Son hoping to emulate father’s motocross deeds

Being a mentor and a father is a fine balancing act for motocross legend Josh Coppins.

His son Nixon is back from England to spend a couple of months with Josh and his family in Lower Moutere, ahead of a busy year competing in Europe. And Nixon is only 12!

“I try to steer away from that legend tag and the expectation it puts on Nixon,” says the two-time world championship runner-up.

“Sometimes I wish he would try to do something else, but obviously I am supporting him. It can be a tough road but for him it is all about values and effort.”
It is it is hard to avoid the early similarities.

Josh started competitive riding at 11, while Nixon was already in the Great Britain junior team at that age.

There’s one obvious difference.

Nixon has a social media profile and has already done live Facebook interviews.

“We didn’t have that in my day, growing up,” reflects Josh, who used to be known as the “Kiwi Kid” in motocross circles.

“Neither of us were super-talented when we started out, but we both worked hard,” reveals the 47-year-old.

That work ethic took Josh to 13 world championship grand prix wins in an illustrious international career. He readily agrees he was better known in Europe than in New Zealand.

These days he is a test rider for Yamaha, mainly in the United States, and runs his Josh Coppins Racing team in NZ.

Josh runs training clinics as well, and Nixon says he’s already taught him a lot.
The pair were reunited at dad’s home venue, the Rat Track, in Lower Moutere before Christmas.

Nixon was injured, competing on the first day of the Nelson Supercross Champs there.

“He just a missed a jump and bruised a bone in his ankle. It was his own fault,” says Josh, with his coaching helmet on.

“But he is tough and was back riding in a week.”

Of course, dad remembers all about injuries. A broken shoulder cost him what seemed a certain world championship series title with Yamaha in 2007.

Nixon is competing at Woodville, in the Central North Island this weekend, and has been preparing for that with another of the great names of motocross, Ben Townley.

Like Josh, Ben’s sons Levi and Jagger are also making their mark in the sport, too. And Nixon enjoys hanging out with them on his annual trip back home.

On return to the United Kingdom, he will graduate to the Yamaha Europe 2025 youth division team and move up to the 85cc big wheel bikes.

“He could have up to 17 events this season,” says Josh, who also spends time in the UK with his son each year.

Nixon lives with his mother in Bath, Southern England.

“It is a beautiful part of the world,” declares Josh.

If Nixon’s career really takes off, who knows, dad could be in the northern hemisphere a lot more, as a mentor and manager.

“I know what it takes,” concludes the survivor of two decades riding professionally on the world circuit.