''With guys like DK and Hurley, I know they've achieved a lot in their career and I respect them for that, but when I'm riding I don't think about that - they're just another rider out there.''
Cooper was able to string together a rack of third placings and one second at the event - a crash in one moto costing him what should have been another second. He settled for third behind DK and 'Hurls' at the 'four seasons in one day' event that challenged everybody.
''I really liked the mud at the first round, but I think they made the right decision to can the second day - it would have been chaos, '' Cooper admitted, ''The mud at Nelson was pretty cool as well - it wasn't really mud - it was sticky enough to still go quite hard.''
The Nationals were Cooper's first outing on the CRF450 a bike that he, more than anybody, has been able to come to grips with and turn into race results.
''I was going well at the Nationals on the CRF450 and then I didn't ride it again until the day before Oceania and I went really well there,'' he said, ''It was strange - I just felt faster. The 450 is such a good bike. For me it is just like riding the CR125 - you can throw it around really easily and I find it really easy to ride smoothly.''
Saying that he went really well at Oceania is an understatement, but Cooper is not the sort of rider to overstate any of his achievements. In the grand scheme of things he knows he has a lot to learn, but his back-to-back wins at Oceania were a great start amongst a field of stars.
''I thought I'd be about third or fourth at the end of the day, but I ended up winning all my races and I was racing guys like Craig Anderson, Shane Metcalfe and Cheyne Boyd,'' he said, ''My mate had told me how good they were so I didn't expect to do so well against them, but when I lined up next to them in Wellington that just made me want to win even more.
