Motocross: Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper scores win at Waikato Motocross Championships

Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper (Honda Racing Team CRF450), unbeaten in all four MX1 class races at the weekend. Photo / Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com

Despite being unwell and a bit shaky, Mount Maunganui's Cody Cooper was a standout at the annual Waikato Motocross Championships.

The 35-year-old Honda Racing Team rider was still feeling "under the weather" from a bug that forced him to withdraw from last month's big annual Huka Honda MX Fest event in Taupō, but he decided to soldier on at the champs held at Te Kuiti on Sunday.

Although he was well below his best, he was still significantly better than all riders who lined up to battle him in the glamour MX1 (450cc) class, with four impressive wins from four starts and finishing the day well clear of Taupō's Cohen Chase and Richmond's Reece Walker.

The man who had won at Taupō last month, Hamilton-based former Mangakino rider Kayne Lamont, had been the closest threat to Cooper early in the day, although he was never really close enough to pass the Honda star.

But Lamont ended his day prematurely when he injured himself in race three and was taken to hospital.

"I was feeling quite tired in that last race. I was feeling a bit shaky because my body has not yet recovered from the bug I had," Cooper said.

"I didn't have full strength in my grip on the bike. When the track got quite rough in the last race I didn't want to push too hard because I wasn't feeling that great.

"The whole bike is stock at the moment. We haven't really even started testing. The power though is unreal for a stock bike. I would have had Yoshimura mufflers on the bike but when I pulled them out of the box they were two right-handers and so wouldn't fit on the bike anyway.

"So, with nothing having been done to the bike, I'm really pumped with how good it is. The suspension setting we used was the first setting that Mark Scobie from M-Spec has made for me and it was pretty good. We have some more tuning to do, so it should be even better.

"I'm just going out each weekend at the moment and not too worried about where I finish, just going out and riding as well as I can."

In terms of preparation for the 2019 New Zealand Motocross Championships season, Cooper has plenty of time on his side to complete his bike's fine tuning.

He said his next big outing would be to race at the Honda Summercross near Whakatāne in December, with the big annual Honda New Zealand Motocross Grand Prix to follow at the end of January and then the start of the four-round New Zealand Motocross Championships in Taranaki in February.