Three New Zealanders entered the Swedish Grand Prix, round ten of seventeen in the 2005 FIM Motocross World Championship and all of them would climb the podium in one class or another!
Josh Coppins and Ben Townley dominated the MX1 event, while Katherine Prumm finished the first FIM Women’s World Cup in second position, behind German Stephanie Laier.
So, for the third time in a row, MX1 World Champion and 2005 world championship leader Stefan Everts was beaten by a New Zealander - the Belgian being forced to settle for third overall.
With a bad start in the opening race and a crash at the beginning of the second moto, the factory Yamaha rider had to work hard to charge through the pack and finish both outings in fourth position - saving precious points for the championship.
Meanwhile, Coppins and Townley were the fastest riders on track - but this time it was the CAS Honda rider who beat the young KTM star, Josh winning both heats for the first time in his career to seal his first MX1 victory of the season and second ever GP victory.
Coppins had been second behind Spaniard Jonathan Barragan at the start of race one, but took the lead on lap four and controlled the rest of the race until BT put pressure on his friend in the last two laps.
Nevertheless, Josh held on for victory and would then grab the holeshot in race two. Coppins then pushed heard in the early laps to build a safe lead he would keep to the flag - winning the race by seven-seconds over Suzuki’s Joel Smets, who crashed and retired in the opening race.
With a poor start - he was only twelfth after one lap - Townley was unable to challenge his countryman and ended up in third behind Smets. Thirteen months after his first GP win - at the Isle of Wight - Josh added a second success to his credit and stole points away from Everts for the second weekend in a row.
