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JUSTIN COOPER
250 MX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Justin Cooper started his rst full season in the professional ranks on re. He nished on
the overall podium twice and in the top ve three times in the rst four rounds of the series. He even managed to bring home a moto victory at Thunder Valley. He has shown that he has the raw speed to contend as he has grabbed the pole position at seemingly every round thus far.
But since his big crash at Muddy Creek, he has not been the same rider. He had only one top ve nish in the last three races before Millville where he nally once again put two consistent motos together for second overall. He showed true rookie mistakes like many other rookies
have done before him, but it looks like he shook them at Millville and he is ready to return to the front of the standings. Cooper, like I mentioned earlier, has been throwing down heaters in the morning qualifying practice sessions all year. Washougal proved to be no different as he threw down the fastest lap time of the class. All that was left for him to do was get a good start and let his speed do the rest. Cooper would not get the best of starts to kick off moto one, but it would be nothing to fret about. He came out of lap one in tenth and looked to make some quick moves forward. He passed one rider per lap for the next three laps before settling into seventh place. There he locked in behind Michael Mosiman and the two young riders enjoyed a heated battle. They yo-yoed each other around the track for quite some time. Cooper maintained the pressure and nally made a pass work a few laps into the second half of the race. This put him up to sixth which he would hold down until the checkered ag. It was a decent moto for him, but he would be going into moto two looking for a little bit more. Cooper started moto two slightly better with an eighth-place start but this time, he would fail to make the early passes like he did in moto one. In fact, he would not make any passes at all for the entire race. He got thrown into a chain of riders that all got spaced out from each other. He virtually rode the entire race in no man’s land with
a ten second gap ahead of him and behind him. It would be a very lonely moto for Cooper who would bring home eighth place. His 6-8 scores earned him seventh overall. The results weren’t spectacular, but he did manage to piece together two good motos, something he has struggled to do at times this season.
26 GRITMOTO • JULY 29, 2018