Motorsport: Cooper charges to MX1 lead

Honda's Cody Cooper (Papamoa) has raced to the lead of the national motocross champs after an unbeaten second round performance at Timaru on Sunday. Photo / Greg Henderson

Defending champion Cody Cooper (Papamoa) powered back to the top of the MX1 leaderboard as the New Zealand Motocross Nationals reached the halfway point near Timaru on Sunday.

Cooper won all three races at the Dirt Farm venue at Pleasant Point and was chased home in the three 20-minute motos by his Honda Shop Racing teammate John Phillips (Rotorua).

The Timaru effort made up for a tough start to the series - at the New Plymouth track a fortnight earlier - where Cooper had completed the day in fourth position.

"After New Plymouth I was angry at myself," said Cooper.

"I never quite felt right on the bike and my starts weren't very good. I worked hard to get as many points as I could.

"Timaru was awesome. I got the hole-shot in the first and third moto and I was second at the start of moto two and followed my teammate for about three laps before I was able to get past.

"John was riding really well and it was a great day for Honda Shop Racing."

Behind the Honda duo some of Australia's leading riders battled for a podium spot with Luke Styke (KTM), Kirk Gibbs (KTM) and Kade Mosig (Yamaha) each managing a third position.

Cooper leads the series with 124 points, three ahead of Phillips going into the Rotorua round on March 8, which will be raced at the track built on the Phillips family property at Horohoro.

The battling Australians are led by Gibbs with 114 points from Mosig on 101.

Yamaha's Scott Columb (Queenstown), who had led after the opening round, crashed in practice, could only deliver a 12th and two 11th place results at Timaru and is now fifth overall on 99 points, while Taupo's Brad Groombridge (Suzuki) is sixth and his teammate Rhys Carter (Mt Maunganui) is 10th.

Australian Jay Wilson (Yamaha) extended his lead in the MX2 with three wins at Timaru and now holds a 20-point advantage over Takaka's Hamish Harwood (KTM), who posted a 3-2-3 scorecard last weekend.

Amberley's Micah McGoldrick (Honda) is third ahead of Rotorua's Scotty Canham (Kawasaki).

It was a day of mixed fortunes for Te Puke's Logan Blackburn (Suzuki) who was third fastest in qualifying and rode to fourth in the opening moto. He crashed out of the second moto, then put fifth place points on the board in the final race and runs eighth in the championship.

"I was in fourth battling with the second and third placed riders and the guy right in front crashed on the face of a jump," Blackburn said describing the crash.

"I hit his bike so hard my front wheel basically collapsed. The spokes were everywhere."

The bike was un-rideable and Blackburn suffered some bruises and grazes but returned for the third moto and battled to fifth.

The 125cc 2-stroke racing was dominated by Hamilton's Josiah Natzke (KTM), with a 1-1-1 record.