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COPPINS RIDES FIRST GP:
They are calling him the miracle man, in Italy.
Just four months after doctors told him he may never walk again motocross
hero Josh Coppins is back at work this weekend, racing in the world
championship.
On his CAS Honda CR250R the New Zealand-born 26-year-old contests Sunday\'s
Italian Grand Prix, round four of the title chase, in sun-baked Tuscany.
But it\'s a far cry from the last time he rode a GP. Any hope of repeating
last year\'s world runner-up position in the glamour 250 class, now called
Motocross GP, has slipped from the grasp of the likeable Coppins.
Indeed he will struggle to make his way through a rugged qualifying
procedure at the tough Montevarchi track where coincidentally he won last
year en route to the Italian national title.
It\'s now just three months since the man they call Lizzard underwent spine
surgery following a horrifying crash in the USA.
But that is not the worst of his problems . Coppins can hardly walk as both
feet and an ankle were smashed when he came down hard in Phoenix, Arizona.
\"The surgeon promised my back would be fine, and he was right,\" commented
the laidback Coppins today as he acclimatised to temperatures above 30
degrees C.
\"I can stand and bend and sit on the bike just fine. When I get off, I have
a bit of trouble hobbling about, but it\'s not as bad as they first said.
\"Straight after the crash they said I might never walk again or perhaps I\'d
have a year in a wheelchair. But none of that came true and I\'ve trained as
hard as I could within the limit of my injuries.
\"My main problem is that I\'ve hardly had any time on the bike and my riding
fitness is very low,\" said the rider reputed as one of the best-prepared on
the international circuit.
\"It\'s a bit frustrating, my head is ready to go but it\'ll take quite a bit
of time for my body to come up to race speed.
\"I had a ride at a British Championship event last weekend and that\'s shown
me how far I have to go.\"
Coppins, from Golden Bay in the north of New Zealand\'s South Island, is
targetting the next few rounds of the 12-event world championship to
improve his race fitness before rejoining the hunt for GP titles towards
season end in September.
\"I\'m lucky to have one of the best bikes on the circuit, the two-stroke
Honda 250,\" he explained.
\"My team CAS Honda has been working hard getting it ready while I\'ve been
laid up; my mechanic Fabio Santoni is out with the team based in the
British Midlands.
\"I\'d like to do well for all of them this weekend, especially for Fabio as
this is his home town and the circuit he grew up on.
\"But I\'ll just have to see how the riding goes, try my best in Saturday
qualifying and take it from there,\" Coppins said philosophically.
Everybody knows there\'s no chance of a repeat of Coppins\' last grand prix
ride, when he pushed back-to-back champion Mickael Pichon (France) all the
way in Moscow\'s final round of 2002.
In fact if the Kiwi can qualify and make the start line on Sunday, it will
be a long haul to the chequered flag 40 minutes later.
But he will have plenty of fans urging him on, especially in Italy where
\'Il Coppini\' proved his character during a tough season last year.
From here the grand prix circus makes its way to another circuit baked hard by the scorching sun, in the eastern European nation of Bulgaria next weekend.
Ian Miles
Josh\'s Manager
