Tony Cooksley wraps up FIM Veteran’s World Motocross Championship

The first round was at Namur in Belgium on 26 August where Cooksley won both races and he repeated that at Donington with races on Saturday and Sunday. The final points tally was:
Tony Cooksley (NZL) 25-25-25-25 = 100
Paul Barbara (FRA) 22-18-22-16 = 78
Danny de Jong (BEL) 18-20-20-18 = 76

Race 1 was on Saturday and he won that by 23.2 seconds from Frenchman Paul Barbara. Race 2 on Sunday (this morning our time) and he won that from Marc van den Brink (NED) by 25.4 secs. "I was a little bit nervous this morning" said Cooksley from Nottingham. "The track was awesome, very supercross'y and they had heavily watered it. But once the gates dropped I just got on with it. Being a Kiwi I had huge support from the Brits and there was plenty of Kiwis there as well. It hasn't really sunk in as yet. Josh (Coppins) on the other hand has seen his MX1 World Motocross Championship slip away." Cooksley continued. "He was 3rd in Race 1 but you could see from his posture he was in a lot of pain and with so many jumps on this track his broken collarbone was being hammered. He slipped back to 14th. In Race 2 he pulled out and and left the track altogether - he was devastated !! In my press conference all the leading questions were about Josh ! They all want him to win it. Antonio Cairoli (already MX2 World Champion) was the 'cat amongst the pidgeons' in the MX1 race. He looked great in practice and but not so great in Race 1 although he did come 2nd to Strijbos. In Race 2 he looked better and won, taking the overall for the day." "Sad about Josh as Steve Ramon has now passed him and leads by 14 points with one round to go at Lierop next weekend. Lierop is one tough sand track where the body gets punished. Strijbos has now closed the gap and only 28 behind Josh and Seb Pourcel one point behind him." Cooksley closed in saying "We are now heading out for dinner so we will celebrate my win with a few JD's." I have had many calls this morning. At this stage Tony returns home this Thursday. We are also organising a function that evening and will confirm the venue. Main Photo: Tony Cooksley on his way to victory.
Photo: HH Media - Dick Koers