Cooper earns No1 plate at last

It's been a long time coming but there is finally a No1 plate on Cody Cooper's bright yellow Suzuki.
The 27-year-old Papamoa racer clinched the MX1 class (450cc) New Zealand motocross title on Sunday with an unbeaten performance at the final round near New Plymouth.
Cooper went into the final round trailing Yamaha's Josh Coppins by one point. He edged two points clear of Coppins by winning the opening moto and gained another five points by winning the second moto when Coppins was beaten into third by defending champion Justin McDonald (Honda).
And when Coppins was forced to sit out the final race with an ankle injury Cooper put the seal on his title with another win. "I had a great weekend. I got three good starts and won all three," said Cooper.
"The track was really muddy in practice but they did a good job of grooming it and scraping off the worst of the mud. Later on it was really rutty and some of the jumps were quite tricky. I was careful and I didn't jump all of the jumps."
For Cooper, the 2011 Demon Energy Nationals were very much a repeat of the previous national series raced in late-2009 with the opening round at the fast Timaru track not being a happy starting place for his title campaign.
As he had in 2009 Cooper struggled with arm-pump and left the Timaru round in third place. In 2009 he then went on to win seven of the remaining nine races but came up two points short of overhauling Justin McDonald while this year dominating the final three rounds was was good enough to clinch the title.
"At Timaru it felt like I couldn't hold on and I just did my best to get as any points as I could," said Cooper.
Cooper has twice won the MX2 national title but the MX1 crown had eluded him.
"The year before [2008] I had a good points lead and I hurt myself in practice at the final round and I couldn't ride," said Cooper.
"It's been a long time and I've come so close before so it's good to finally win it."
Cooper now shifts his attention to the Australian Nationals where he rides for the Rockstar Motul Suzuki team and holds second place behind Scotland's Billy McKenzie after the opening round. Round two of the Australian champs are at the Appin track near Sydney on Sunday.
"Australia is looking pretty good. I've had the best start I've ever had in MX1 over there."
Mt Maunganui's Michael Phillips (Honda) finished third at New Plymouth with a fourth, fifth and third placing in the three motos. The two-time MX2 national champion also finished third overall in the championship, 11 points behind Coppins and 20 ahead of his team-mate and 2009 champion Justin McDonald who produced his best result of the series with second place on Sunday.
Phillips also switches his focus to the Australian Nationals this weekend where he rides for Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing in MX1 and is ninth after the opening round.
The other Bay of Plenty podium finisher at the MX Nationals was teenager Scott Barr-Smith (KTM) who finished runner-up to Yamaha's Ethan Martens (Waitakere) in both the 125cc championship and the under-21 youth class raced within the 125cc class.
Holding a strong second placing going into the final round Scott Barr-Smith battled with suspected food poisoning at the final round and rode to a sixth and two seventh placings. "It wasn't such a good weekend but fortunately I had enough points and did what I needed to do," said Barr-Smith.

Frost into third
BMW rider Sloan Frost (Tauranga) finished runner-up at the penultimate round of the NZ Superbike Championship at Hampton Downs on Sunday and has moved up to third place in the championship.
Series leader Andrew Stroud (Suzuki) dominated the weekend with two wins and has already clinched his ninth national title ahead of this weekend's final at Manfeild.
Frost qualified fourth on Saturday behind Australian Robbie Bugden, Stroud and Hamilton's Nick Cole (Kawasaki) - the top four separated by 0.6secs.
Stroud won Sunday's first race ahead of Bugden and Frost while the 20-lap Geoff Perry Memorial race saw Stroud in lap record-breaking form as he cleared out to win by 12secs from Frost with Cole in third place.
The Hampton Downs wins put Stroud in an unbeatable position on 170 points with Bugden on 104. Frost's weekend aboard the M1 Motorsport BMW S1000RR saw him leap into third place on 91 points ahead of Honda's Hayden Fitzgerald (New Plymouth) on 77.
Bay riders lead
The second weekend of competition in the North Island moto trials championship is being hosted by the Bay of Plenty trials group this weekend.
The double-header weekend are rounds three and four of the North Island Series with four of the classes being led by Bay riders following the first two rounds in Wellington in February.
Tauranga's Gundry family, riding 125cc Beta Evo machines, have made a strong start to the series. Jacob Gundry leads Te Puke rider Ben McLeod in the junior standings after two rounds while older sister Gabby Gundry is the Clubmans class points leader.
Tauranga's Phillip Shilton holds the lead in A-Grade and defending champion Warwick Merriman (Tauranga) is the leader of the Presidents grade.
Expert rider Jake Whitaker (Wellington) will be the drawcard attraction this weekend. The 19-year-old international star leads the Expert class and will soon travel to Europe to compete in the FIM Outdoor World Championship. Whitaker leads Nelson rider Karl Clark after the first two rounds of the series.
Saturday's round three venue is at Wharry Rd, Waihi signposted from 2.5km north of Waihi heading towards Whangamata on State Highway 25. On Sunday the fourth round competition is at the Meredith property, 745 No 4 Rd, Te Puke and will be signposted from the junction of State Highway 2 and No 3 Rd. Riding starts at 8.30am both days.
Blast from past
Circuit racing has the NZ Festival of Motor Racing, rallying has the Otago Classic Rally and motorcycle racing has the annual Classic Festival at Pukekohe.
Drag racing's equivalent "blast from the past" is the annual Nostalgia Drags promoted by the Tauranga-based Bay Rodders Inc which sees the quarter-mile cars of yesteryear back in action.
The 2011 event this weekend at Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere, this Sunday continues to build its international flavour with five Australian cars taking part.
The annual front-engine dragster challenge includes Australian visitor Jim Fleming in The Rattler II with defending champion Mark Vincent (Auckland) expected to return in the Ken Hopper-owned rail.
Making the trip across the Tasman for the first time is Lawrie Kyte with his supercharged Ford "flathead" V8 dragster and Marcus Paige has brought two Phantom Racing T-Buckets. And providing some extra glamour Jim Fleming has also brought his Mustang GT500E convertible to the event.
The introduction of a T-Bucket Challenge this year has attracted considerable interest with likelihood of several cars not seen on a dragstrip for many years making a return to match up against the two Australian buckets.
The other main competition classes are Pre-1950 hot Rods, pre-72 American, flathead challenge, classic gassers and four banger challenges. Te Puke's Dave Gauld will be looking to improve further on his recent personal best 7.801s performance with his crowd pleasing 'Nsanity Fiat Topolino short wheelbase top alcohol altered while Tauranga's Karen Hay will race her six-second '27 T Roadster. Hay continues to chase an 0.15secs improvement that would make her the quickest woman in New Zealand drag racing history.