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No Fear Honda's Cody Cooper took out Round 3 of the Nokia MX Nationals on Sunday 06 May at Conondale, Queensland.
Conondale is a natural terrain track inland from the Sunshine Coast. In temperatures reaching around 30 degrees the winning streak of Kawasaki's Daniel Reardon was broken.
Cody Cooper started the day by qualifying 3rd.
Moto 1 and Reardon took the Holeshot and fifteen seconds later he fell and was relegated to 11th place. That was an opportunity for fellow Kiwi, Shift Motul Suzuki's Daryl Hurley, to jump into the lead, trailed by defending champion No Fear Honda's Craig Anderson in 2nd and Yamaha's Matt Moss in 3rd.
Reardon fought his way back into 3rd by the end of the second lap but disaster struck again when he came off the bike for a second time, which took him back to 13th.
Meanwhile, Hurley extended a generous lead which he held confidently until the finish. Cooper passed team mate Kade Mosig to sit in 3rd behind Anderson, who he chased down and passed in the final laps.
In the end, Hurley took an easy 1st, Cooper 2nd and Anderson, having missed round 2 due to an injury sustained in Round 1, was 3rd.
Moto 2 and Reardon took the Holeshot and led out. This time it was Troy Carroll from Cool Air Racing Team who stepped up to give it a go. Carroll sat in 2nd for most of the race, initially followed by Anderson in 3rd.
By lap 4, Cooper had taken Anderson's 3rd and was chasing Carroll who couldn't hold him off. Cooper went on to cross the line in 2nd place behind Reardon, with Carroll 3rd and Anderson 4th.
Cody Cooper took first overall for Round 3 with 44 points from Hurley on 43 and Anderson 36.
So after three rounds Reardon leads on 134 points, Hurley on 115 and Cooper now in 3rd with 105.
Raymond Terrace in NSW will host Round 4 on 20 May.
