No
Fear Honda Fight For Ground at Coolum
With No Fear
Honda’s lead rider, Craig Anderson still out of the competition
due to injury, team mates Cody Cooper and Troy Dorron toiled toward
increasing their standings at this past weekend’s fourth round
of the Australian Motocross Championship.
The Team have
had their share of misfortune thus far in the series, and though
they once again showed the pace required to outrun their nearest
rivals, both found themselves battling against the odds at the sandy
circuit in Coolum.
Cody showed
no lingering distress of a torn AC joint sustained two months ago
early on the meeting. In qualifying, he was clearly the fastest
in the smaller class with a lap time about half a second on the
next man. His two motos proved to be a solid but sundry exhibition
with a 6th and 4th place finish to equal 5th overall for the day.
With his top
ten result, the young Kiwi and ’04 Champion gained much needed
championship points, but still has some ground to make up over the
second
half of the series.
As is the case
at the tight, sandy Queensland circuit, Cooper got caught up in
the mayhem of corner one at the drop of the gates in moto1 resulting
in a dead last restart for the 20 year old Kiwi.
With his usual
lightening speed, he did everything necessary to work back up through
the field to eventually finish 6th, an excellent result at a notoriously
difficult track.
The hard ride
did take its toll somewhat on Coops even though he has been training
hard at home whenever possible with his New Zealand comrades and
come moto2, Cody struggled somewhat to catch the top runners including
Ryan Marmont, Daniel McCoy and Cameron Taylor.
After a top
ten start and a decent ride, Coops worked his way up to finish in
4th, a respectable placing for the rider who has had to deal with
a difficult first half of the series.
“I am
still feeling a little bit of left over pain from my shoulder injury
but more so as the day goes on. Early on in qualifying and all that,
I’m feeling great. I’ll just have to keep working on
getting my overall fitness better,” Cody mentioned.
Honda cohort
Troy Dorron also found himself at the mercy of the pack on the day,
ending the meeting with a sense of frustration at his bad luck.
The perennial
crowd pleaser got a great start first time out and was looking in
form in second position until disaster struck - or rather another
rider struck - taking him out completely.
Troy did manage
to get back into the ring however only a few moments later, a second
rider crashed into his back end, damaging the rear brake line.
From there on,
the 33 year old Victorian had to limp around for the duration, somehow
managing to finish the race with no rear brakes whatsoever; “a
real fluke accident in the way it damaged the brakes,” according
to Team Manager Pip Harrison.
With a certain
frustration perhaps ‘clouding my ability to get the flow back’,
Troy had some difficulty finding his rhythm in moto2. He got away
just inside the top 10 and finished there as well but was clearly
disappointed with his result for the round.
“There
wasn’t much I could do about the first race. I mean that’s
just what happens when you are out there with a whole bunch of other
guys. But it is frustrating because it was a one in a million thing
that could have happened, and I think I could have gotten to the
front and stayed there.”
“In moto2,
I just never felt comfortable. I don’t know if I was still
a bit pissed off about the morning and it affected my focus a little
but that happens sometimes.”
Doz sits in
7th overall on the ladder at the halfway mark and after twenty
years in the game, said he “knows what I need to do now.”
Craig Anderson,
who now drops to 5th after sitting out two rounds, is scheduled
to make his comeback at Tasmania. However nothing is “certain
at this point in time,” according to Ando’s orthopaedic
surgeon. “If I can race at the next round, you can bet I will
be there,” Ando said.
Team Manager
Harrison explained that the crew will continue to test and develop
the bikes, and work on “creating our own luck to some extent.”
“It has
been a bit frustrating because the boys are working hard and the
bikes are great. We have just had to deal with some things outside
of our control that are affecting the overall results. But I assure
you, we will do whatever we can to change that situation around
at the next round.”
Round five of
the Australian Motocross Championships will be held on Sunday, May
22 in Newcastle, NSW.
