CDR Yamaha’s Josh Coppins claimed the second the MX1 scalp at the second round of the 2012 Monster Energy MX Nationals on Sunday at an event-filled meeting at the Goanna Tracks circuit near Coonabarabran.

The former world number two is never afraid to air his thoughts, so we sat down with him to find out what he thinks of gaining the red plates, the new-look series to date, and his feelings on having to pass his stricken Kiwi mate Ben Townley every lap of the MX1 practice session.

First up Josh, congratulations on claiming your first round win of the season. It must feel good to have the red plates early in the championship.

Yeah it’s good. It’s always nice to win and it’s even better to do it early in the season and stamp a bit of authority on the series. From here we need to keep consistent and continue building on it from here.

My way of thinking, my preparation and my focus will remain the same as always though.

What do you think of Coonabarabran circuit?

It’s kind of surreal – it’s in the middle of nowhere, well past where you last had phone signal, then this massive track pops up out of the bush. The owners put an amazing amount of work and I was surprised at how well prepared it was. It was a real credit to them and the effort they put in.

It’s quite a new track and is still a bit of a work in progress. It didn’t really form any lines that held all race and it just got quite chopped up instead. Ripping it a bit deeper would help, but that means they need to use more water and it’s a tricky balance to work out. All in all they did a fantastic job.

What was your plan of attack going into the weekend, and how did the game plan change when BT suffered his injury?

I always try and win, whether Ben is there or not. I won a moto against him in the New Zealand nationals, and you just never know what each other’s form is going to be entering the race.

I make a real point of concentrating on my own race every time I line up at the gate. This week I focused on improving my starts and they were a lot better than they were at Conondale, and that helped a lot with the five-lap back-to-back motos.

We kind of went into an unknown this weekend with two days of racing and two five-lap races back to back. We didn’t know about them until Saturday morning, so it was a little blind.

We’ll touch on the formats in a minute, but first, what were your thoughts when you saw Ben down during practice?

I felt sick, to tell the truth. I saw the yellow flag waving, a rider down, and my first thought was ‘I hope that’s not Ben’. I then saw the Thor gear and it was him lying on the ground and I felt sick to the stomach.

I struggled the whole practice, because we had to pass him every lap. It was very hard to concentrate on my times and I had a lot of thoughts running through my head.

I wished from the bottom of my heart that it wasn’t too serious, but when it takes RACESAFE – who do an incredible job every week – take so long to move him, you fear the worst.

I’ve sent him a couple of messages to let him know I’m thinking of him, but there’s not much I can say that will make him feel better. He’s been here before, but I’m so disappointed for him. Enough’s enough, eh…

Absolutely and we wish him all the best and hope to see him back at the same level ASAP. What are your thoughts on the series so far?

I’m still on the fence a bit. It’s still pretty new – we’ve had two tracks, one which was new, we’ve had a one-day event and a two-day event, one that had a reasonable amount of riding involved and one with bugger-all riding.

The two tracks have made for some good racing so far, but personally – and I stress this is only my opinion – I think the five-lap races are a bit schoolboy, a bit junior. We’re the best racers in Australasia and five laps isn’t enough.

I respect that WEM is trying to make a good show for the crowds, but this weekend we arrived on Friday, had practice and qualifying on Saturday and raced on Sunday, and we only did a total of 21 laps of racing. To me that’s a bit ludicrous. Again, this is my opinion and I’ll race no matter what.

What have been the big improvements you’ve seen between last year’s and this year’s championships?

So far the quality of tracks we have been to have been very good and the riding level has been very high with a lot of different winners. There seems to be a lot of young guys coming up, which is encouraging to see.

I think the media hype this year has also been great. The mix of international riders has created a lot bigger buzz this year, not just in Australia, but on a worldwide scale. All these are a big step up from last year.

Thanks for your time, mate. See you at Wonthaggi!

Cheers, see ya then.