CDR Yamaha’s Josh Coppins announces retirement

Current MX1 points leader, CDR Yamaha’s Josh Coppins, has confirmed his plan to retire at the end of the 2012 season. Coppins made the announcement at round eight of the MX Nationals at Appin on Sunday. After a fulfilling career which involved success in Europe on the World Motocross scene, the New Zealand native has decided to hang up his boots after 17 years at a professional level. Coppins plans to continue his relationship with CDR and Yamaha in the future.

“Obviously I’ve been around for a long time now,” said Coppins in the CDR Yamaha during a press conference during the lunch break. “I’ve worked it flying over here and I’ve done 600 professional races and almost 200 GPs. It’s been a long time, I’ve done 17 years as a pro now. So I’ve done a lot of laps and had a lot of time on the bike and together with my family I’ve decided it is time to stop and look to do other things.”

“I’ve had a great time here in Australia and my only regret is that I wish I had come back even earlier from Europe to race here. I’ve enjoyed my time here, I’ve enjoyed working with CDR Yamaha, it’s been great. I just really want to say thanks to them for giving me the opportunity and also it looks like we are going to be continuing and doing stuff in the future, together with Craig (Dack) in New Zealand and maybe even in Europe.”

Coppins is thankful to remain part of the Yamaha family and looks forward to passing on his knowledge to the next generation of riders. “It’s really nice to still be part of the Yamaha family and still be able to come to the races and see all of you guys,” he added. “Hopefully some of the things I’ve learnt can brush off onto some of the other riders. I just want to say thanks to not anyone in particular, just to anybody that has helped me throughout my career. It has been a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but of course like I always say, those lows make the highs really high.”

CDR Yamaha team owner Craig Dack praised Coppins’ career efforts and believes the Kiwi veteran has the attributes that every rider should strive for. “He’s a champion bloke,” said Dack. “And I’ll echo those words that Josh said, the only problem that I see with him retiring at this stage is that it hasn’t been enough time together. We’ve spent the last two years together as a rider and team manager, it’s probably been the best professional working relationship I’ve ever had with a rider.”

Coppins topped off his big announcement at Appin with a round win in the MX1 class, maintaining his series lead over Todd Waters. To celebrate the career of Josh Coppins, Yamaha has prepared a highlights video of his time with CDR Yamaha. Along with Coppins’ retirement speech, there are also two heartfelt testimonials included. The first, from Coppins’ current team manager, Craig Dack, and the second from former European team manager, Michele Rinaldi. Click to watch.

You can grab the full race recap from the round here.