Last weekend’s Toowoomba round of the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals in Queensland saw Kiwi champion Cody Cooper take out his first victory of the year in a skillful display on Sunday afternoon.

Cooper has been in dynamite form this season apart from a frustrating rib and consequent lung injury ruling him out of contention at both Appin and Raymond Terrace, however his win on the weekend marked a return of sorts for the Rockstar Motul Suzuki pilot.

MotoOnline.com.au tracked down Cooper following the podium presentations to get his take on what was the toughest round of the series to date, as well as to get an update on his fitness status.

This weekend you were able to bounce back from the injury and win your first overall of the season, so it must be a really good feeling to in what were ultra tough conditions?

Yeah, for sure it those three nights in hospital after Appin were really bad, but this makes up for it, you know?

I haven’t had too much time on the bike because my rib’s been sore and I had to pull out of the last race at Murray Bridge. That sucked for me, made me down a bit, but in other ways it made my want it more.

It was good that I finally get that win and that’s all I want now, just to try and win races. We’ll aim for the overalls and just see what happens with the points really.

Those guys have a big lead and they’re riding awesome – they’re always going to be up there at every round.

I need to make some realistic goals for myself and the team. I’m pumped on the day and also for [Daniel] McCoy since he won the Lites, it was a good day for Rockstar Motul Suzuki.

The conditions were super muddy out there, so was that more challenging mentally or physically for you?

Both [laughs]. Everything was tough. You know, the whole track was like a rut that you had to balance in, dragging your legs behind and that kind of thing. The muscles are going to be sore tomorrow, for sure.

Mentally it was hard as well, just trying to think ahead and predict the track’s conditions. I wish it was a little bit smoother for me considering the amount of riding that I’ve done, but I’m pumped to win and how the day ended up.

You returned at Murray Bridge and the injuries still affected you there, so are you still regaining 100 percent fitness at this point?

Yeah, my bike fitness is not that good at the moment compared to how it was at Appin, but I’ve got four weeks to go hard now before the next round.

The first three weeks will be really hard riding and then the week before Coonabarabran I’ll back it off really.

So from this point now your plan is to try to get wins? At the start of the year you seemed like the in form guy of the series, so is it a goal to try and get back to that form?

Yeah, I feel like for sure I’ll be there in four weeks. I want to win races and pull away, that’s what I love doing. I don’t feel good winning races by one second, it feels better to win them by heaps.

These guys are riding good though, so I’ve got to go really hard on the bike over these next three weeks and yeah…

You’ve won that New Zealand Championship earlier this year and had great success there, but it seems like you’ve stepped up your program a lot this year. What’s the key to that?

Well we found a good set-up with Jay [Foreman] when I came over here testing, took it back home and it worked real good.

I just love my bike at the moment and I came over here with some good confidence after the results at home.

I feel like I’ve got that confidence back this weekend and for how fit I was, but I feel like I can do a lot better – my confidence is real good. I just need to go and do the job now really [laughs].

Okay perfect, thank you and congratulations!

Yeah, thanks a lot.