ASBK state of play – Catching up with Mike Jones – Phillip Island preview

ASBK 2024

Catching up with Mike Jones before P.I.

Mike Jones is coming off a convincing double at Morgan Park, where he managed to reduce the championship lead of Josh Waters to a much more attainable 17-points heading into this weekend’s round five at Phillip Island. We recently touched base with the 30-year-old Queenslander, who is vying to become the first rider to win four Australian Superbike Championships.

Two other current riders in the series, Glenn Allerton and current points leader Josh Waters, also have three championships under their belts. Troy Herfoss is racing in America this weekend, otherwise there would be another three-time Aussie Superbike Champ on the grid.

Allerton won a title with Honda and two with BMW; all of Waters’ titles were won on Suzuki; Herf’s all on Honda, while Mike won his first on a Kawasaki, the second on a Ducati and his third and latest on a Yamaha, which incidentally broke a 15-year dry spell for YRT.

Thus, Jones is the only rider in history who has won Australian Superbike Championships on three different motorcycle brands.

Mike is also one of three riders on the grid to have scored both MotoGP and World Superbike points. The others are 2010 ASBK Champ Bryan Staring and 1998 Australian 250 Production Champion Anthony West. The latter of which has an incredible 239 Grand Prix starts under his belt, including 47 MotoGP/500 races, 16 World Superbike starts and 33 in World Supersport.

Another matter of record is that Staring is the only rider on the grid that has won Australian 125 cc, Supersport and Superbike Championships.

The young guns of ASBK these days like Broc Pearson, Max Stauffer, Cam Dunker, John Lytras and Paris Hardwick are going up against a field of peers with huge amounts of experience.

Alongside the previous champs currently in the field, there is also the likes of ex Red Bull Rookie and Moto3 rider Arthur Sissis. The South Australian is currently on an upward trajectory since recently joining Stop & Seal Racing and is capable of springing a surprise this weekend.

In recent times though, Phillip Island has been fertile ground for Josh Waters. The Mildura man won all three contests at the seaside venue earlier this year on the V4 R Ducati, the same as he did at the opening round in 2023.

Late last year at the Island, though, Mike’s YRT team-mate Cru Halliday did manage to break Waters’ dominance, and Cru has generally run Josh closest at Phillip Island.

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Conversely, the fast 4.45km bit of blacktop has often proved difficult for Jones to get on top of the competition. Mike was seventh overall at the season opener here seven months ago; however, he did claim a podium and fastest lap here late last year. That time, a 1m32.282, was demolished earlier this year when Josh put in a 1m30.869, only to be bested by his young McMartin Racing stand-in team-mate Harrison Voight, who set the new domestic Superbike lap record at 1m30.790, and is also lining up on the grid this weekend after returning from Europe.

That said, Mike has been unbeaten in the last four races this season, taking perfect scores at both Queensland Raceway and Morgan Park.

We caught up with the #46 this week ahead of round five getting underway at Phillip Island this weekend.

Trev – Do you think you can muster the pace to challenge the Ducati boys this weekend, and get near those 1m30.7s..?

“Yeah look it’s crazy to think how fast the times are at Phillip Island now, I mean obviously that’s been been boosted with the resurfacing there giving it a lot extra grip, so we’ve all gotten faster, my personal best lap times have improved also. It’s just really brought the whole field quicker with the extra grip on the track. But for sure, heading into this weekend at Phillip Island it’s an interesting one because we come from two rounds in Queensland, QR and Morgan Park where we’ve won all of those races, all four races so heading into this weekend it’s great, with a lot of confidence. The reality is we know how fast Josh and Voight are at Phillip Island, we know it’s going to be quite a challenge.

“Even with what Cru has been able to extract – the most out of our bike at at Phillip Island – even still the gap from him to to the Ducati is… is quite a lot, so yeah for sure we go in there knowing that it’s going to be a challenging weekend.“

Trev – Have you tested recently, and what else have you been up to since Morgan Park?

“I’ve done some riding out at Queensland Raceway but no there’s been no track time available at Phillip Island, so we weren’t able to do any sort of testing. Just been trying to keep my eye in and keep bike fit on the motorbike by riding at QR.

“Otherwise have just been being on the pushy, doing a lot of cycling lately in these breaks, when you’ve got like six weeks to put in a solid sort of structure of training, which has been great and that’s been a lot on the bicycle, and a little bit of running as well, so yeah feeling pretty fit heading into the weekend and quite healthy.

“Otherwise not too much, just staying focused on this weekend, even without being able to go to the actual track and do any riding there.  Mentally just staying staying sharp, and doing what I can to be ready to go for the race weekend.”

Trev – Do you ride dirtbikes or an Ohvale or anything along those lines between rounds?

“No, I’ve never really been big into the dirtbikes. All my stuff’s always been on bitumen, but yeah, I have an R3 that I go and do some training on, which is a really useful tool.

“So like I said, keep the eye in and whatnot. I have never actually ridden an Ohvale. But for me, the R3 is the tool that I like to use to keep the eye in.”

