Podium finishes for Coppins, Townley in British Grand Prix

Wellington
New Zealand stood tall on the podium of the British grand prix yesterday when Josh Coppins and Ben Townley finished second and third respectively in the seventh round of the world MX1 championship.
Belgium's Stefan Everts, the championship leader, won overall after taking both heats, with Coppins fourth and second respectively and Townley third and fifth.
The result moved Coppins into third from fourth in the championship standings on 243 points, but Townley stayed fifth on 204.
Everts has 301 points, a lead of 40 over France's Mickael Pichon of France.
"It was really cool to have both of us up on the podium today,"' Coppins told NZPA after the grand prix at Matchams Park, near Bournemouth.
Coppins, who won the 2004 British MX1 GP on the Isle of Wight, said he was not overly disappointed at not having defended his title successfully.
Matchams Park is notorious for its energy-sapping fine sandy soil that turns into rough and demanding terrain, and today's track contained several big table-tops along with a spectacular timing section of jumps.
"The way track conditions were, we knew it would be hard to beat Everts today," said Coppins, who rides for the British-based CAS Honda team.
Townley, who had taken his first MX1 pole position after setting the fastest time in qualifying, got tangled in a first corner pile-up in the first race and had to play catch-up, thrilling the 30,000 fans as he blazed through the field on his KTM to move into 10th spot by the second lap.
He caught up as far as Coppins and the two friends and flatmates battled until Coppins lost his goggles and settled for fourth behind Townley.
The second race was another tussle between the Kiwis.
"The second race, we battled a lot, we passed each other maybe three or four times," Coppins, 28, said.
"We were no more than two seconds apart the whole race, then I put some pressure on and Ben made a mistake for me to pass ? it was great racing between us, we had a good-fun race."
Townley, the 2004 MX2 world champion, said the whole track was demanding ? the layout of up and down hills and soft ground made it tough and a lot of holes formed which made it even more difficult.
"I found it tough today. I recovered well in the first race but I used a lot of energy as well coming back to third place.
"Going into the second race I knew it was going to be tough so I tried to ride consistent," the 20-year-old from Taupo said.
"Racing with Josh today was pretty cool. He is clean to race with and it's great for the television coverage in New Zealand and the people back home."
The next round of the world championship is the weekend's Italian grand prix at Castiliogne del Lago, in northern Italy.
World MX1 motocross championship standings after seven rounds: Stefan Everts (Belgium, Yamaha) 301 points 1, Mickael Pichon (France, Honda) 261pts 2, JOSH COPPINS (NZ, Honda) 243pts 3, Joel Smets (Belgium, Suzuki), 238pts 4, BEN TOWNLEY (NZ, KTM) 204pts 5.- NZPA