was able to ride a little better in
the second moto and was able
to make passes and get to the
front. But overall, when these
guys are throwing up ones and
twos so often, it's hard to beat,
so what do you do? I'm just
proud of RJ [Hampshire] and
Justin [Cooper] for stepping up
here. I'm proud of the team, and
second is what we had today."
Justin Cooper, normally a
450cc rider, competed in the
MX2 class, replacing the injured
Haiden Deegan on the Monster
Energy Star Racing Yamaha
YZ250F. Cooper looked like his
old self on the smaller-displace
-
ment machine, duking it out with
current MX2 race winners. The
number-five machine finished
10th overall in each moto, going
Team France. Eli Tomac proved
to be the team's strongest rider,
and his second- and fourth-
place finishes proved to be the
tiebreaker for the day's overall
podium. Tomac had his work
cut out for him all day as he
clawed through the field in each
of his two motos, battling with
current and former MXGP World
Champions Romain Febvre and
Tim Gajser. "ET3" came alive in
the final race of the day as he
upped the pace and continu
-
ously chipped away at Hunter's
lead in the final laps. Tomac's
veteran experience and top-five
results gave the Americans the
edge for second overall.
"It was good, but of course,
these Australians make it so
tough," Tomac said. "I felt like I
VOLUME ISSUE OCTOBER , P69
the rest of the day with an injury.
In the second turn, Ken Roczen
(pictured) slid out and rejoined the
race in last place and went on to
finish 18th overall. Roczen was
12th overall in the MXGP/Open
moto. The German team, along
with MX2 rider Maximilian Spies,
ended up 15th overall.
JAPAN QUALIFIES
FOR MXON
It's been eight years since Team
Japan qualified for the three main
MXoN motos, advancing from the
B Final. Thanks to Jo Shimoda's
impressive performances on a
450 (2-6), Team Japan finished
11th overall. Yuki Okura had the
best result of 29th, with Soya
Nakajima earning 31st. Before
the three main races, the morning
B-Final took place, which was won
by Team Estonia with 2-4 finishes
for Harri Kullas and Jorgen-Matth-
ias Talviku. Canadian Jess Pettis
took the race win, but his next-
best teammate was ninth.
PRESENTERS
The top three teams were pre-
sented with their FIM medals by
FIM President Jorge Viegas, FIM/
CMS Director Antonio Alia Portela
and AMA President and CEO Rob
Dingman, while Infront Moto Rac-
ing CEO David Luongo awarded
the traditional MXoN Champions'
Rings to the victorious Australian
squad. Adding a special touch to
the celebrations, Ricky Johnson
personally presented the winners
of each individual class with the
exclusive Ricky Johnson "Bad Boy
Club" Award, a unique medallion
custom-designed to honor the
standout performers of the event.
Briefly...
Justin Cooper (5)
was the second-
best MX2 rider
and battled with
the usual MXGP
heavyweights.
