''I really love doing the Six-Hour,'' he smiled, ''It's a lot of fun and you get to do it with a team-mate. You get a lot more time out on the bike and you have to get to know the track really quickly - it makes you think more. And all the skills you learn out there carry over to the motocross track as well.
''Both years I've done it though, we've had a bit of bad luck. The first year I teamed up with Stacey Oldeman and we were winning it on a 125 and then they black-flagged us because they thought we went into the pits with our petrol cap off. It was someone else - we were leading it so we were at the start, they'd made a mistake and got the wrong team. Later on they came up and said sorry and gave us our five minutes back, but in the meantime we'd lost all our focus.
''At the next Six-Hour I rode with Ben Harding on a CR250 but we did a big-end. We were coming second at the time, because when I hopped on my first lap I didn't know there was a filter skin on and the bike was bogging really hard so I rode the lap in first gear. Then I came in and pulled it off and we were starting to reel in the leader when we blew the big-end. So maybe this year we'll do it!''
With the new Honda Red Rider team growing to a full five-man team and developing a solid presence on the New Zealand motocross scene, Cooper started to pick up the pace in outdoor motocross. Results were starting to come thick and fast, but the real test would be at the New Zealand Nationals where he would come bar-to-bar with Boost Yamaha's Darryll King and Axo
Silkolene Suzuki's Daryl Hurley - two of New Zealand's finest international racers who lifted the bar for everyone at that event. Cooper was first in line and ready to take the acid test.
''I raced with Darryll King in one race only, really,'' he said, ''It was like I tried harder in that one or perhaps I just didn't fall off in that one! I did expect to be racing with those guys but not as much as I did.
