By blue2bikes
April 3 2007

Craig Jones took to the Donington Park Circuit for the first of three home rounds of the World Supersports series. Having struggled to qualify, and starting from the fifth row of the grid, he had a mountain to climb to get a good result with a top class field ahead of him.

When interviewed on the start line, he stated that his aim was to finish in the top five - a bold statement indeed considering the riders ahead of him.

The race was run under a sunny sky, with a brisk cold wind blowing across the whole of the circuit. Craig, aboard his new Rêve Ekerold Honda machine, made a good start and settled down, picking off riders as the race progressed. Riders fell just short of the two-thirds distance, and the race was stopped. Craig by this time had risen to fifth place.

This meant that a restart was the order of the day, with an 11-lap race, and the scoring was to be aggregated across both races. Craig got a good start and ran with the top riders, over the 11 laps attaining a fourth place finish, giving him a fourth place finish overall.

An astounding ride from Craig, giving him his best result so far in the series of 13 points. Craig’s machine, dressed in new livery of red, white and blue, signifying the British flag, has certainly come to a turning point in the series - and now resides in seventh position in the standings.

Craig said after the race that he feels his fortunes are now changing, especially with the new machine, and will go on to the next round at Valencia in two weeks’ time with more confidence.

“Scoring only four points in the first round and two points in the second round certainly dented his confidence, and the result of the weekend was disappointing, but now I am confident that I can get even better results in the future.”