecstatic but the boys were certainly feeling burnt out from that race.   Suzuki took Cody’s bike away for another noise test and it was okay but that’s the way it goes.

What about Kayne Lamont?  I read elsewhere he was told to save himself.

Not at all, we told him to set his own pace but to stay up on two wheels.  If Josh or Cody DNFd we would have needed his points. He was sore as he'd hurt his thumb in a practice crash.  Although he was down at 34th out of 38 he still had the 13th fastest lap.  He rode well and was as fast as Kyle Chisholm.  Note: there was no B Final lap chart analysis available. 

Okay, Race 1 - MX1 & MX2 ?

Josh finished 11th and Kayne 34th.    Josh climbed up to 8th at lap 4 and stayed there for 8 laps.  He dropped back to 11th for the last 4 laps.  Kayne hovered between 32nd and 35th.  Both were shattered after that 35 minutes.  Lommel is certainly tough but we’ve always known that.  Great respect for Tony Cairoli who won by 21 seconds.

Then it was Race 2 - MX2 & Open

Tough third moto for Kayne but he stuck at it for 37 minutes coming home 32nd.  Cody started off around 13th and sat in 10th for laps 5 to 9.  He slid back after that, lap by lap, to finish 17th.   Jeffrey Herlings lapped up to 5th and won it by 58 seconds.   Again the crowd were going nuts.  How good is Herlings in sand?  Roczen was 108 seconds behind him and only about 10 seconds off being lapped. 

The final Race 3 – MX1 & Open - Josh’s farewell

They were both shattered having put everything into that B final.  This race was not really going to effect the outcome.  They were both down the back of the field, Cody at 32nd and Josh at 34th.  Josh lasted 6 laps and Copy 10.  We had finished 15th overall, which is made up of three Nations Classifications.  MX1 - Josh was 13th. MX2 - Kayne was 19th.  Open - Cody was 13th.  We were very happy with that considering.

Are you still suffering from the flu?

Yes, been to the Doctor but it seems to come and go however I still feel lousy.  Up here the Doeksens are calling it Spanish Flu (because they caught it in Spain) and it hangs around for 3 weeks - nice.  Hope flying does not have any side effects.  I'm on Emirates A380 so no problem sleeping.  Thanks to Emirates also, I brought up a lot of extra baggage.

Any closing comments on the team?

The B Final was the actual highlight with all the attention on New Zealand.  Without that B Final we knew we could have been 8th or 9th overall but that’s the way it was.  The boys did their best on a very tough track.  Great experience for Rhys Carter also.  Too tough for the Americans as well. Huge crowd and huge atmosphere especially for the team with New Zealand winning the B Final and advancing.

Nice close-up of Josh Coppins from Gino Maes

What is Josh Coppins up to?

You will have to ask Josh that (laughs). He will be staying with Yamaha and doing work in Europe, Australia and New Zealand but the detail will all be announced in good time.