New Zealand Champion Cody Cooper was in form again at Appin, but a rib injury ruled him out of the round.

Team Rockstar Motul Suzuki’s Cody Cooper is facing a race against time to be on the starting gates at this weekend’s third round of the MX Nationals series.

Cooper suffered a severe rib injury at Appin’s second round on Sunday in moto two, forcing him out of the remainder of the round after he convincingly won moto one by almost 10 seconds.

The second moto again saw Cooper dominating out front before he crashed on the tricky uphill double at Appin, causing a huge hit in his title chances as he’s dropped back to 10th in the standings – 43 points behind new leader Dean Ferris.

Despite his injury, team manager Jay Foreman isn’t ruling Cooper out of this weekend’s race in what is the Newcastle-based team’s home event on the calendar.

“With Cody, it is what it is,” Foreman said. “We know he is fast so hopefully he will be fit enough to race [this] week.”

Cooper’s teammate Daniel McCoy finished fifth overall in the Pro Lites category at Appin, recovering from bad starts to clinch 3-9-6-9 results across the round’s four motos. McCoy now sits equal sixth in the series.