Image: Foremost Media.

The MXV field at the eighth round of the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship this weekend at Coolum will see the welcome addition of longtime professional Daniel McCoy, in what has been an inspiring return to national competition.

McCoy, 39, was seriously injured while racing in the Arenacross UK series at Glasgow in 2016, sustaining lower vertebrae damage, which resulted in paraplegia.

Determined to ride again, McCoy has constantly made the most of the cards he was dealt and has undergone extensive rehabilitation. With adaptive modifications made to his dirt bikes, he was able to recommence riding motocross once more in 2018.

Since the accident, McCoy has completed official practice days, participated in the likes of Day in the Dirt and Battle in the Bush, plus has contested downhill mountain-bike events internationally. He has stayed involved with the sport, helping out with the Coolum Pines MX-based Suncoast Junior Motorcycle Club, also fostering the development of up-and-coming talent.

As round eight of this year’s ProMX series marks the last round of national motocross the Coolum venue will host, McCoy – who also owns and operates the SFC gear brand – couldn’t miss the opportunity to take to the gate after seeking approval from Motorcycling Australia (MA).

“Basically it came about because I have been living up here on the Sunny Coast now for seven years now and I have had a little bit to do with the club over the years, and knowing that it is the last round ever [at Coolum], it sort of fired me up to try to make it happen in the Vets class,” McCoy told MotoOnline. “Just all for a bit of fun.

“I’ve raced at this track as a professional from 2004, so to come up here once a year and then live here, and now it is going to be the last round race at Coolum, I thought ‘far out, what better way to see it out than have a ride myself’. I still do a bit of riding – a different way to race this time.

“There’s a number of rules, obviously three years back I got my licence through MA and there was a condition to the licence of having a sweep rider, so basically if I fall I have got somebody to pick me up and get me going again.

“Since I got that licence I have raced Day in the Dirt, Battle in the Bush a couple of times, practice days at MA tracks, so yeah, racing wasn’t really something that I was trying to get back to do… I was just more or less wanting to ride with my mates, but getting the licence was so I could ride MA tracks, like at practice days, that was the biggest thing.

“I’ve been having more fun than I thought I would, obviously being the rider that I once was and the speed that I could go, I am nowhere near that these days, but it’s still really fun to ride with my mates and a lot of the kids I coach, and I still give them a little run. That’s where the fun is at for me, with it all now.

“MA kind of helped, we worked together to make it work with the licence originally, and now this was kind of a big one and, yeah, they haven’t done something like this either, with someone in my position and there is a lot of adaptive sports out there now.

“I’ve been racing downhill mountain bikes in New Zealand and America, I think the motocross thing needs to kick off a bit. I know many people that are in my position that want to start riding again, but they have just got no idea how to do it or where it starts. I’m hoping this is a bit of a starting point for other guys.”

McCoy will line up in the MXV (Vets 30-39) class at Coolum, the category set to take to the track tomorrow as round eight of the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship commences.