Suzuki’s Cody Cooper has done it again, only this time he took his Moto City team-mate along for the ride.
Cooper made it back-to-back wins at the popular Tarawera 100 cross-country dirt bike endurance race near Kawerau on Saturday, a virtual repeat of his start-to-finish win at the event last season, with fellow Bay of Plenty man Rhys Carter following closely behind to make it a Suzuki 1-2 at the iconic race.
For Cooper (Suzuki RM-Z450), the win seemed to come with the minimum amount of fuss.
The Kiwi international, originally from Opotiki and one of the leading riders in the Australian Motocross Championships across the Tasman this season, took over the lead soon after the start of the 100-mile (160-kilometre) race and, just over four hours later, he had stretched his advantage to four minutes and 17 seconds over Carter.
The Suzuki 1-2 was quite unexpected with Opotiki’s Carter taking the No.2 spot on a Moto City Suzuki RM-Z250, humbling many riders on more powerful 450cc bikes.
Third best was yet another Bay of Plenty rider, Tauranga’s Reece Burgess.
“It was harder than last year,” said Cooper afterwards. “They had used virtually the same track this year and, although the organisers had run a bulldozer blade over some of it, it was still very rough.”
In the fight for class honours, however, Cooper and Carter were both winners, Cooper taking the over-300cc four-stroke section ahead of Burgess and Tauranga’s Peter Broxholme, and Carter winning the under-300cc four-stroke class ahead of Mokau’s Adrian Smith and Te Awamutu’s Mark Penny, who was on a Suzuki RM-Z250 identical to Carter’s.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Carter. “I hit a fence strainer post soon after the start and came off the bike. I crashed again before we headed into the forest for the first time. I was back in about 30th position.”
For Carter to battle back and achieve runner-up at the end speaks volumes for his talent and tenacity.
And the glory didn’t stop there for the Suzuki men, with 52-year-old Taupo bike shop owner Darryl August taking his RM250 to win the mega vets (over-50 years’) class on Saturday.
For further information contact Simon Meade, Motorcycle Sales Manager, simon@suzuki.co.nz
