''I holeshot the first moto and won by about 15 seconds. Ando chased me pretty hard for the first five laps, but then he got arm pump and never came back. In the second one I gated badly and was about tenth in the first corner, and had to get past all of them. I ended up winning that by about five seconds. Then in the last one I was about fourth at the start and I won that one by about ten seconds.''
The chance to race with some of Australia's greatest talent was a highlight for Cooper, who was quick to acknowledge the different racing styles splitting the Tasman.
''The Australian riders are way different to New Zealand riders,'' he explained, ''Like when you try to pass them they don't back off at all - they're real aggressive and hold it on. So I had to hold it on a bit more and do a bit of crazy passing.
''It was pretty one-lined so you had to do your passing wherever you could. I'd come up behind them quite easily and then I just sat behind them and tried to pressure them into a mistake. I never really battled with anyone and the whole time I was just thinking, what's going on here?
''The Aussie riders were an awesome crew - really, really friendly and cool. I reckon there should be more racing between Australia and New Zealand. Obviously, it is good for the Kiwis to race with the Aussies, but it'd work the other way as well, to give the Aussie guys some experience with different riders. I mean, where does an Australian rider go after climbing to the top in Australia?
America would be their next step and learning to race with different riders in NZ would help that a lot. It's sort of happening now, I guess, with the Kiwis going to Aussie, and the Oceania event was awesome.''
So what does the future hold for the kid from Opotiki?
''I want to go to Australia next year, but we're not sure yet what's going to happen,'' he revealed, ''My goal is to get some good results in Australia and build up to all the races - supercross, motocross and thumpers. I'd probably do what Hurls, DK and Niki [Urwin] do and just fly over for the races rather than live over there. Train in New Zealand.
