Page 58 - ISSUE_59

JUSTIN COOPER
250 MX / 11TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / TILLS
>> Many of these riders in the 250 class, have migrated both back and forth from the smaller 250 four-stroke, to the 450 in their amateur days. And like you would presume, many enjoy the immediate throttle response that the 450 provides, a mere blip of the throttle, and a launch of ridiculous distance would soon follow. However, as they enter the big leagues, most are forced down to the entry divi- sion, but their riding styles, aggression, and fear levels, place their mentality as if they were still on the larger of the two aforementioned. What does that mean you ask? It results in the 250 being rung out to the maximum, and many close calls being provided by these elite pilots, all in hopes of stretching out a new double, triple, or quad. And Ironman was a place for this to happen. Justin Cooper could be found sizing up every triple on the track in practice, and was reciprocating his efforts in the motos. After a solid start, he and another rider collided down the initial downhill, sending Cooper flying, and forcing to quickly remount. Each lap, no matter what his position, he was bombarding off the face, kissing the front fender, and slamming into mother earth, for as much as his plush forks could take. He was gaining time to an extent, but man it seemed to be taking a bit out of his over- all stamina. Finding the numbers 50 and 105 surrounding him, he was doing all
he could, and maybe at times, a little too much, in order to gain position. It would result in a 16th across the checkered flag. Moto number two had finally arrived, and he was willing to put it all on the line. A bottle rocket with wheels, the 250 was cracking all the way up to its furthest launching point, and hovering into the crisp blue skies, as it would fall back to mother earth, and another position would be gained. Outjumping, leaping, whatever you want to call it, he was pushing with
all of his might, to gain that next spot. It was resulting in a solid position, as his mechanic would glance at timing and scoring. Relaying the message with a black magic marker, it was all he needed to read in order to keep advancing to the final minute of competition. Scrubbing his way around the final single, the season was over, as he finished behind the fellow young gun of Chase Sexton. His final moto score, of seventh, combined with the first, sat him in eleventh overall on the day.
58 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 27, 2017