WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: TAUPO MX NATIONALS
You could not have written a better fairy tale ending to the FOX New Zealand Motocross Champs than what played out at the final round in Taupo. A literal winner-takes-all in the MX1 class had fans on the edge of the fences as the gate dropped for the final time of 2019 in Aotearoa’s premier class.
Whether or not Cooper was going to get back to second by the end of the race was a no-brainer. Both him and Gibbs were exponentially better than the rest of the class, so second was always a forgone conclusion. But getting back to 2nd was not going to be enough to take the title and the speed between the two riders was so close that passing was the hardest part.
It is always a good idea to err on the side of caution when it comes to injuries and riders that are on the track and need attention. But 5 laps of red cross flags before throwing the red seems a little long? Especially when you take into account the championship and subsequent declaring of he race. We weren’t on the scene and don’t know exactly what it was that happened or led to the decisions that were made but the red should have been thrown out after two laps. With the lap times, two laps is nearly 5 minutes of the rider on the ground, on the track with bikes coming past. This also would have given the riders who were chasing the championship the ability to fight it out on the track and not have officials decide who the winner was.
But for the fans though, it set up the perfect storm between Cooper and Gibbs with the last race of the series crowning the 2019 MX1 champion.
It seems getting an average start in the final moto may have played a part in Cooper being able to get around the Yamaha riders. Battling through the pack, Cooper was pushed wide on this corner when in about 7th place, but still made the pass. Drifting a little further outside the normal ‘racing line’ was smoother, giving you better drive and a faster exit speed - although it didn’t look like it, which may have been why no one else was taking it. This is also something Cooper may not have tried had he not had to contend with half the field on lap one. Both Yamaha riders were clearly surprised when Cooper railed around the outside of them and made a pass out of nowhere.
MX2
The MX2 class produced some great racing of its own, but it was never a run for the title like in MX1. Hamish Harwood held a commanding lead after Round 3 in Auckland and only had to finish near the pointy end to secure another MX2 title.
125
The 125 class was even more of an uneventful story as Hamish Harwood had won every race thus far in the season. And after qualifying it wasn’t looking like a change was in the cards.
With the 2019 FOX New Zealand Motocross Nationals wrapped up for another season, in most cases, the racing was pretty action packed. Sure Harwood had both titles pretty covered coming into the final round, but with plenty more positions up for grabs there was action all day. And the way the MX1 class played out was something we wish everyone could have witnessed in the flesh.
Check back here in the coming weeks for a break down of the series itself. Not the racing, but more the rider numbers or lack of, the no south island round, VIP tent access, team spending and much, much more in an upcoming edition of Motopinion. Stay tuned.