“I just couldn’t hang onto the bike,” the 36-year-
old Cooper explained.
With Gibbs now a solid 10 points in front and just
two races to go, Cooper needed a miraculous
fight-back and there appeared a glimmer of
hope when Cooper won the next race and Gibbs
finished runner-up.
However, the mathematics was simple and
Gibbs knew that he only needed a fourth place
or better in the final race of the championship
for him to take the title.
Cooper won that final race and clinched overall
MX1 class honours for the day, but Gibbs settled
for another runner-up finish and therefore took
the title, the man from the Sunshine Coast
earning Yamaha its first New Zealand MX1 title
in 12 years (when Cambridge’s Damien King won
it in 2008).
Gibbs had previously won the New Zealand MX1
title in 2018, on that occasion riding for KTM,
and the previous time a non-Kiwi won the New
Zealand MX1 title before that was Britain’s Greg
Hanson (on a Kawasaki) in 1987.
26 KIWI RIDER
Between them, Gibbs and Cooper won all 12
races for the MX1 class this season, the pair
sharing the glory six wins apiece, but it was the
two third-place results for Cooper that proved
his undoing.
Special mention should also be made of the men
who finished third, fourth and fifth in the class –
Harwood, Hamilton’s Kayne Lamont (Altherm
JCR Yamaha YZ450F) and Waitakere’s Ethan
Martens (MR Motorcycles Kawasaki KX450F).
Harwood, the double title winner from 2019
(the champion in both the 125cc class and MX2
class last season), was this year focussed on the
MX1 class and racing a 350cc machine against his
illustrious rivals, all of them on 450cc machinery.
Although he didn’t manage to win a race,
Harwood did finish runner-up on three
occasions and also qualified his bike fastest at
Taupo’s finale.
Lamont, the national MX2 champion (on a
Husqvarna) in 2014 and national MX1 No.3 from
last season, saw his 2020 MX1 campaign get off
to a rocky start.