Trev – Do you think the new surface at Wakefield Park, now dubbed One Raceway, might throw up some surprise results? Especially as it looks as though the circuit will not be available for any testing prior to ASBK arriving at the new look venue.

“Oh, for sure. The surface there is going to play a big part. I mean, just from the photos and the videos I have seen, it looks like it’s going to be a similar type of asphalt there as what they laid down at Phillip Island, which seems to cause so many issues with the tyres.

“So I think that not having any prior test time on that track will be a challenge, to try and get down to business really quickly and try to like get on top of it pretty quickly with tyre life.

“The track’s going to have a lot of grip in it. Everyone can find some speed because they’ll have grip, but it’ll be a matter of how well you can manage the tyre and how long you can make the tyre last.

“Also the layout’s changed quite a bit. So that’s also a challenge from a rider’s point of view to, yeah, to see how quickly and how well you can adapt and find speed on a new layout.”

Trev – Just to wrap up Mike, and casting a wider net, the Bagnaia and Alex Marquez incident last weekend, what’s your take?

“Racing incident. I mean two guys going for the same bit of bitumen, that didn’t want to give it up, you know what I mean. Alex has made an error going into the previous turn and started to run wide, which has given an opportunity for Bagnaia to potentially pass, but they were both just being aggressive to go for the same bit of track. And they came together.

“Bagnaia didn’t close the door aggressively on Alex Marquez in an attempt to create the scenario that ended up happening. He was trying to be aggressive to hope that that was going to scare Alex Marquez into, you know, backing out of the gas and giving him the spot.

“And at the same time, Alex Marquez was trying to race into the turn so that Bagnaia couldn’t pass him. That’s how racing goes, but it’s just one of those things where they collided, when they did touch.

“It was a bit of an awkward one because it stood Alex Marquez up and that’s what caused the big problem as it stood him up, then that caused him to sort of fall over on to the other side then. Whereas, in other situations, riders have come together like that, but both bikes have sort of stayed leaning into the turn the same way, and they sort of just rub, rub through the turn and then finish the turn still upright but wide. But it’s just a matter of those circumstances in that particular situation. And at the end of the day, if nobody’s going to give up the spot, well, that’s, that’s the result you’re going to get.”

Trev – That’s how I saw it. If you let somebody know that you’re soft and you’re going to pull out, then they’re going to do it to you again, aren’t they?

“Well, that’s right. Yeah, exactly.  And that’s what’s going to happen is just, yeah, you give up a spot and then the next time the opportunity comes about, well, we’re going to do the same thing and cause that rider to back out of it again. So, yeah, that’s racing.”

And in World Superbike, did you think Toprak capable of what he has done on the BMW?

“Yeah 100 per cent. Definitely when he looked to make that move I was very confident that he would arrive to fantastic results and be winning races, but obviously the most recent string of results are incredibly impressive.

“For sure I thought he was going to be able to get himself to the pointy end and be challenging for wins, because I think that he was making such a big difference when he was on the Yamaha, you know he was was extracting the absolute maximum out of that motorcycle when he was on it and I felt that once BMW had invested into him, it would make no sense for them to not give give him 100 per cent to get to get him to be able to race for wins, you know what I mean? Because it would look bad for them if they didn’t and if he was sort of finishing with mediocre results you know. So they had a lot of motivation and a lot of reason from both parties to shoot for those results.

“It just goes to show that once you’ve got the correct drive and determination that’s what’s possible. And of course you know he’s an unbelievable talent, his riding ability and skill level is so high, and once he’s got what he wants from the bike it looks like he’s unbeatable.”

Trev – Jonathan Rea has been comprehensively outscored so far this season by not only his team-mate Locatelli, but also by GYTR GRT Yamaha rider Remy Gardner.  What do you think about Jonathan Rea’s struggle to get on terms with the Yamaha?

“I think that’s just a case of having been on the Kawi for quite a number of years, there for quite a long time, and it goes to show that when when things are going really well and you’re doing well with a particular bike, and you’re getting great results, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can do that on another type of bike. He’s definitely found that it’s been quite a challenge to to come to the Yamaha and find a way to get comfortable and confident with the bike to to push it further. You’ve seen that with the other riders like Remy and Locatelli, who have been riding that bike for a little bit longer, that they’ve definitely got a bit more confidence and are now a bit more comfortable and getting some better results.

“So I think that then it’s just a matter of time. You know what I mean? For Johnny, like I believe he’d be able to get good results on the bike, but he hasn’t quite got what it is that he’s looking for, to get the most out of the bike yet. So it’s just a matter of time of more racing, more practice to find what it is that he’s looking for.”

Thanks for the chat Mike, see you at Phillip Island this weekend when ASBK returns for round five at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on September 7-8. The two-wheel activity will be provided by the Australian Superbikes, Michelin Supersport, Race and Road Supersport 300 and Superbike Masters classes, while the always entertaining Aussie Racing Cars will add an interesting point of differentiation for spectators.

To purchase tickets for round five of the ASBK Championship at Phillip Island, click here.

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Supersport Championship Points

Superbike Masters Championship Points

ASBK Round Five Schedule